Sweetwater Wetlands, Part 2

On Friday November 20th, I returned to the Wetlands again, this time bringing my wife and master bird spotter. The following images were captured that morning. Again, we did the best we could to identify what we saw and photographed, but no guarantees! 

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A Vireo and a Phoebe

Above, a Cassin's Vireo, with a little bit of yellow in the breast,  and to the right a Black Phoebe. The Phoebe was a challenge photographically, with the morning light hitting his/her back, leaving the presenting side in shadow, and black on top of that. Processing for both images done in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. 

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Green Heron

Above, a Green Heron, sitting on a snag at the edge of the water. One of the better shots with a reasonably clean background. The vegetation is a mixed blessing. When out of focus it can create rich backgrounds, but when close to the subject it creates visual distractions, and gives the autofocus in my Canon/Sigma rig fits. During the morning I resorted to manual focus several times, with mixed results.

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Great Egret in flight

This Egret arrived, as usual, unannounced, a passing player on the stage. I caught 19 frames on the fly, these two are reasonably sharp, and have the advantage of the Catalina range to the northeast in the background. 

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Cooper's Hawk

As we were approaching the parking lot, we spotted this bird sitting on a high branch. In an earlier posting I suggested that this is either a juvenile  Cooper's Hawk, or a Prairie Falcon. In retrospect I think it is a Cooper's Hawk.

Reference: Birds of Southeastern Arizona, by Richard Cachor Taylor. R.W. Morse Company, Olympia, Washington, 2010, pp. 85 & 103.