Gotcha!

In all my years of photographing birds, I have never gotten a chance to put my lens on a Marsh Wren.  As their name suggests, they live deep in marshy areas and while I sometimes hear their scratchy rattle when I'm walking in wetland areas, I almost never see them.  Today, as my friend and I were walking, we (once again) heard the rattle of a Marsh Wren just off the trail.  And, like we always do, we stopped, ever hopeful of catching a glimpse of this illusive little bird.  And then... up he popped!  Not once, not twice, but four times!  Singing his little heart out before dropping back into the vegetation.  

Ordinarily, I like to get "clean" shots without a lot of distracting stuff in the frame.  However, in this case, I like having the habitat feature prominently because it completely portrays where they live.

We walked a little over three miles and tallied 30 species of birds as well as a nice assortment of butterflies, dragons and even my first-of-the-year Wheel Bug and a very accommodating Dog Day Cidada who landed not 4 feet from me and started singing at full decible.  By the time we got back to our cars, we were both sweaty, thirsty, and tired...but very pleased with ourselves.  If the weather holds, we'll go out again Friday to see if we can find some warblers.

Be safe, kind, loving and patient...

xo
Debbi