Afternoon at the Refuge - 10 Jan 2023
The Sun actually made an appearance this morning. Clouds, rain and snow are expected the rest of the week so I took the opportunity to make a quick run down to the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge and get an afternoon walk in.
As I entered the short-loop trail behind the Visitor's Center I spotted 4 Eastern Bluebirds fly overhead and land in a tree close enough to photograph. With the 600mm f/4 lens and 1.4TC I had 840mm effective focal length (EFL), and the added 1.5X crop in APS-C mode I was pushing 1260mm EFL.
The top image portrait of the bluebird was made by taking 5 consecutive frames as layers in Photoshop, then Auto-Aligning and Auto-Blending them into a composite, then cropping to get an EFL ~2500 mm. I was impressed with how well PS handled the images.
Once the bluebirds flew off I continued along the trail and paused briefly when a Red-bellied Woodpecker appeared overhead.
At the south end of the trail I walked the boardwalk and heard the quiet "tseep" of Song Sparrows in the cattails. A pair of Song Sparrows appeared briefly, and then were followed by a pair of Swamp Sparrows. They were calling a slightly louder "TCHIP" but were less cooperative with their appearance.
One Swamp Sparrow finally appeared near the boardwalk and I managed a quick photo before it flew off into the woods. Nearby a Carolina Wren was giving a rattled trill but refused to show.
Dozens of yards away a young Red-tailed Hawk was quietly roosting on a branch overlooking the woods so I paused long enough to get a few distant shots.
The clouds moved in and the skies darkened enough for me to put the camera away and head back to the car.
Detroit River IWR--Refuge Gateway (Humbug Marsh), Wayne, Michigan, US
Jan 10, 2023 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Protocol: Traveling
1.0 mile(s)
Checklist Comments: Sunny
6 species
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) 1
Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) 1
Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) 4
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) 2
Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana) 2
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S1
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)
Jan 10, 2023 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Protocol: Traveling
1.0 mile(s)
Checklist Comments: Sunny
6 species
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) 1
Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) 1
Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) 4
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) 2
Swamp Sparrow (Melospiza georgiana) 2
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S1
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)
