I'm not a morning person

[Clovishound]

Decided to take advantage of the expanded hours for members they run twice a month at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens this morning. It's just after 5:30 in the morning and I have worked the evening shift most of my life, so this isn't what I'm used to doing this time of day. Anyway, I'll take a shower and dig out the long johns I have somewhere. It's currently 28 degrees which is unusual for our area. I need to leave the house soon to get there as the sun comes up and hopefully get some decent bird pictures at the old rice field.

 

[Marilynne]

Good luck!

 

[BF Hammer]

Make the effort worth it! Night owls miss out on half of the daily golden hours.

 

[Clovishound]

Well, I really enjoyed the outing. Really glad I had a glove in my jacket pocket. My shooting hand got numb even with the glove on. I'm not sure I got any really good shots, although I got a bunch of decent ones. There were a pair of eagles there, I got some long shots. I also got a couple of them mating, although the distance and lighting were less than ideal. I got a little carried away with exposure compensation, as many of the birds were bright white, and I exposed for the bird, which made the background somewhat difficult to deal with. I'm only about halfway through a quick editing, starting to get a little burned out. Thought I might post a few. Will post some other later.

There were a handful of spoonbills. They were just resting when I first got there, but started moving around and feeding after a while.

This was the female either looking where the male went, or maybe hoping he wouldn't come back.

Tried my hand at a reflection photo of this heron.

And more spoonbills.

 

[Bikerbrent_RIP]

Nice early morning photos Clovishound. Getting up this early can be a real bummer. I really like the eagle photo.