North Park, March 23, 2008

Easter Sunday 2008, the weather was a little milder than yesterday with warmer temperatures and less wind. I decided to go straight to “Old Faithful” which would be Marshall Lake at North Park. I had equipment troubles yesterday in a target rich environment and I really wanted to make up for that.

Before I even got to the parking area I saw Hooded Mergansers and Wood Ducks on the lake so I pulled over right away. Hoodies and Woodies, what a great way to start the day; I quickly set up the equipment and sneaked to a bush on the lake shore. The bush hid most of my movement so there was no alarm raised by the ducks.


After getting shots of the Hoodies and Woodies I moved to the normal parking area and walked to the island. I wasn’t even at the foot bridge to the island when I saw a few Common Grackles perched on one of the pine trees on the island. For what appears to be a simple black bird, when the light hits the Grackle’s head right, it shines with a brilliant blue iridescent color which makes it a site to see.


Thirty minutes into the day’s outing and I already had good shots of three species but I wanted more!!!! I made my way across the foot bridge to find Buffleheads in the water near the north end of the island. Something about these little waterfowl just fascinate me, I don’t know what it is but anytime I see them I have to get pictures.


I’ve said before here that I really don’t take that many pictures of Mallards and Canada Geese unless I have the chance to get some outstanding shots. Today I had that chance: I had a Mallard pair doing some ritual bonding on the west side of the lake and a Canada goose that followed me on my way around the island. The goose didn’t make any alarm calls or try to chase me from a nest; it seemed he was just watching me. I finally gave in and took a few shots of him. Would you believe it, after I took his picture he flew off to the other end of the lake? I guess he was just a ham.


While I was getting the Mallard shots I saw a couple of drake Wood Ducks along the far shore so you just know that I had to take some more pictures of them. Especially since the sun was up a little higher in the sky by this time making their colors really stand out.


I was happily snapping pictures of the woodies when I saw an odd species of duck. Upon further inspection it turned out to be a hen and drake Green Wing Teal. The pair was slowly making its way to the same area where the woodies were. This was Great! I didn’t have to move the digiscope or mess with the focus much at all.

During the three hours that I was out today I went through two batteries and filled a 2GB memory card. It was a great morning and turned out to be the best morning of Digiscoping that I’ve had this year, beating the morning on the rivers. Well the best so far anyway.

Stay Tuned to the blog, coming up in the next three posts I’ll relate to you the story of my three day trip “Up North”. Some of the highlights include elk, deer, bison and 20 avian species.