Friday morning found us at Harns Marsh Preserve with forty really great folks. We were there with the FCCC field trip and for Sharon & I, it was our first visit to a very well know location for bird photography. Now, like any location, just because you saw the birds there yesterday, doesn’t mean they will be there today. It has been scouted, lots of birds seen prior to our arrival but being wildlife, well, they picked up and moved on. No matter, it was a gorgeous morning so with D4s / 800 w/TC-1.25e attached, we all started to walk the perimeter of the Marsh. One great subject appeared pretty quickly. This Anhinga was T’d up drying its wings. What was cool was the really nice background in really nice light for the Anhinga. Why was it nice light for the Anhinga? If you looked at the reptilian tail it has, you only see those distinct bars in the right light. That barred tail is what really makes the “snake bird” look reptilian. The key in make the shot was a very narrow angle of view so the dead sticks on the right and the blue water on the left could be excluded from the background. With those images safely on the CF card … time to wiggle on.
We walked down the path a ways and had Sandhill Cranes with colts, ducks, herons and then some time with a Bald Eagle. After that, the light was getting hard and it was time to get back to the convention. On the way back, a River Otter was spotted. I hustled on down in time to see it porpoise through the water and then periscope for a second to check us out. I watched as it submerged and ventured underwater to a island of vegetation. I walked along with it along the shore hoping for a better shot.
As you can see, we did get a much better photo up. Ya, the light is a tad on the hard side but it’s a clean shot and with so little of Otter biology in our files, I took advantage of it. The Otter hauled out to the left of where you see here and spent a good couple of rolling, sliding and shaking in an attempt to dry itself off. And in between of all of that, it would take a moment to make sure we were behaving. It was a really fun encounter that, if we hadn’t made the walk we would have never had seen the Otter and had the fun. When it comes to wildlife, I just love a good surprise!