Monday, May 2, 2011

Minnesota Valley NWR Warbler Walk

On Saturday evening the rain finally stopped, the clouds began to break up and the sun made a rare appearance. Even though it was already almost dinner time I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and headed over to the Minnesota Valley NWR. I was hoping to have a chance to photograph some warblers. We have been seeing yellow-rumped warblers for over a week but reports were starting to come in about other warblers in the area.


Taking pictures of warblers can be very tricky, because of their small size and constant movement. Fortunately the trees here have not yet begun to leaf out which makes it a bit easier to find and photograph them, but as you can see in this picture of an orange-crowned warbler the trees will be spreading their new leaves soon.

One of the more rare warblers that I spotted was this black-throated green warbler. He was searching a pine tree for insects when I came down the path. I did have to turn up the ISO to get a picture in the low light, which is why it is not the best picture, but I was just happy to see one this year.

This Nashville warbler was high up in the tree tops. It did not seem very concerned about the strange guy with the big camera below it. It may have just come in that night, warblers typically migrate at night then spend the day foraging for food, and was hungry for a long flight.

The best shots that I got were of a black and white warbler. I have taken black and white warbler pictures in the past but they usually do not turn out very good. This time the bird was pretty close, traveling up a tree trunk the same way that a woodpecker or nuthatch would, and in good light which helped me to get my best black and white photos to date.

There were also other birds around. Down at the ponds there were several types of ducks. Along the shore great egrets and a solitary sandpiper were wading through the water in search of dinner and rustling through the leaves I found a lot of white-throated sparrows.


8 comments:

Karen said...

Such wonderful bird photos!

Sylvia K said...

I do so love your bird photos!! They look happy to have spring at last! Terrific! Enjoy your week!

Sylvia

Rcel said...

Those are beautiful pictures of the burds! My daughter can't get enough of them!


I have Finally Spring in my World entry at my blog. Hope you can visit me as well! :)

Anonymous said...

What gorgeous shots of those lovely birds! Sounds like a great walk.

Stewart M said...

Hi there - nice set of images of small birds - they can often be really frustrating. Being able to take lots of images is one of the huge advatanges of digital.

Cheers Stewart M

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troutbirder said...

I really like that white throated sparrow pic. Yesterday, windy as it was, we had a "fallout" of a flock on the ground below my feeders. Quite a sight it was...

Guy said...

Hi Great photos of the warblers I have only seen yellow rumped so far. Guy