Mid-day in the Marsh

Ask virtually any wildlife photographer and they’ll say that mid-day is absolutely the worst time to try for photographs of most wildlife, be it mammals or birds. But, when you have a planned get-together for coffee with friends in mid-morning and an early evening meeting, mid-day is all you have. And so at 2:00pm I donned camo clothing and set up at the edge of the marsh.

The marsh has open water, dense stands of cattails, a scattering of willow, boxelder and silver maple trees in the drier spots, areas dominated by emergent shrubs like buttonbush and a border of shrubs. The great variety of vegetation supports a wide variety of wildlife.

There I sat awaiting the arrival of whatever wildlife happened along. The first critter to appear was a muskrat that swam the edge of the open water and then repeated the circuit – a male looking for a mate perhaps –

Meanwhile an eastern phoebe used a nearby willow as a launch-pad from which to sally forth to snatch insects from the air –

The first duck to make an appearance was a male green winged teal that landed on the far side of the open water –

While I was watching the teal, there was a commotion off to the side. There, two large snapping turtles were busy propagating the species –

Ducks flew over, including a pair of mallards –

And several male wood ducks landed in the open water, then proceeded to enter the area of emergent shrubs –

A tundra swan far down the marsh came closer and stood in a shallow spot in the open water – it preened a bit, stretched and proceeded to fall asleep –

I was very late for lunch so I packed up and walked along the edge of the marsh on the way back to the car. There in the open water was a pair of northern pintails, the male is often described as the handsomest of ducks –

They tipped up to feed, showing why they’re called pintails –

It had been a good mid-day in the marsh.