Have you ever spent 9 hours in a blind?   A camouflage blind – not something related to vision.  It started this morning for me at 3:30 a.m.  A fox family of eight.  Mom, Dad and six little ones.  An adventure of a lifetime.  I can’t post it all tonight.  Watch for tomorrows post.  It really was incredible!   This photograph is of the mother (the one with the partial ear), Dad (the good looking one), and two little foxes.  Quite a story filled with humor and adventure and that’s just the fox family.

Have I ever noted how much I love to photograph the Egret?  This has to be one of the luckiest shots I have ever taken.  Lately a lot of my time photographing is near my home.  It almost always includes bird photography.   I recently have had to shoot auto focus only  My retina tear and giant floaters in the other eye have made it hard to manually focus.  I am very lucky.  The shot is one of my favorites.  Notice the long feather off the front.  It curls around and has a string of droplets falling from it.  Note also the droplets behind the egret from his feet as he just took off.  A panning shot that by shear luck caught the detail I wanted.  Yet it still was a slow enough exposure so the very fast moving wings are slightly blurred.

Nikon D3s, 200-400 f/4 lens, 1.7 teleconverter, 320 ISO, shot at f/6.7, 1/1000 second.

I have been watching and waiting.  The little ones are starting to appear.  The mother goose was trying to get the little ones to go into the water.  For a while they were not in the least bit interested.

Home sweet home.  What better protection than under mom’s wing.  There is not just this one under here wing. They are all under her wing.

After a lot of coaxing the little birds took to the water.  Pretty incredible parents.  I enjoyed my time with them tonight.

The White Faced Ibis is beautiful!  The colors are incredible especially when faced with the late day sun.

Another bird of incredible color is the Barn Swallow.  A tiny very fast flying bird.  This little guy is difficult to photograph in flight.  In this particular photograph the bird had just taken off from a branch.  My luck was with me and my autofocus mode.

The first bird this morning was an Egret.  My first of the 2010 season.  I will never get tired of these incredibly beautiful birds.  Luck was on my side with the backlit wings when it took flight.  Incredible!

The pheasants out west are in this crazy territorial funk right now.  They are constantly yelling at each other.  I’m not sure but I think it is to warn other males.  Or maybe it is an invitation for the opposite gender.  The pheasant in the photo above would first raise up and make a unique call or yell.  then it would……

Flap it’s wings.  It almost sounds as if he is beating his chest with his wings.   An amazing spectacle of nature.

The whole time I was watching the pheasant this Kestral was making sure that I was not to get any closer to it’s nest.  No dive bombing just a lot of “hey look at me” moves.  Another beautiful bird that I love to watch.

Morning silence is broken by the familiar song of a Meadowlark.  The song is short but it is usually in response to another singer in the distance.  This particular bird is shy.  It allowed me a chance to get a few frames before it chose a new location to serenade all that would listen.

Tank set day in Buffalo, Wyoming today.  Usually an early start.  The Fire Marshall couldn’t be at the site until 2:00 p.m.   I heard the wild turkey hunt was open.  Lot’s of Wild turkeys around.  Off I went late tonight.

It was my first experience with wild turkeys.  And boy it was “wild”

I am sorry but these guys are really ugly.  Though the female gobblers aren’t exactly cute either!

Reno has some unique Wall Murals. Just a few:

The wind was blowing like the Dickens this morning.  Not a lot of bird action.  If it was me I would be out dive bombing other birds using the wind to my advantage.

I am not sure that I have ever seen Mallards hunkered down in a plowed field.  Lazy or just scared of the wind?

I love the way most of the birds run on the water as they take off.  It was a little tough today with the undulating water surface.

There is a heck of a lot of “THIS” going on out at the refuge right now!