I had a great morning with friends at the Viera Wetlands. The morning started at the Click Ponds, two small ponds adjacent to the wetlands. After a post to Birdbrains yesterday about a Common Loon, which I’ve never seen, I was anxious to try for one. But we didn’t see one. We did see my first Horned Grebe, but he was so far away that I won’t embarrass myself by posting it. :) Suffice it to say that even a Beast sometimes yields pictures where the subject is a small pinpoint!

I was surprised to see several Green Herons in the grasses. They stood with their necks stretched, and they reminded me of Least Bitterns. One flew in and posed right in front of me for a few seconds. The light was absolutely horrible, so I ended up sharpening this picture in Lightroom.

The sun actually did come out during the “golden hour”…for about five seconds. Lucky for me, I had just found the three Redheads and single Canvasback, and the sun’s light came at the perfect time. The ducks dove, splashed, then came up “all in a row.” I exposed to the right and then adjusted the image in Lightroom.

Normally I don’t spend much time on the north side of the ponds, as the light is all wrong. But this morning there was no light, so I didn’t have much to worry about. When two Forster’s Terns started hovering right in front of me as they went fishing for their breakfast, I was able to get a nice pale green background from the trees in the distance. I wish the bird was a little sharper…maybe next time!

Tomorrow I will blog more about the birds we saw in the wetlands themselves…