We tend to use our long lens like a telescope, or binoculars when looking around an area. Especially when we hit a spot where several dikes connect. Big marshes are an interconnected series of dikes and trunks covering miles of wetlands.
Below I was just looking down a side dike and snapped a shot so I could view the image in the back LCD expanded.
It was interesting, but tall grass so we continued going straight.
View the image full size you will see what I missed.
The closest thing was an Alligator on the trail.
A bit further the top of a trunk over the grass can be seen… with a Kingfisher looking out over the water.
Now, if we had walked down there the Kingfisher would have been long gone, the Alligator probably not. But we don’t need to go out of our way to find gators here.
I published because it’s a good example of what the dikes and big marshlands are like.
And of course ‘you never know what you may see out there’.
BTW, as I was viewing the post a final time I spotted more. In the background, top of a small tree, is a sleeping Great Egret.
It is amazing the things that we actually miss when we are out shooting, Ted. I know that I tend to focus on small areas, with a tendency to want to zoom in as closely as I can as quickly as I can. Yes, I try to scan my surroundings as well as I can, but know that it is impossible to do that any kind of comprehensive way.
Wildlife blends into the environment so completely I’m sure we miss half of what is around us 😂😂. The other day Ellen made a noise to catch my attention, then pointed to my left. A Great Blue, full adult, was not 15 feet from me, just watching me bumble on by.
I totally agree, Ted. There is also the question about what happens during all of the time that we are not present. I have visions of all kinds of cool interactions taking place that we never see.
The nighttime interactions would be the strangest 😃. I can say from experience dark night in a southern swamp is very ‘special’.
The closest thing to a dark experience that I have had was a predawn arrival at a marshland park–I suspect it was not quite as active as your southern swamp, but I did hear all kinds of noises.