PNWPhotos.com a friendly and growing community of photographers with an interest in the Pacific Northwest region.
We feature a Photography Discussion Forum and Pacific Northwest Photo Gallery. It's a fun and friendly place to talk with other photographers, ask questions, share you knowledge, view and post photos and more!
Wednesday afternoon (1-20) my son and I met Stefan at the marsh. The light was not good and not many birds were present, but I did get some shots of a Bewick's wren looking for insects in the trees beside the walkway between the #2 and #3 viewing platforms.
Pouring down rain as I type Thursday morning. So much for Steve Poole's prediction earlier this week of warmer, dryer weather. Maybe the level of "Lake Edmonds" will rise and cause the ducks to swim closer to the boardwalk.
I would really like to get closeup shots of that Eurasian green-winged teal. Attached are shots taken yesterday with the 5DIII + 500L + 1.4x TC from the #3 viewing platform. Close enough to ID the bird, but still too far for a good photo.
love the shots of the wren, Bill... those little guys are pretty bouncy, so getting one sitting still is no mean feat.
as for the teal, yeah, he just stays too far out. i can barely get acceptable ID shots with my 600 on the 7DII, which is equivalent to 960mm... your 5DIII + 500L + 1.4x TC combo is "only" 700mm. but your 500 on the 7DII will give you about 100mm more reach than it does on the 5DIII, even without the TC... just sayin'.
With a full day of rain, Lake Edmonds was out in full force Thursday afternoon (1-21-16) with the water reaching to the boardwalk. The intersection of Sunset Ave./Hwy 104 & Dayton Ave. was starting to flood as well.
I was hoping the high water would bring the Eurasian green-winged teal closer to the boardwalk, but all I saw were mallards and a lone coot.
Note: I Posted these in the wrong forum, but I cannot find a delete post function.
A deluge of dunlins? Monday afternoon (1-25) I photographed the flock of dunlin that Rocky originally reported. The flock appeared to be swarming between the two floating tethered logs at the underwater dive park. These shots were taken with the 5DIII + 100-400L II telephoto zoom.
Hard to get the entire flock in one photo without individual birds looking like dots on the horizon.
I would like to return and set up the 500L + teleconverters if it ever stops raining.
An even larger flock of dunlin flew into Brackett's Landing Tuesday (1-26-16) around 3:00pm. Once again I did not break out the 500L telephoto as I thought shots of the flock would be more dramatic than trying to take closeups of individual birds.
I was at the fishing pier earlier in the afternoon where I caught the surfbirds that have taken up residence this winter. They would forage on the rocks for a while, fly out over the water, then circle back and resume foraging.
Try after 3:00pm. Daren and I first arrived and Brackett's Landing around 2:15pm. There were none to be seen, so we went to the fishing pier for a while. A friend spotted them from the pier around 3:00pm, so we went back to Brackett's Landing. A woman standing on the jetty said she had seen the dunlin fly in, but wasn't paying attention to where they were coming from.
My son and I returned to Brackett's Landing Thursday (1-28) in the hope the dunlin were still there. I set up the 5DIII + 500L telephoto + 1.4TC on the tripod for some closeups. Dunlin were sharing the logs with gulls and a single sanderling.
We started to leave as hail began to fall. We got as far as the bathrooms when the storm became bad that we had to seek shelter under the overhang to the bathrooms entrance. I tried to capture to capture the intensity of the storm by photographing a passing train. The parking lot filled up quite quickly with hail and water.
Friday afternoon (1-29) my son and I I ran into Rocky and Stefan at the jetty at Brackett's Landing. The dunlin had been there in the morning in large numbers, but I think they were chased off by the wind and rough water of the afternoon.
A double-crested cormorant was diving fairly close to the jetty.
Monday afternoon I ran into my friend Young Dave at the fish hatchery. We later drove over to the marsh where I mentioned that I had not seen any snipes since the high waters arrived in January. We call Dave the Snipe Whisperer due to his ability to draw out snipes. Living up to his reputation, Dave saw six or seven snipes at their usual location of the #1 viewing platform.
I saw five, but could only get four in a single photo.
The killdeer is a good reference for judging the size of other shorebirds. Here is a killdeer and two snipes.
A killdeer, a green-winged teal, and three snipes.
The first set of photos was taken with the 5DIII + 100-400L II telephoto zoom. I had to pick my son up from tennis, so I did not bother dragging out the 500L telephoto. After tennis we returned to the marsh and dragged out the tripod + 5DIII + 500L telephoto lens + 1.4x TC.
I did not expect to see any snipes as the water had dropped below the level at which they feel comfortable venturing out of the grass and reeds to look for food in the mud. I did catch one lone snipe before it quickly vanished back into the foliage.
Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a commision from some of the links and ads shown on this website (Learn More Here)
PNWPhotos.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com
