A Morning in Wellfleet

Up at 0345 and out the door at 0415 isn’t always the way I want to spend my day off but as much as I grumble in the beginning it’s always worth the trouble. We were set up with camo and tripods about 30 minutes before sun up. The water was lower than normal so we were able to get at water level easily. We stirred up a Great Blue Heron within the first 5 minutes on site as he flew right over our heads in the dark. Just as we were starting to be able to make some things out another one came and tried to land in a dead tree we were both set up right next to. He came in hot and just as he was about to land he spotted us, banked a hard right and went on about his business after letting out a hearty squawk. Shutter speed was still too slow to capture the movement because of the extreme low light and not wanting to shoot with a bazillion ISO. So close. No wood ducks this day but there was enough wildlife to keep us entertained for a couple of hours. Eventually we worked our way along the lake and spotted some more Great Blue Herons and some turtles. We finally found this heron getting some sun on a log by the waters edge and doing some casual fishing. The background was still in dark shade but the golden sunlight was right on him and the log. While we were admiring him from afar a couple masked bandits decided to harass him for few minutes and get a morning drink. Look closely to the left at the waters edge. Always a good time and it never gets old!