Hey Jaybird

[Misled]

Got out early this mornin.

 

[JaYbIrD1969]

Excellent Jesse! Looks like you found a Green Heron rookery? Cool to see a bird on the water hyacinth. Is that a female blackbird?

 

[Misled]

It's called an American bittern. We think they were juveniles. There were 4 up in the trees. The birds on the plants were just baby blackbirds.

 

[JaYbIrD1969]

Interesting. What threw me is Ive never seen a bittern in a tree. They are very dificult to get close to. This was in a roadside ditch, immitating the grass. He thought he was completely hidden.

 

[Misled]

That's one of the reasons we thought they were young. We looked them up when we got home. The young and adults look pretty much the same. Being able to just sit there and check them out, (they were across a small creek though), was one of the others. They just stood there trying not to move. You can also see the young fuzz.

 

[wbrinker]

 

[JaYbIrD1969]

We have a very unique situation here in central Wisco. We sometimes get Whooping Cranes breeding. Whooping cranes nearly went extinct back in the 40's. In 2011, there was an estimated 437 of them in the wild. I have been fortunate enough to see them on occasion. In fact, there is one hanging out with a pair of Sandhills in a field a couple hundred yards from my house. He's been there since April. Here is a nice fly-by I captured of a trio that appeared when I was shooting a kingfisher.

 

[Reef Bass]

Yay whoopers! My mother gets sandhills passing by her in Montana.

 

[Misled]

Cool. These things started making a comeback about 5 years ago around here. They've become fairly common.

 

[JaYbIrD1969]

We have sand hills and blue herons in very strong numbers. Gotta love the long necks

 

[wbrinker]

They are a blast and we see them up close weekly!

 

[Reef Bass]

Love the great blues too. Occasionally I am fortunate enough to be out fishing at dawn and great blues don't enjoy sharing the water. They make a loud, coarse, grating, primitive sound when they announce their displeasure with being disturbed and fly off.

 

[Misled]

 

[JaYbIrD1969]

I spent about 15 minutes behind the lens today at my inlaws.

 

[Misled]

 

[JaYbIrD1969]

The stage is set!

My winter window feeder is back up. The birds are all over it! Once they get comfortable, I'll set up my blind and camera and start shooting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxwXdaZmic4


Couple shots from last year.

 

[Misled]

 

[JaYbIrD1969]

One more

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47bMjiIdf_s&feature=youtu.be

 

[JaYbIrD1969]

Shot with the 35mm prime

 

[JaYbIrD1969]

He finally found it! Ive been waiting for a good Red Belly to find my window feeder since last winter. Today, this magnificent specimen posed for me for about 100 shots! Male Red Bellied Woodpecker