Most of my birding pictures have been taken right from my own backyard. Since not much new has been happening here,
I wanted to expand my horizons.
Yesterday morning my husband and I went to an area south of
Fort Wayne that has been recently reclaimed as a wetlands area.
It is called Eagle Marsh and the picture below tells some of it's story.
This valley has in the past been very important in the transportation history of our area. At one time the Wabash-Erie Canal ran through here and after that the Interurban Railroad.
The first thing you notice as you enter this area
are the beautiful wildflowers
growing in the meadows and along the marsh.
The first waterfowl we saw were these ducks.
The sun was so bright, I could hardly see them in my viewfinder.
I thought they were probably just some mallards,
but I'm not sure. They are kind of dark on the tops of their heads.
What do you think?
We worked our way around the end of one marsh,
and walked on a narrow path with marshes on each side.
We then saw a Great Blue Heron flying over
and watched where he landed.
It was so far away I really could not make out
what I was taking pictures of,
but just tried to point my camera in the right direction.
I did manage to get some Blue Herons
What I didn't see until I got back in our car
and started looking at some of the pictures
was the white spot hiding in the cattails.
Can you imagine my surprise to discover
I had actually taken a picture of a
Great Egret without even knowing it!
(Because I was so far away,
I thought it was just another Blue Heron)
Our attention then shifted to the marsh
on the other side of our pathway.
There was a lot of spashing and birds flying everywhere.
This sweet deer somehow ended up on one of the
drier places in the middle of the marsh.
There were also some Killdeer and other birds
that I couldn't distinguish out there.
Further down towards the end of that marsh
were more Great Blue Heron.
However, one looked much different from the other.
He seemed to have his neck tucked in
and also may have had more plumage.
Maybe he was an older adult.
If you can shed some light on this, let me know.
This one stood more erect and was walking around.
As we headed back between the two marsh areas,
we saw these ducks---at least I thought they were ducks.
After searching the internet for ducks with white bills,
I discovered they were American Coots.
(Another bird I'd never seen before.)
But the biggest surprise was yet to come!
We saw a Blue Heron fly into some water in a channel
next to where we were walking.
I though just maybe I could get a closer picture
or at least one of it in flight as it took off.
Well, the heron did take off,
and I aimed my camera in the direction I thought it was going.
When I got back to the car and checked my pictures,
there was not a heron flying in a single one of them,
but there was this picture below.
(My second big surprise of the day!)
A Belted Kingfisher sitting up above
watching everything.
Our walk back to the car was through a meadow
that was bordered by electric wires.
I really couldn't tell what most of the birds were,
but I just took their pictures.
Here is what I ended up with:
A Redwinged Blackbird
A Couple of Bluebirds
A pair of House Finch
And this sweet Tree Swallow
More Beautiful Wildflowers
And my husband's back
heading back to the car.
(Did I mention I had my camera on full zoom.)
He did really good for his first day of birding.
I think...he can't wait to go back with me.
