Saturday, November 23, 2013

Saturday Morning Outing

What a difference a day makes....in fact, a couple of hours.  After a night of rain showers, there was going to be a brief window of time before more clouds moved in this morning.  I headed out early just to see what was out.

The sun was out when I arrived and the Great Blue Heron was sunning on a favorite tree.  I talked with the park ranger for a while and we walked on back to the marsh area.





Several deer were out and blended so well into the background we didn't see them at first.  The wetland area looks so different without the green lush foliage of the spring and summer.









Lots of Mallards were flying in and beginning to congregate on the pond.  The males were busy chasing each other while the females were nonchalantly preening their feathers.






A group of Ring-billed Ducks were at the far side of the pond.  I had my 4/3 camera with me so set in on 4x optical zoom with a 300mm lens.  Not the best shot but it let me see what kind of ducks they were.


4 comments:

ME2NC said...

Nice pics. May I ask where you were ? I am heading to Lake Mattamuskeet tomorrow and I'm hoping to maybe see some wildlife.

Nature Girl said...

I am close to Raleigh. You definitely should see some wildlife at Mattamuskeet. One of my favorite places to go. Heading there again in a couple of weeks to see the waterfowl. Hope you have a good day. Bundle up...it is going to be a cold one!

ME2NC said...

Mattamuskeet was great, Paula. It was so COLD that day but I really enjoyed it. Tundra swans arriving but still no snow geese. You should get to see much more in a couple of weeks. I will be watching your blog for photo's. BTW, my blog is located at www.moosetique.com. I did a post on my Sunday visit to Mattamuskeet. Happy Thanksgiving.

Nature Girl said...

I will definitely check out your photos. Headed that way in about a week then on to the Outer Banks. A lot of times the Snow Geese hang out over towards Pea Island NWR. Sooo looking forward to the trip. Check back and I will check your website!