Early, but not too early, scenes as we entered the marshes.
Light was dim and less than we had expected. Colors do jump out though in this weather. And… warm almost hot. Back to normal.
The above was shot with the OM Systems 12-100 pro lens. My first day with it and so far so good.
What looks like a usual shot of a Great Egret, which it is, except for how much work/time it took.
My first attempts started along a dike, the bird was slowly working the reeds and water line. He moved in and around the grasses, got lost in some fog, and then suddenly flew to a small island.
Below was when I finally caught him in an opening of the reeds.
Great fun 😊.
I decided to actually publish these. The shots are dark, short on details, but do show a moment in our visit into the marshes on a day that turned out to be anything other than what we expected.
We stopped on a narrow dirt causeway to photograph the road in front. Swamp and marsh were on either side but ahead were many white birds hidden in the trees over the roads entrance into the woods.
I had no idea if I could push any type of photograph from these shots, but all the birds in the fog ahead was certainly worth stopping.
We had no way of counting how many White Ibis were there, but it was a lot! Egrets were scattered in with them too.
There’s only one dirt road at this point, and you can be pretty sure no one else is wandering about.
ACE Basin, South Carolina.
From a walk down a marsh dike.
Above is the view ahead of me. The wood line was hidden by fog. But the rust and gold colors all around made up for it.
Looking behind you can see the dirt road running along the marsh. It’s also a nice view of the wooden trunk. The road runs between to the two water gates, the water moves back and forth depending on the tide.
ACE Basin, South Carolina.
Wildlife was slow. An assumption since we couldn’t have seen them anyway.
ACE Basin, South Carolina.
Walking through the swamp rookery I noticed something up in a Cypress Tree. For the most part it was hidden from view. We moved along for better angle, and there he was, first male Great Blue of the year.
Now, he was a little late and considering last year didn’t have many big Heron nests I was more than happy to get this shot.
Now we knew to look around, and right away Ellen said down the swamp side was another.
And yes there was another male staking his claim to prime real estate. Not long after I thought I heard the previous male calling out with that long mournful mating call.
So, these two will eventually move off because it’s too early. The ladies also will not make any quick decisions on a mate. There will surely be a winter storm too. But having early lookers is a great start.
The Snowy not me.
The Duck Weed is piled up pretty deep in this side trail. It will die back after a few frosty mornings but we haven’t had enough cool weather yet for that.
As they walk through here small fish must break the surface, or at least make the thick weeds move. Birds must catch enough here otherwise we wouldn’t find them here.
Cypress and Spanish Moss do lose some colors during the colder months, but it’s not so much to pass up some scenes like this.
