North Park, April 13, 2008

It has been 10 days since my last outing and I really needed a break. It’s been raining in my area just about every day for the last week. I checked the forecast the night before and saw that I’d have a 2-3 hour window to try for pictures this morning.

I arrived at Marshall Lake at North Park about 30 minutes after sunrise. I parked the truck and proceeded to get my gear ready. I looked across the lake and saw a Wood Duck drake perched atop one of the nest boxes in place there.

I made my way to the island across the foot bridge and happily saw that the woodie was still there. I started snapping pictures of him. My loyal reader already knows how I feel about Wood Ducks, I think they are the most beautiful duck to visit and reside in Pennsylvania. After about 75 pictures of the woodie I felt that it was time to search for new targets. The way that the woodie was acting I expected him to be there for quite a while yet.

The first new target that I saw was a Red-Winged Black Bird that was perched in a nearby tree. He was happily greeting the morning with his song. Yes, that picture really is a Red-Winged Black Bird. It is uneditted except for cropping to size.

A second new target was a grackle that was calling from a pine tree on the island. The light was hitting him perfectly so that his head was glowing a brilliant iridescent blue.

When I first walked onto the island this morning there was a Canada goose in the water just a few feet away from me. The goose just stayed there and watched me for most of the last hour. It seemed to me as if he was fascinated by me and my actions. So, to keep him from being insulted and needing goose counseling for my neglect of him I snapped a few pictures. Sure enough, after he saw me focus on him for a few minutes he swam away.


While I was helping the goose with his identity crisis I saw that the wood duck drake was still on the nest box. The sun had risen further into the sky by now and was casting some excellent light directly onto the woodie. I had a rare opportunity to get pictures of a woodie in the same position but under different lighting conditions in the same day. Woodies are normally just too skittish for that to happen too often.


After shooting another 50 pictures of the woodie I saw that it was time to go home; I still had a lot of work to get done there. It wasn’t my best morning of digiscoping this year but any day spent enjoying nature is a good day.