More Billabong pics

Steve and I really enjoy going to the OSU wetlands park to check out the birds. Migration season is underway and so we're starting to see different birds than we did over the summer. We counted 18 species at this wetlands area this evening. I'm still playing with my new camera settings and I'm starting to feel more comfortable with it now.



My 300 mm zoom pics are starting to be a little more focused. This takes some practice without a tripod, but I think I'll be able to do most of my field season without one - especially since most of those pics will be from a sitting or prone position.

Here is a pic of one of my favorite birds at the billabong.
















I don't know why I like great blue herons so much, but I always feel good when I see them.












This is a view of the billabong from the north end looking south. You can see the Great Egret in the center and way down on the south shore is the Green Heron.









This is the same image, except cropped. The Green Heron is up at the upper right hand corner. I walked down to that end and crawled through the brush to get closer. That's the next picture.















This is a better image than my first one, but it was hard to get to a spot where I could take the picture without spooking the bird. It stayed for just a couple of minutes before flying off to the north end of the billabong. We saw two of them again this evening.













This is the first picture I've had of the egret with it standing out of the water.
















We counted about 120 geese in the pond, and every few minutes some would take off and some would come in for landings. It was rather noisy there this evening.








Another view of the billabong with the mudflat.










The mudflat is usually where we see killdeers, but tonight we saw two different species of sandpipers. This one is the Solitary Sandpiper. The other one we saw was the Least Sandpiper.












I had an opportunity to try the multiple pictures feature of my camera when the Great Blue Heron took off for the other section of the wetlands. I held the shutter button down and tracked the bird while it was flying. Most of the pics turned out pretty well, but I was a little too far away to have a great one.







Most of the edge of the billabong is thick with cattails. I walked through them and onto the mud to get this picture.








There are also a lot of different dragonflies at the wetlands. I took this with the 300 mm zoom from about 20 feet away.

















More tracking practice - this time with one of the geese flocks taking off from the pond.









And, to finish off this entry, here's the great blue heron that had flown away in the earlier picture. It's wading through the duckweed near the board walk area of the wetlands.