Red-winged Blackbird on Cattail

I was tramping in the bog last weekend when I spied this blackbird on the cattail. This is a test of the zoom powers of my Canon. It isn't that zoomy. Top photo is full zoom on an 18-55mm lens. The bottom photo is the same shot but cropped. When clicked, these photos will open, full size, in a new window.

Technorati Tags: Red-winged blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus 

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One Single Impression: Deserted

Coyote appears

peeper song deserts the bog
blackbirds screak alarm

Thank you so much for visiting.
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The bog is greening up at the outer edges. Male red-winged blackbirds stand guard on the bare, drowned trees. The females, the color of the dry cattails, will stay mostly hidden from view. The birds are beginning nesting activity. Coyote, fox, mink, fisher, crows and hawks will try to grab the baby blackbirds. Deer will give birth in the meadow beside the bog because the grasses grow so tall that the fawns are not visible even when they stand up. This is the first photo of the bog taken with my Canon Rebel XSi. Yes! It came on Friday! I'll be using the Canon and the Kodak while I learn how to use the new camera.

I want to thank you all for your patience with me as I have not been visiting your poetry. I have had some unfortunate and sad events in my life in the past two weeks and have not had the heart to do anything except photography and posting. Somehow those activities comfort and soothe me; perhaps because of their familiarity. And Sandy? Thank you for sustaining me on dark nights. It made all the difference to me and I'll never forget your kindnesses.

I have been reading Ackworth Born's book The Art of Haiku and I feel that the first two articles have helped me understand and enjoy haiku more than any other information I have read. I will be finishing this book and reviewing it on One Single Impression as soon as possible. In the meantime, I suggest that you click this link and purchase the book. It is a valuable resource. I hope you enjoyed my poem.

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Great Blue Heron

A long shot of the heron to give perspective. The beaver ponds are across the road from my house.

Usually, the great blue herons don't come to the beaver ponds until after the red-winged blackbirds leave in August. The blackbirds mob herons; they hate herons. But they left this one alone on Monday morning. I think it is because the blackbirds don't have any nests yet. I have cross posted these photos on both blogs. These are my first great blue heron photographs and I'm pleased as punch! I took 109 photographs of him (it was 23°F or -5°C). I quietly took the screen out of the window, set up the tripod and shot until my battery, which was low, died. While I was doing this, the cats had fun jumping in and out of the window. I culled the 109 down to 18 showing different activities of the heron. Then Amy and I cut those down to these few.

The herons that come here nest on May Pond which is behind the ridge on the other side of the beaver ponds across the road. Their nests are usually in the top of a dead tree and are huge messy jobs.

I have read that herons will fish a pond clean and when there are no more fish to eat, will move on to another pond. I have a feeling that they might also eat baby red-winged blackbirds.

If you look very, very carefully in the photo above, at the bottom of the heron's head, at the top of his long neck, behind his jaw, he is swallowing a fish and you can see a bulge. I failed to get shots of the three fish it caught while I was photographing him.

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Technorati Tags: Ardea herodias, Great blue heron, Agelaius phoeniceus, Red-winged blackbirds
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