Sterling State Park - 30 Sep 2009


Niece Mary and I spent a couple hours this sunny Wednesday afternoon looking for photo opps at Sterling State Park in Monroe. Mary is one of many talented artists in the family, and is now a proud owner a new Nikon D60 and 18-55 mm VR DSLR system. We were out to put it to work.

We parked in the small lot next to the nature trail and walked along the west side almost to the observation tower. A Black-crowned Night Heron was roosting along the shoreline of the canal, so we took a few minutes to digiscope it from about 100 ft away. A Great Blue Heron and Great Egret were nearby, as well, but a bit too far for any pics. I did manage a few flight pics of the egret was it flew off to the far side of the lagoon.

As we played with exposing bright benches against dark backdrops an Eastern Wood-Pewee suddenly appeared overhead in a dead tree. I handed Mary my D300 w/ the Sigma 400 mm and let her go to town photographing the bird 10 - 20 ft away. Meanwhile, I attempted to digiscope it as it flew from its perches to snag dragonflies and any other unlucky insect that would wander by. Once she got used to focusing the Sigma the card filled quickly with sharp exposures of the Pewee.












An American Redstart was feeding in the thicket nearby, and appeared just long enough for a quick photo. A Nashville Warbler and Yellow-rumped Warbler were also nearby, but never appeared long enough for anything more than a brief glimpse.



With the sun beginning to disappear over the trees we headed back to the cars to head home.

Well done, Mary! We'll do this again!
Sterling SP, Monroe, Michigan, US
Sep 30, 2009 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Protocol: Traveling
1.0 mile(s)
Checklist Comments:     Niece Mary and I
7 species

Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)  1
Great Egret (Ardea alba)  1
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)  1
Eastern Wood-Pewee (Contopus virens)  1
Nashville Warbler (Leiothlypis ruficapilla)  1
American Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla)  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata)  1

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S42235745

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)