22 April 2020 Sheldon Marsh

Visiting Sheldon Marsh in the spring is an annual ritual nearing twenty years. We make a few stops on the way and maybe one or two after with the single goal of looking for birds. We were concerned about maintaining social distance at Sheldon Marsh as the paths are not that wide. The weather cooperated with cold and damp to scare off most of the visitors. We've added the nature preserve at Old Woman Creek to the annual spring celebration. It often yields good bird viewings.

Egrets were plentiful.  So was breeding plumage.

Snagging a meal

The arrival of a Great Blue Heron seemed to scatter the egrets.

The Great Blue also realized a meal was available.

We hadn't planned on snow when deciding to drive a rear-wheel drive sports car.

We moved to a newer section of the Nature Preserve and spotted our first eagle of the day.  We're spoiled and used to seeing multiple eagles on these outings.  Today we were happy to see this one.

We have learned there is only one suitable area to look for wood ducks at Sheldon Marsh.  Even if we a lucky and spot them, the are skittish and often move well beyond the camera lens and even our view.  I had a couple of chances for an image within the vegetation.  I got lucky and was able to capture an image of these beautiful birds.  

The birds weren't plentiful at Sheldon Marsh today, but there was a good variety and a fun walk for us.

Blue-Winged Teal

We don't see tundra swans very often to this was a treat for us.

Brown Creeper

We ended our day with a visit to Tofts for ice cream.  Most of the customers were handling social distancing well.  The seating area was off limits, but we rarely eat inside.