I bought myself a new lens (Sigma 120-400mm) last month for my birthday but had not really had a chance to test it out much. The husband was off today so we decided to take hit the nearby lake to see if there were any interesting waterfowl.
I also grabbed a tripod to maybe take some long exposures with a different lens but stupidly left the quick release mount on another camera that I left at home. D'oh! I usually carry both so I can take wider shots with one and zoom in with the other without having to constantly switch out lenses.
So switching back and forth it was...
As it turned out, no long exposures necessary. The water was quite pretty without. Subtle waves rippling across the surface.
We didn't see many waterfowl at that spot, except for a few mallards that were a bit too far out, so we drove to the next little cove and started to hike down closer to the water. We spotted these two Blue Herons dancing around each other. I'm not really sure when they typically nest but this interaction certainly seemed like part of a mating ritual.:
A lone Canadian Goose...
Textures always fascinate me, so I am always lagging behind my husband taking many pictures of weeds in various stages. lol...
A few in black and white...
A large nest that we are assuming is an Eagle's nest:
Then we drove to one of our favorite spots, Lake of the Woods in Swope Park...
Another Great Blue Heron...
A Ring-necked Duck...
Some ever present turtles perching...
A couple of guys scouring the ground with metal detectors:
Not many waterfowl that we've seen of late. Last year it seemed that we saw a nice variety. This year not so much. We see a lot of Cormorants, as we did at Longview Lake today but they flew off as we arrived. I am surprised that we haven't seen many American Coots. The past few years we've usually seen many of them all year round.
Hope you've enjoyed the photos.
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