September 25, 2015

A predawn trip to Delaware this morning with a promise of clear skies from the Weather Channel. I was in the marsh set up with my tripod in a clump of cattails. My ass was just 3 inches over the water when sitting on my camp stool; I like to get close to the water to achieve a low camera angle in the event I have ducks swimming close by. I had a couple wood ducks (hens) land very close at two different times that quickly figured out I was there and flew into the timber.

My intention this morning was to concentrate on the wood ducks which just did not work out. As is normally the case there is something interesting that comes along; this morning several cool things! I saw some commotion in the woods and saw two birds in aerial combat, I was sure one of them was a crow and the other turned out to be a coopers hawk. The fight only lasted seconds but was thrilling to witness.

There was a large flock of northern flickers around which I really enjoy seeing I think they are really neat. Flickers are one of the few migratory woodpeckers and I suspect I ran into a migrating flock. Another cool variety of wood pecker hanging out was the red headed woodpecker. There were a nice bunch of eastern bluebirds around and I photographed some bullfrogs just for fun.

The grand finally was looking up and seeing a golden eagle fly into a dead tree just 50 yards in front of me. I was surprised to see one yesterday and shocked to see them twice in just two days. A very nice morning in the swamp; absolutely worth getting up early to see!