I recently took an evening wander out to the Great Meadow National Wildlife Refuge, one of my favorite places to go at the end of the day. I took the opportunity to try my hand at a little bird photography something I had not really tried before due to the limitations of my film choices. Velvia 50 is a really wonderful landscape film, but catching a Great Blue Heron in flight in fading light is probably not going to happen. By boosting the ISO to 800 and opening up to f8 I was able to freeze the bird in flight handholding my 70-300.
Great Blue Heron in flight:
As I wandered around I found a bird I had never seen before....a Moorhen. A man who had been walking along the levee told me where to look. He also told me that one of the birds was "rather chatty" and could be easily seen. Sure enough there was one of the Moorhens wading along the levee in the reeds. I watched and photographed for a good half an hour until the bird moved into a more secluded spot.
Moorhen in the reeds:
What are you looking at?
I also spotted another bird of interest, a mother Wood Duck with her brood paddling around in the shallows. The ducklings cavorted and played with each other while mom kept a wary eye on me. It was fun to watch her herd the young'uns around.
Mama Wood Duck:
Slowly the light faded and the birds began moving to their evening roosts. I reset my D300 to ISO 100 and set up to shoot sunset. The skies cooperated and streaks of magenta painted the clouds. Once the lights went out I headed home.
Sunset:
Thanks for reading!
Lizz
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