Grey Dawn

After a week's worth of overcast and often rainy skies, I thought that I was overdue to see what was happening at my favorite refuge. Friday morning, I awoke hoping for interesting morning fog.

Arriving at the refuge, instead of morning fog, I found very low ceilings and a grey sky. Today was not a day to be pointing your lens towards the heavens. The water on the impoundments was totally still, reflecting mirror like it's surroundings.

Reviewing my project-to-date images, I realized that I had not recently taken many of the landscape. So I started with my favorite view from the tower and a panorama of the impoundments. From above there still is a lot of brown visible, but from ground level green is predominant. The Cattail Reeds have grown significantly in the past week. With all this water, I wonder how fast they'll grown with a little sun.











It was a quiet day at the refuge. The low ceiling dampening the noises from the neighboring area. Birds were singing. Occasionally, you would hear the splash of a turtle or muskrat as they made their aquatic exit. The quiet would be spoiled by a plane on final for Hanscom. They seemed quite low. I hoped to get a photo of a ghost-like plane, passing the tower, they would never emerge from the clouds.

The sky was like a big soft box, so I started with some portraits of Red Winged Blackbirds and Marsh Wrens. I have so many photos of them, that I'm starting to get fussy. I really worked hard on trying to get pleasing backgrounds. Marsh Wrens continue to frustrate me. I came close to getting a classic photo of a Marsh Wren holding onto two reeds, except ... it was facing the wrong way. The other Marsh Wren photo because it shows something that you might not notice with the naked eye. Marsh Wrens often close their eyes while they are singing!









You always see robins hopping along the paths foraging. I've been hoping for a more picturesque photo to add to the blog. Finally, I encountered this American Robin posing in a tree.


All the rain started to re-flood areas of the forest between the river and the impoundments. I enjoyed the inky black color of the water, which made an interesting background for these young Canada Geese.






Along the lower impoundments, there were these beautiful Bog Violets, still wet with the morning dew (or last night's rain).




At the exit of the lower impoundment, the carp were pooling like crazy. Occasionally, one would attempt to swim into the lower impoundment. They could get up the sluiceway, only to be frustrated by the 5-6 inch jump required to leap over the rocky cascade to reach their objective.







Returning to the parking lot I encountered this very large, unwary Cottontail Rabbit. I slowly maneuvered close to him, trying to eliminate the parking lot from the shot. Towards the end of my time, a chipmunk appeared. The rabbit watched raptly and then suddenly chased it. It was almost like it was hunting it, rather than just being territorial. I don't know if rabbits are really omnivores, rather than being herbivores. I added this to the many other questions that I have to research from my observations at Great Meadows

Old Dog Learns New Trick

Marsh Wrens are often heard, but less often seen. Soon the reeds will be tall and they will be secreted down in the vegetation. However, for a couple of weeks while they are attracting females, male Marsh Wrens will climb up on last year's remaining cat tail reeds and sing.

Saturday morning I went to Great Meadows with the singular purpose to test out a new capability of my unplanned backup camera upgrade. The D90 also shoots video. I thought the Marsh Wren would make a worthy subject. This Marsh Wren was somewhat cooperative and stood on the top of a clump of reeds for his movie debut.



I hope you noticed the challenges for still photographers. First you have to see the wren. Then you have to find them in a location that isn't blocked by other reeds, grass and the like. Hopefully, the background is acceptable. Finally, you have to compose and take your photo very quickly. Except in this time where they are displaying, you will rarely see them sing like this for more than a few seconds.

However, Saturday they were quite cooperative, so here are some of my favorite shots from the day.












Those shots alone would have made for a successful day, but there was a lot more going on at the refuge. I encountered Jared Green of the Blanding's Turtle team, who had been checking the traps. I hope to link up with them to share more about these turtles. This turtle had a hole in his shell with an infection, so he was going to get a bit of government sponsored health care, before being returned to the wild. One of the identifying aspects of the Blanding's Turtle is their yellow neck.







Bedford Den 11 had the Tiger Cubs out to explore the refuge. Like typical young boys they were loud, full of energy, rough housing, but they also displayed moments of interest in the nature surroundings. Hopefully, a few will become attracted to nature and become the next generation of stewards of our environment. The great thing about Great Meadows is that many of the regular resident animals get desensitized to human behavior because of the many visitors which allows us to observe them much closer than we might otherwise be able to.




It was a fun day photographically. When checking on the Tree Sparrows, I caught one bird doing yoga poses. I think one was the inspiration for the Bentley hood ornament.




I was especially pleased with these Red-winged Blackbird photos because they combined a good photo of the bird demonstrating, but the backgrounds were also pleasing.





Remember you can click on individual photos to see larger versions, or visit the gallery for today's blog.

Well the weather forecast for the week is rainy and grey, so I doubt that I'll be visiting four times this coming week.  However, I do have that new camera and some things I learned at this weekend's bird photography seminar, so I doubt I can sit at home too long.

Lucky Friday The Thirteenth

My camera failure, blew up a perfectly good plan. Now how can I solve it? Going back to the Nikon D70 with half the megapixels of my D300 just wasn't going to make it for this project, or several of the other photo opportunities that are only available in the next couple weeks.

After a restless night's sleep trying to solve my camera problem, I awoke with a plan of attack. I started searching Craigslist in the 6 state New England area to see if there were any reasonably priced, used cameras. Amazingly enough there were 3 Nikon D90 cameras listed. The one from Maine was sold, the NH one was actually in England, but amazingly enough the third one was in Cambridge. The person was available to meet at lunch time! The camera out. The price was right. Money was exchanged and now I had a backup camera.

The question now was, how would it perform for me in the field? Mid-day is not the ideal time for photography, but I had two hours before I had to meet Amy after work. The light is harsh, and the animal activity can be quiet. So of course that's when I headed to Great Meadows.

Walking up the Dike Trail, I spotted a Northern Water Snake which appeared to be on a mission. So I followed him.








He lead me to some small birds that I was not familiar with. They were Least Sandpipers. They were feeding in the muddy edge of the impoundment. The snake motivated them to fly away, but they returned in a little bit.







Great Blue Heron activity has been picking up in the refuge. I photographed three different birds. Several more were visible, but not within range.









I wish that today, I could stop to relax, meditate and enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of the refuge like this woman. However, we have a busy weekend, so I must race off. If the uploaded photos look as good on the computer as they do on the back of the camera, I think I will be pleased with my new backup camera. What do you think?