Suburban wildlife

Egret

Coming home from work tonight, I saw several egrets in a drainage pond near my house. Ran home, grabbed the camera, and headed out. Got my first decent shots of these guys ever, they are so skittish. They flew away several times, but got shots of them fishing, wading, and a nice flying shot.

Just some quick photos

Playing around a little today, took a walk in a natural area near the house looking for spring wildflowers or green tree buds for some color. I was surprised by the color of the algae growing in the creek, clinging to the grasses and seeming to flow like water...

Bringing back the sun

Daffodil

Ruby

I'm in the midst of experimenting with a new flash accessory - The Lumiquest promax. It' s pretty versatile, as it comes with their 80-20 bounce card, silver, white, and gold reflectors, and a diffuser. These photos are taken outside on a completely overcast, drizzly day. I took the flash off camera and set it on a stand to camera left (both shots), and used the gold reflector with the diffuser screen. Particularly on the shot of Ruby, it does a pretty good job of standing in for low sunlight, and adds a little catchlight in her eye. Or, is she just contemplating mischief? I never know with her...

Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge

Canada Goose

Pie Billed Grebe

I spent some time this morning in one of the photo blinds at Minnesota Valley NWR. These are set up for the public to use, and are a great way to have prime access to the refuge. Most of the refuge is restricted access, so these blinds are unique. Unfortunately, the area I was in was flooded, and I didn't have my waders along. I'm not sure they would have done me much good, as I would have had to camp out in knee deep water to use the blind. Sitting at the edge of the trees, high and dry, still afforded me plenty of opportunities. My flight photography isn't up to par, so most of those were missed, but it was a beautiful morning. I saw wood ducks, mallards, ringnecks, grebes, geese, swans, an egret, a heron, and an eagle, all in the space of about 3 hours.

If you want to reserve a blind, follow the link to the refuge's website:

Bare or Bear?