I had taken the day off to travel home after the eclipse, in the event that we had traveled, and I had no intention of giving back the day. So, instead of going to work, I took the car to Romano for spring maintenance and then proceeded to drive the loaner vehicle to Green Lakes for the morning.
There were no clouds in the sky and the light was already a bit harsh, but I had committed to walking around with the camera nonetheless, so that is what I did.
The campground lot was open when I arrived (it would be closed when I departed a few hours later and I would need to move the barricades to exit without driving on the grass), so I drove to the Rolling Hills Campground to park. I saw a harrier that would fly away before I could even get my camera our of my bag. Otherwise, I could only hear a cardinal that would choose to evade me, so I spent a couple of minutes watching a red and a grey squirrel before heading into the woods.
Along the trail to the rolling hills, I would see a few tufted titmices and nuthatches. And as I was nearing the edge of the woods, I heard what I thought was a peliated woodpecker.
I was greeted by a robin as I as looking for the woodpecker …
… but – for the life of me – I couldn’t locate the woodpecker. I could hear the call and it chipping away at a tree, but alas, I could not find it. So, even though I could still hear it, I continued along the trail and turned north where I expected to see red squirrels that will often play in the trees that line that portion of the trail.
I was soon rewarded by a red squirrel, almost exactly where I expected to find it. I captured what I thought was a nice picture of the squirrel licking sap off a tree only to discover that I hadn’t noticed a twig that was right across the face of the animal. It isn’t a great image, but I would later practice my photo editing skills in Affinity Photo to clone out the twig with fair success. I don’t think someone would know I had done it if it weren’t pointed out to them.
I would also capture images of a song sparrow and a bluebird in the same area. Again, neither is a spectacular image, but they are sharp and I am not displeased with the compositions or the performance of my gear. The image of the bluebird is a bit oversaturated, especially when positioned next to the image of the song sparrow, but I will never print/share it, so it’ll remain as it is.
After walking the tree-line, I turned around to head back south and visit the elevated section of the rolling hills. The woodpecker was still doing its thing, and I still wanted to see it. So I persisted, until I found it. Once I found it, I discovered why it had been so hard to find it: it wasn’t a peliated woodpecker after all. I had heard a northern flicker on a tree branch, not a peliated woodpecker at a tree trunk.
As I walked through the fields I would capture a few images of tree swallows; they are beginning to nest in the bird boxes in the fields. These images too don’t perfectly match, with the first image possessing a darker and more saturated sky, but again, they aren’t going anywhere.
Nor is this image of the peliated woodpecker that I would finally see in the late morning, but that would refuse to position itself for a flattering picture.
On the way back to the car, I crossed paths with this little snake, which I photographed only because this month’s photo assignment theme is curvy, and the shape of the snake seemed apt.
It isn’t a great image, but that is okay … it doesn’t need to be.
So, no, I didn’t walk away with any keepers, but I didn’t expect to, either. Instead, I got in some practice, tinkered with my camera presets for more effective photography, and had a nice walk in the woods/fields while I did so.
That beats a time spent at the office any and every day of the week.