I took advantage of a relatively nice day on Wednesday (I won't call it a spring day as it was still a bit chilly for April 18th) to do some birding over around Wellsboro. I visited Hills Creek State Park, Darling Run on Pine Creek and the blind at The Muck off route 287. I only spent about an hour at each yet got to see some real nice birds. HCSP afforded some close up views of Horned Grebes and Common Loons as well as a Pine Warbler and Sharp-shinned Hawk. Being quite overcast, the lighting wasn't the best.
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| Horned Grebe |
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| Common Loon |
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| Pine Warbler |
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| Sharp-shinned Hawk |
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The are of Darling Run (from the parking lot up to Pine Creek's confluence with Marsh Creek) allowed plenty of sightings of Ruby-Crowned Kinglets but those little buggers were way to quick for me to get a picture. The Belted Kingfisher always had its head turned the wrong way! And the Common Mergansers were j-u-s-t too far for a good shot.
The Muck provided pretty good views of Bufflehead and Green-winged Teal, but the use of autofocus with my camera gave me mixed success with other birds that hid behind and among the cattails. I had a Harrier fly past, too.
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| Bufflehead, four males and one female (on the left) |
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| Green-winged Teal |
I tried to get a picture of the Swamp Sparrow right outside the blind, but the camera kept focusing on the reeds. Then the bird took flight just as I pushed the button compounding the problem.
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| Swamp Sparrow |
Even a relatively cooperative Red-winged Blackbird sitting on a nesting box got messed up by the reeds.
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| Red-wing behind the reeds. |
I had to be careful to shoot between the reeds with a point focus setting.
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| Red-winged Blackbird. |
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I might have to go back to using my (heavy) Sony Alpha with the 600mm lens and manual focus.
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