On May 30th, 25 intrepid photographers, including 3 new members met at Tommy Thompson Park at 7am. Unlike last year, the whippoorwill was not sitting on the fence to pose for us at the park entrance, so we all assembled and had a group photo taken before heading into the park. The weather was perfect and there were many other opportunities to photograph wildlife and scenic landscapes.
The cliff swallows had started nesting under the roof of the biological station and we spent time capturing their comings and goings. We walked along the shoreline path and headed towards the tern rafts. Along the way there were lots of songbirds to be seen and at this time of year yellow warblers are especially abundant but photographing these quick small birds is always a challenge.
The terns had started nesting on the rafts. They would often swoop over the pond and sometimes return with a small fish. Continuing along, we went to the Biological Research Station. The research station captures birds in mist nets, records species, weighs, bands and checks the health of the birds before releasing them back into the wild. The biologist there explained this process and answered questions from the group about what they do and the birds they tag. This continues to be a popular stopping place on this outing.
One of the highlights of the outing was the Swan and Canada Goose chase across the wetland area on our walk back. This was a closeup encounter with a Canada Goose flying just above out heads with a larger Swan flying close behind ready to bite it at any moment.
Hosts: Zoltan Harsanyi and Pat Antliff
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