Out West (minnesota)

[nate_mcnasty]

I went out to the Minnesota-South Dakota boarder to the only salt lake in Minnesota to see some migrating shore birds. I was with a large group of birders. We didn't have a lot of opportunities to get close to the birds but this is what I got when we were out.

Lesser Yellowlegs


Vespers Sparrow


Thanks for looking,
Nate

 

[nzmacro]

Always look at these shots at the larger res, excellent Nate. I'm slowly learning more about what you have, thanks to here. Yellowlegs has so many nice markings in the feathers, beautiful details Nate. Nice comp and great exposure for that one. The little one on barbed wire is a great looking little one. Just love small birds this end and that's a really nice one. So a Vespers Sparrow, interesting to see and the wire gives the scale. Nice clean background.

All the best up there Nate, fine shooting.

Danny.

 

[EOV]

Born and raised in MN and didn't even know about this lake. Of course it is hard to keep track of all 10,000 plus of them. Thanks for sharing.

 

[nate_mcnasty]

Thanks for the kind words Danny! its surprising how many little brown birds there are! They're really hard for me to distinguish but the best way to tell a vespers sparrow from all the others is from the white V the tail feathers make when its flying away from you haha. this bird is really common in the northern half of the states in the summer.

here is an example of a vespers flying away.




Here is another common sparrow I grabbed a shot of yesterday.

Savannah Sparrow



The yellow on the face makes this one a little easier to distinguish from the others.

 

[nate_mcnasty]

Born and raised in MN and didn't even know about this lake. Of course it is hard to keep track of all 10,000 plus of them. Thanks for sharing.

I was unaware of this location as well! Its about one third as salty as the ocean. I was glad I could make the trip to see it!