5/25/13 Happy Place Solo

Last Saturday I took the kayak out to the Happy Place for a couple of hours by myself.  I was able to get really close to some nesting herons:

I snuck up on this Green Heron sitting on her nest.  The pictures aren't clear because the nest is surrounded by trees.

You can see in this picture she sensed or heard or smelled that I was near.
I was moving incredibly slowly and quietly, I tried to move past the tree that was blocking my view,
but when I did she hopped away and left me with a view of...

...the nest.

In this zoomed our picture you get a little better feel for the size of the nest.

Right around the corner some Little Blue Herons were nesting.  Again, I was able to get really close,
but my view was obstructed by the trees.

Nice tongue!!

This is the Little Blue Heron nest.

As I was driving out I saw this.
This is a terrible picture, but it is the first time I have ever seen a Brown Thrasher out there.
I was just getting into focus when he flew off - the one that got away as it were.

Caleb and Samantha

So the other day we sent Caleb and Samantha on a walk with Tier to the happy place.  We bribed them into doing it by letting them take the camera.  I don't know if they were fighting over the camera, or if they were standing in a hole, or if they stopped off for a few beers, but..  well, you'll see what I mean.  They took over 300 pictures (not exaggerating) and this is kind of a random sampling.  Warning!  If you are prone to motion sickness you might want to go slowly through these.  I make jokes, but there really are some gems in here too.  Enjoy!  BTW, None of these have been cropped or rotated or altered in any way...

Anhinga in flight by Caleb

Northern Mockingbird in flight by Samantha

5/11/13 - Kayaking at the Happy Place

Carolyn and I bought a two-man Kayak so that we could really explore the Happy Place.
I can't believe we didn't think of this sooner.  Caleb and I took it out for a few hours and I got these pictures:

I know it's not a bird - but most of the turtles aren't this big.

Little Blue Heron

You can see the " breeding plumage" up close..

The obligatory Red-winged Blackbird

Male Scissor-tailed Flycatcher perched

This Green Heron was kind enough to give us a good view of his back...

...and front.

Juvenile male Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Caleb took this picture - it''s quite a challenge for him to get that heavy camera into focus in a moving kayak.

I think this is a Little Blue Heron nest.  Hopefully we'll have hatchling pictures soon.

After Caleb and I finished, I called Carolyn too see if she wanted to go and we spent a few hours and had a great experience.

Not a bird, or a great picture.

We saw this Purple Galinule all over but these are the best pictures we could get,.
This was the first time Carolyn had seen this species.

The best picture I got of it unfortunately includes some trash...

The next pictures are all of the same bird.  It is a Least Bittern - a bird I had only seen once before and never photographed.  We had seen them flying around all day but could never sneak up on them to get any pictures.  This bird was amazing.  Unless noted otherwise, all of these pictures were taken with my 100-400mm lens zoomed all the way out - and the pictures are uncropped.  We were too close to the bird to zoom in any more than that.  This is a small bird - like 6-8" - and the species is pretty shy, but for some reason this bird let us get our kayak within about 3 feet.  It was pretty amazing.  He moved a few times but each time let us inch up close again.  Check it out:

This was the first picture I took.  The 400mm lens was zoomed in and this picture is cropped,
but I was afraid it might be my best chance.   Boy was I wrong...

I cropped this one, but it is still 100mm zoom.

Also cropped.

We were literally high-fiving after the experience with the Bittern when I looked ahead and saw this...

I believe it's a Water Moccasin.  I was in the front of the boat and Carolyn was in back easing us closer.
I was more than a little nervous when I took this shot, but he didn't let us get any closer and left quickly.

Not great pictures, but a Great Egret in flight.

Not a great picture - but I like the composition.
Starting from left: Snowy Egret, Cattle Egret, Black-capped Night Heron.

Common Gallinule

The Black-capped Night Herons are always the first to fly off when they hear or see us.
But we were able to get almost immediately under this one before he flew.

This was a very fun day and I am looking forward to many more with the kayak.  BTW, I was dumb and applied no sunscreen.  I had long-sleeves and a wide-brimmed hat but my hands burned so bad that they were swollen and blistered all week.

They're just peeling now.  I'm going to go with Caleb and see if we can get any good shots today....