Upde Designs

Happy Easter Sunday!

I went to Green Island this past Friday looking for some migrating birds.   I was hopeful that the trip would yield a bounty of spices all happy to pose for my camera.  I was sorely disappointed.  I spent 4 hours at the preserve and only came away with a hand full of images including this turtle who was crawling out on a discarded tire to sun himself.

Although the sun was shinning intermittently it was windy and uncomfortably cold.

Camera specs:  Nikon D4 | Tamron 150 – 600 mm Sports Lens |  Manual settings 1/1250 sec @ f8.0 auto ISO.

I believe this is a Pied-Billed Grebe.  That’s as close as I could get to identifying its species.  I’m not very good at bird identification because I don’t have the patience to look through all the pictures.  I’m not a true naturalist I guess I just like to take their pictures. 🙂

I had a great visit and lunch with a friend of mine Friday at Bellevue.  We caught up on old times and what he has been doing the last few years.  It was very enjoyable.

I’ll leave you with this bird, which I believe is a Wilson’s Snipe.  Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.  When I finally left Green Island it was obvious the sun was not going to come out anymore as the sky had grown mostly cloudy.

I did drive down to Sabula, Iowa but there wasn’t much going on there.  There were a few pelicans out in the middle of the lake to far for my lens and of course the ubiquitous gulls.  So it wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for, but any day that I can hang out taking pictures of whatever is a pretty good day in my view.

That’s it for today.  Enjoy this very special day that we celebrate the Resurrection of our Savior. Blessing to you.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.