Do you know where all the small ponds are in your neighborhood? These ponds are songbird food factories and “turn on” long before their deeper water cousins, northern lakes. Every day brings some different birds as the migration continues. While I had seen a few Yellow-Rumped Warblers, today with the south wind and warmer weather migration of our first warblers was in full swing.

Striking a Pose for the Photographer

Scaring a Bug … Yellow-Rumped Warbler

As noted in my Ruby-Crowned Kinglet post, I have been birding / hiking the Lester Park Golf Course the past two days. I plan on being over there again shortly after sunrise tomorrow morning. Each day seems to bring different birds, which is fun after the long winter. The past two days’ selection have been ducks. One nice thing is on ponds the number of ducks is smaller. It is really hard to get close to large flocks of ducks. Once one bird flushes, the next 200 also take off. However with golf course ponds in the early morning I can slowly approach … directly in the sunlight which makes me hard to see. When I get to each pond I then sit down, even on the wet grass. Standing I am a dangerous human. Sitting I am often tolerated. Here is a collection of images I took over the past two mornings.

Greater Scaup (and a Horned Grebe in the final pic)

Buffleheads a Courting

Phoebe (not much of a duck!)

Guess who is interested in the migrating songbirds? A Merlin!

Yesterday our ugly weather finally went away. While the sun did not shine, the snow, sleet and high winds were finally a thing of the past. I decided to walk the Lester Park Golf Course and check out its five ponds. As the course is still closed due to the wet spring, I had the links to myself, which also meant I both did not have to dodge golf balls, or have golfers scare birds. I did have to put up with some light fog, but that was a minor issue.

I was quickly pleased to see a huge number of Ruby-Crowned Kinglets were migrating through the area. However capturing one in a photograph was difficult. Light fog means low light, and these birds move fast and rarely sit still. Thus, I observed the habits of this bird. Most of the kinglets would move around the shores of the ponds, picking great bug ambush spots. Thus, I need to think like a bird and guess likely landing locations. The process worked and quite often the birds landed on the reeds which I had already focused my camera upon. Thus … in wildlife photography … anticipate!

Ruby-Crowned Kinglets

By this morning the kinglets were gone, but my first Tree Swallows had occupied the same ponds. It was nice to see the swallows. This morning there was sun (and 33F!)