I photgraph wildlife at sunrise and sunset as many days each week as I can. I am usually hurrying to get to where I think something may be found. Yesterday, on my way to look for Black Skimmers and on my home, I saw wildflowers along the road. The top photo is a wild vetch, I think, and the bottom two are of Blue Flag Iris, a wildflower native to Delaware.
I found the Black Skimmers again this morning, loafing on a sand bar. It is rare to be able to get so close to them and I am happy to share some of the close pictures I have been able to get. Here are two more.
I have never been so close to Black Skimmers as I ws this evening. They have beautiful markings and a very distinctive call. I took a lot of photos tonight and I may find better as I cull through all that I shot. I wanted to put a few up tonight. I will go back to this marsh at sunrise tomorrow to see what else may be there.
Alfalfa, from The Little Rascals, would be envious of the double cowlicks worn by this Snowy Egret. Clearly more focused on hunting than appearance, this egret did not know how much it resembled some great horned beast.
Filed Under Egrets, Shorebirds, Spring
I found this Snowy Egret yesterday morning. It was good to be shooting in bright light, and the egret cooperated by making a big splash. This morning a Lesser Yellowlegs set down on placid water with only its own reflection to splash.
Filed Under Shorebirds, Spring
I love this time of year. The marshes are full of fish and birds catching them. I sat quietly tonight for about an hour and saw a large variety of birds working the shallow waters. Here is a small sampling of what was there, Black Skimmers, Snowy Egrets and Black-necked Stilts. While the skimmers and stilts fished without pause, the egrets were preening, apparently with no more room for minnows in their stomachs.
Filed Under Shorebirds, Spring
Short-billed Dowitchers were working the edge of the marsh last night near the open water where the egrets and terns were fishing. They are colored to blend into the grasses where they hunt. These did me the favor of stepping out of the cover to pose for a photo.
Filed Under Shorebirds, Spring
My friend, photographer Kevin Fleming, offerd a challenge of sorts on his website (www.wilddelaware.com). He called it the ‘tern test’ and the challenge is to take a sharp photograph of these ”feathered rockets”. I tried tonight and very nearly got the shot, that of a tern leaving the water with a fish in its bill. I’ll keep working on it. I did get some nice shots tonight though and so I show two photos of Forster’s Terns hovering before the dive, and two of lucky Snowy Egrets catching dinner. The two species were working the same school of minnows so I was busy shooting up and down.
I’ll bet that most people don’t know that the Black Rat Snake, common in Delaware, is very good tree climber. It actually will nest in trees sometimes. If you walk in the woods in Delaware look up for snakes.
Filed Under Spring
I have been traveling quite a bit recently and have not taken many new photographs of nature. I had a nice morning today and have two to show from Primehook National Wildlife Refuge and one from just outside the refuge. The Turkey Vulture was sunning itself on the edge of some woods in Sussex County. The Red-winged Blackbird and the Canada Goose family were enjoying a morning in the refuge.
