Bird Watching: My Birds, Part II, 1 by Methodical

Methodical wrote:
Yesterday, I decided to explore a few new wildlife areas (Myrtle Grove WMA, Mattawoman Creek and Small Wood park). As luck has it, the day started off not in my favor; 1st it was snowing (I was going out no matter what though to do some recon work) and secondly, I left my tripod sitting in the garage (thought I put it in the truck until I went to mount my rig – no tripod). So all my shots were handheld for this trip. I just don’t get it, Saturday it was sunny, cool but otherwise a beautiful day for bird photography, yet on my one and only day I have to do what I enjoy, it snows and last week it rained. I think I need to change to going out on Saturdays, ahh but Sundays are so peaceful with less people – folks seem to sleep in later.

But, all was not lost as I found a few new places to explore and hopefully get some lifers this spring and summer. Also, I found an Eagles nest where there are no people and no restricted access; it seems I will have this little gem of an area to myself (hopefully). Well, I will post a few shots from my trip Sunday. Btw, I spotted 5 adult and 1 juvenile Eagles, 3 pairs of nest building Ospreys (2 in very good shooting distant, as a matter of fact, you can walk right up to the nest; hopefully the park will restrict such close access though), lots of Cormorants and Wood ducks, some Pied billed grebes, Scaups, Vultures, Wild Turkey, Hawks (Red-tailed), Pileated WP, sparrows. I did not get shots of most of them though.

I will start with the Eagles. The fist shot is of the nest. Can anyone tell if they will take residence; it seems like it’s ready for a family and both were sitting down in the nest and this one pop up and perched for this not so good photo (just wanted to get a pic of the nest).