Saturday, January 14, 2017

Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge


Checking out the Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge in Hoquiam Washington on Wednesday, although it was 28°, was a productive trip.  With a walk along the Hoquiam Airport to the Sandpiper Trailhead I was able to get some shots of a Pacific Wren that followed me down the airport driveway to the entrance to the trailhead. I saw mostly ducks along my short walk with one Bald Eagle perched on a stump along the waters edge. Actually didn't see him until I was back in the office and was processing my photos. There he was in the corner of one of my shots of a flying Mallard, I only made it about 1/3 of the way to the trailhead on this walk, was getting to close to sun setting and to dark for handheld shooting. The walkway has several nice viewing areas, with benches along the way.

I set my Canon 6D to Auto ISO, 1/800 to 1/2000 at f/7.1 with EF 400mm USM lens for most of my shots on this trip. Most bird were 75-100 yards away. It was a very gray overcast day.

Here are some of the shots.

This is the Wren that followed me down the road
 Something was really interesting down there!
 Hen coming in for a landing.
 Drake & Hen hanging out together.
 Love the suns glow on the hens face.
 And they finally decided to take their leave.
 Since I had to walk past the airport, couldn't resist taking shot of plane taking off with the golden glow on the runway.

This was a very productive hour of time. Would highly recommend a trip out to see/photograph the waterfowl.  I know that I'll be back out there in the next couple of weeks, definitely with more than an hour to sped.

Have a wonderful weekend. Don't forget Martin Luther King day on Monday.
Don't forget the camera.

Mahalo,
Aaron


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