Monday, May 19, 2014

Oak Hammock Marsh Birding (Final Part)

This is the second part of the Oak Hammock Marsh Birding with Christian Artuso. See the first part here.

We were hoping to see some early shorebirds. I spotted a Greater Yellowlegs and was able to identify it by myself. 
Greater Yellowlegs
 We also saw two American Avecots feeding by the shore. We got some really good pictures.

We saw quite a bit of waterfowl. American Coots, Northern Pintails, Mallards, Northern Shovelers, we even saw a Greater Scaup, which was a lifer for me.
Some other birds that we saw were Franklin's Gulls, Double Crested Cormorants, and two Snow Geese.
Franklin's Gull
Red-winged Blackbirds are excellent photo subjects, so I have included plenty of pictures.

Red-winged Blackbird waiting for the ice to melt.
Red-winged Blackbird

Red-winged Blackbird
 A perfect portrait
 
I got this shot of it flying, the brilliant red makes them a bird worth seeing.

I love the background of this shot with the bright red wing


We were able to get really close to one.

As we walked back to the car on the trails we saw a Muskrat, which I don't remember ever seeing. I like birds but I really like mammals too.
Muskrat
 We saw some Tree Swallows in the parking lot and I got some decent pictures.
A pair of Tree Swallows
 On the drive back we stopped at the Red-tailed Hawk nest by Lockport we had found a couple weeks before. We were looking at the nest, we couldn't tell if there was a head sticking out. When we set up the spotting scope we could see a head. The hawk flew away and I managed to get this picture.
Red-tailed Hawk

That concludes the Oak Hammock Marsh Birding series. Thank you Christian for taking us out once again!!

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