I popped over to visit the Brookside Ave. wetland on Monday and Tuesday. The water level there is up again after it almost dried up totally last year. Burd Run is looking good, all the little streamlets in the wetland area are full, and there's even water in the collection pond (not much, and only in the places they dredged deeper last Fall to try and coax a little more water in the place). And the butterflies are coming back for the season; I managed to get shots of (top to bottom) a Clouded Sulphur, a Pearl Crescent, and an American Painted Lady.
Birds are also back in the wetland. Lots and lots of Red-winged Blackbirds, all yelling at me when I got too close. Ditto the Canada Geese; I had a 5-bird, very vocal escort around the berm that holds in the collection pond. I kept wondering when they were going to rush me! But what really got my attention was the presence of lots of Tree Swallows and Baltimore Orioles. As is usual with Orioles, I heard them before I saw them, and they stayed well out of my camera range on both days. And the Tree Swallows are actually nesting in the nest boxes set up for them throughout the wetland. I got some shots that didn't really work on Monday, so I went back yesterday in the course of running some errands and finally managed to get some decent shots.
© 2017 by A. Roy Hilbinger
I love the Tree Swallow shots, Roy! The way the tail feathers are fanned out on the last shot is cool...really cool! The butterflies are beautiful. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Kelly! I didn't actually see those tail feathers until I processed the shot. It was a bright and very contrasty day, and in the raw shot that part of the bird was shadowed. When I lightened the shadows in Photoshop that fantastic fan appeared.
DeleteHey, it's good to see you out and about again!