Oak Hammock Marsh

 Last weekend Lori and I took a drive over to Oak Hammock Marsh to catch the sunset and watch the geese preparing for their trip south.  We should have stuck around a bit longer as the full moon rising over the horizon was spectacular.  

Some of the birds were settling in for night however most of the geese were still off in the neighbouring fields picking through the left overs from the farmers combines.  

The dog definitely wanted to give chase but the owner has him on a short leash and the duck seemed to be unconcerned.  

We could hear thousands of birds, mostly red winged black birds, however most were deep in the bull rushes and tall grasses growing in the marsh.  This grackle was perched up in a tree and posed for his picture.  

I had my new Sony A74 out for the first time and was amazed how well the focus tracking did its job by staying with birds in flight.  In this picture the bird eye auto focus locked onto the birds eye and followed it as the bird fidgeted about.  Gonna like this camera. 

 

Sunset was pretty nice.  

I went back for sunrise the next morning but I was a little tardy getting going and missed sunrise by about 30 minutes.  Did manage to get a picture of the full moon setting off in the west. 

Got lots of shots of the geese flying overhead and the camera did a great job of nailing focus however due to operator error most of the pictures will be going into the trash bin. 

 Tip for next time.  Don't shoot at the birds in low light when the subject is between the camera and the rising sun.  Ended up with lots of grainy silhouettes.  

Did get a shot of one of the last groups to leave the marsh.  The geese float around in the marsh and when they start a honking you can be assured that a few seconds later they start a flapping and then they are off to bulk up in a nearby field.  

I'll try to get a few more posts done before we head out.   Our outing to Pinawa Dam is due up next.