Spring is in Swing on Shingle Creek!

I had the day off work today and it was gorgeous outside. But despite the awesome weather I purposely waited until about 5pm to visit the park in hopes to capture some waterfowl bathed in some nice orangy-sunset tones. Yesterday I had hiked downstream and sat for a while too but quickly realized I was on the wrong side and facing directly into the sun instead of away from it. So this evening I did the same but on the opposite (west) side of Shingle Creek. It was warm and sunny out without a single cloud in the sky and before I knew it, a pair of Bluebirds were perching very nearby. The male perched almost right above my head for a minute, very closely and I grabbed this shot. A great way to start off my photo expedition! Soon I had my eyes on various pairs of Northern Shovelers swimming along the creek. The male and female were both busy poking their long bills into the shoreline and I waited patiently behind a natural blind of fallen trees for them to come closer. They never did get all that close to me so I had to crop in tight on my photos. Here is my favorite one of the Shovelers, cast in a nice glow from the setting sun. My luck continued on as a pair of Wood Ducks later flew in from the north and hit the water just to my left and out of sight of me in my blind. I readied my camera and waited for them to swim right out in front of me. This resulting photo is probably one of my favorite shots of the whole year. I just love the colors on wood ducks and the reflections of the tan colored weeds and blue sky in the water compliment him nicely. Where ever there is any waterfowl there are bound to be some Mallards in the mix. I certainly don't go out of my way to photograph them but this male that swam slowly past me was just so pretty in the sunset that I couldn't resist. His green iridescent head just seemed to almost glow in the sunset and again the reflections on the water made for a nice photo I think. Much further down the creek, I could see some other interesting waterfowl with my binoculars including Ring-necked Ducks and a lot of Canada Geese. The Ring-necked stayed far away never coming any closer which was a bummer since they are also quite beautiful. But I was able to catch a few photos of one other interesting bird that would dive repeatedly before popping up very near me at least a few different times. Pied-billed Grebes –and other species of Grebes– are somewhat similar to Loons in that they are much more adapted to water and diving than they are to land. They behave similar in that they can stays submerged for quite some time before returning to the surface. Now that I think of it, I have never even seen a Grebe in flight before, only on the water.

Two more bird species

This Wednesday I spent over 2 hours at the park and took a whopping 98 photos. This was mostly due to the fact that I spent extra time sitting in various placing hoping to get closer to my subject. The first thing I saw though was right along the paved path and quite close. There were at least 3 or more Cedar Waxwings -something I've not seen in a long time. This time however they were close enough for me to notice the small, brightly colored details I was previously unaware of. Check out the bright yellow tip of the tail and bright red tips of the wings. Later, I decided to sit for a while again under the big Cottonwood tree on the creek, still trying to get closer to the Hooded Mergansers. While they stayed mostly out of range, a single small duck appeared close to me out of nowhere. It was a Pied-billed Grebe, the first I've ever seen at the park. I watched him dive under the water and resurface after long periods over and over again. My field guide says Pied-billed Grebes are very sensitive to pollution so I'm kind of surprised to see one here as Shingle creek is full of garbage and plastic bottles. I can't tell if the park is attracting more species of birds or if maybe I'm just more on the look out for them. As I was almost back to the parking lot I noticed an oddly colored Duck way out on the opposite end of the lake. He was black and white but even from this distance I could see the brightly colored yellow eyes tipping me off that it was a Common Goldeneye. There was also a female with a dark brown head. A couple other noteworthy things I saw but were unable to photograph were a Blue-winged Teal and the Mink swimming in the creek again.