Not A Bad Weekend - April 19th

Although my destinations to photograph are kind of limited - I really didn't have a bad weekend. I am also at the moment a little limited as to which of my cameras I use. I own a Canon Rebel with a 500mm lens and I have a FUJI FinePix F50SE which I mount to a Nikon Fieldscope 50 ED with about a 3" piece of PVC pipe. I use my Canon for alot of shots only because I am still learning to get my settings on my subject(s) with my scope in enough time to actually get a photo. I'm getting there.

My descent weekend actually began Thursday night - I took a ride out to Allen Park to the new mall off of Southfield. I decided to take a ride around the buildings to see if the stream the starts (or ends) at each entrance really went all the way around the buildings. As I was walking back from looking over the edge of the field I spotted a bird on the top of one of the buildings - eye sight being what it is (could have been a pigeon) I picked up my camera to take a look the little guy but he flew off. Keeping my eye on him I noticed that he landed on a beam just under a step platform - I picked up my camera to see what exactly it was and to my surprise it was an American Kestrel. I took several hundred pictures of him with my Canon and then wanted to see just how cooperative he would be - I set up my scope. This picture was taken with the scope.

Friday afternoon I decided to take advantage of the sunshine and drove out to Pte. Mouillee - even if there was nothing out there to just sit and enjoy the sun and the nice weather was better than sitting in an office looking at a computer screen. There wasn't much to take a picture of - there were Tree Swallows and Common Terns performing their arial tricks, Red-wing Blackbirds and Robins flying around with an occasional Heron flying by. As I headed through the gates I noticed two mallards close to the shore and swimming with them a single Pied-Billed Grebe. I backed up very slowly and then preceded to get the scope out of my vehicle but as soon as I did that the Grebe was gone - however, sunbathing on a log that is in the little creek was a Painted Turtle. I quickly set my scope on him (because he was beginning to move) and he laid there long enough for me to fire off 12 shots and then he was gone. As I headed down the road I noticed that the fish were jumping out of the water - would have been a nice catch for someone (if you like carp).

Anyway - got to go - things to do - can't wait til tomorrow.