Dogs and Rails

I scooted out of work a few minutes (2 hours) early today to head over to Milford Photo to look at some cameras for an upcoming digitization project for work. While there I also looked at a few macro lenses both for work and for me. I'll always be a mushroomer at heart so a macro lens for my camera will quickly be a necessity as fungus season starts. While I didn't buy any cameras OR lenses, I did buy a UV filter that fits on both my regular lens and the telephoto. Of course at that point it needed some testing so I stopped at Silversands State Park on the way home. I don't see too much difference but maybe it'll be obvious once I compare with the other blog pictures.

Silver Sands was a fun little stop with a few good opportunities to try out the filter and mostly to get ME more practice at using the camera. I started out by heading across the wood bridge/path thingie toward the beach. Quite a few Red-wing Blackbirds were viewable singing away. While I was taking a few pictures a dog on the other side of the marsh started barking and created a cacophony of rails clattering away. I never saw one even though a call was so close to me that I nearly jumped it was so loud. Going back to song recordings I believe that they were Clapper Rails, maybe it'll be worth just parking it sometime to get a peak.

Barn Swallows were flying around everywhere and I thought it would be funny to see what kind of picture I could get. The result wasnt the best but still IDable.

There was a great chance to get a picture of a Yellow-crowned Nightheron. I found one here back in April, when I was able to get a few pictures, and maybe this is the same one. I watching him stalk a crab on the mudflats and gobble it down quickly.

Something caught my eye while I was looking at the nightheron, which then led me to a Savannah Sparrow. I thought it was interesting to watch him hop around on the ground. The two-legged hop reminded me of a broad jumper. It would be interesting to compare sparrow hopping kinetics. LOL. Other species present: Song Sparrow, Yellow Warbler, Snowy Egret, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Common Grackle, House Sparrow, European Starling, Canada Goose, American Robin, Mallard, Mourning Dove, Semipalmated Plover (?), and Killdeer.

A nice weekend is in store after a few more passing rain showers. Hopefully these 2 nice days have brought in a few more migrants that will stick around till the weekend. I'm still keeping my eye on 2 hummingbird feeders and waiting for my foy (first of the year) Ruby-throated.