Hanging With The Greater Yellowlegs At The Celery Bog

I went out to the Celery Bog twice this weekend with the intention of photographing warblers. There are not many in the area yet, but any day now things should start picking up. Both days I saw warblers in the tree tops, but nothing down where I was. If you are just counting birds that works. If you are photographing them it does not work so well. With that in mind I went to the back pond to look at the great egrets that are visiting for a short time. While I was on the shore line I saw this greater yellowlegs walking around. It made for an interesting subject for a while.

Getting Low

I always talk about getting low for photos. For wildlife the photos look better if you are at their eye level. Most of my photos at the back pond yesterday were made from my knees. That is fine for making egret photos. For this yellowlegs though I had to get on my belly. Being on your belly in the muck is not too pleasant, but it does make for good photos. I am sure people were wondering what happened to me on my way out.

Thanks For The Help Guys

I am not the best at identifying birds. In fact I am not any good at all. I spent most of my time watching the greater yellowlegs thinking that it had to be the lesser yellowlegs because I had not seen the greater reported. I didn’t know how you tell them apart. As I was getting ready to leave a lesser yellowlegs came walking by. It gave me a good visual of the differences between the two. When they are together the size difference is very noticable. Seeing them together was a great way to have a reference for when I see these birds next year.