Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge

A good friend and fellow photographer, Michael Elenko and I met at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge this morning to walk around, visit with each other and shoot [ok, photograph] birds in the Refuge.

We caught up with a group of volunteers and visitors who count birds each Wednesday morning. They are experts and point out birds that I never would have seen otherwise. We saw a tufted owl, yellow warblers, other birds whose names I do not recall, lots of geese, ducks, terns, blue herons and bald eagles throughout the day. Oh yeah, and two painted box turtles sunning on a large rock later in the day.

Michael brought his Canon 7D with a Canon 100-400mm lens f/4.5-5.6 IS L . I had my Canon 5D with two lenses: Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 L and Canon 70-200 f/4 L. His camera was fast on multiple shot using auto-focus mode! His lens at full extension really did the job on picking out the birds in the brush and when they were flying low along the water.

Here are a few examples from each of our lenses. Michael was very gracious when I asked to borrow his big lens.

Canon 24-70 f/2.8 L [set at 70mm]

 Canon 100-400 lens f/4.5-5.6 IS L [set at 400mm]

Canon 70-200 f/4 L [set at 200mm]

The clouds hung around most of the morning and around 1:00 they dissipated offering a warm and very bright yellow ball of light. Oh yeah, that's the sun. Haven't seen that for a while this summer!

The bridge system is excellent because it allows visitors to walk over the tide flats and out towards the sounds. Anderson Island, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and points north were quite visible.

There are two old barns which I found to be very photogenic. This was taken with the Canon 24-70 lens set at 24mm with a polarizing filter attached.

  Love the wide angle aspect!

All in all it was a great day to hang at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge with Michael. Will be returning this summer with my wife Ashara, and again this autumn for a different palette of color and birds!

It's late and I'm off to sleep.