Friday, July 4, 2014

Pic of the Day

Marsh Wren, Cistothorus palustrisBenton Lake NWR; Great Falls, Montana

     I took so many photos of this Marsh Wren I just had to post a few more.  In a previous post (see June 18, 2014), I had an image of the wren plucking the downy cattail fibers from the stalk.  Here, the wren alighted on the stalk and the wind blew some of the loose fibers off the stalk.  I love the feel of this image with the fibers blowing in the wind.

Marsh Wren, Cistothorus palustris
     One thing a male Marsh Wren loves to do is sing his territorial song; and in this shot the wren landed on the stalk and began to sing.  I was happy to get a shot as the wren turned his head to me as he sang.  On all the profile shots I have taken of singing birds, I have never been able to get the wrens tongue. With this shot I could have done a tonsillectomy!

Marsh Wren, Cistothorus palustris
     This last image shows a pose that I really love to see when I am photographing this noisy little bird.  I shot the image just after it had delivered a load of cattail down to its nest.  After every delivery it seemed to fly to a specific perch, sing, and then hop to this perch with one foot on one reed, and the other foot on another.  Most of the time the wren would move to this spot, sing a few notes, then quickly move on.  When I got this shot the little wren flew to the spot, got in this classic pose and sang for about five seconds, turning its head all the while, giving me a chance to get this image.

Top:  Nikon D800, Nikkor 500mm f4, 1/1250 sec. @ 7.1
Center:  Nikon D800, Nikkor 500mm f4, 1/1600 sec. @ 7.1
Bottom:  Nikon D800, Nikkor 500mm f4, 1/800 sec. @ 7.1

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