Joel Dinda's photos with the keyword: state game area

Long experience says I'm horrible at identifying pipers--even with the bird in front of me and a book in hand. Somebody help! (Thanks.) I was (also) a horrible photographer at Maple River State Game Area. A good share of the problem was actually the birds--except for this fellow, the only birds we got close to were swallows--but another issue was the photographer. I was overexposing egrets, getting the focus wrong on shorebirds, and having autofocus issues trying to photograph the rare heron or sandhill that flew half-way near us. So my absolute best shots were slightly-out-of-focus herons on the far shores of the ponds. Enjoyed the walk, though.

Again. (I have more.)

Another Maple River photo.

Another photo from the Maple River State Game Area, north of St. Johns, but taken a year and a half ago

One last photo from our walk at the Maple River State Game Area. St. Johns, Michigan.

From our recent visit to Maple River State Game Area.

Just because.

Another photo from Saturday's walk at Maple River.

This is Unit B, looking west from from the viewing platform.

What with yesterday's excellent weather, we made our way to Maple River State Game Area and wandered around on the levies. We went mostly to walk, but it's a bird watcher's paradise. Yesterday we saw: * Paired-off Canada geese, nesting. Hundreds of 'em. * Hundreds of ducks. Lots of variety. * A few gulls. * Some swans, possibly tundra swans, in the distance. Joan was hoping for more, and closer. * What was likely a golden eagle, but too distant to be certain. * The usual small birds. Mostly starlings this time. We also heard lots of frogs, which was fun. I didn't bring my DSLR, as we were out mainly for exercise, and the still-brown foliage and flat terrain makes for dull pocket-cam photography. But this family brought serious gear, and presumably got some fine views (& photos) of the geese.

There's a heron wading on the far edge of the pond. (There generally are. That's one of the reasons we visit.) I was fighting the camera's autofocus the entire walk. This shot came out all right. Mostly the others didn't.

Another photo from our recent visit to the Maple River State Game Area. As I've said, most of the birds near the paths were sandpipers. But there were water birds where there was water, and my long lens was able to get some photographs.... Near dead center in this photograph is some other bird. Anyone want to ID it for me?

Another photo from our wander around the Maple River State Game Area, north of St. Johns. Where we expected water we found mud flats. Where we expected Ducks & Geese & Cranes & Herons we found Pipers. A fine afternoon.

Never used to see Cormorants much of anywhere. Despite the caption I wrote for the Sandpipers pic, we did see other birds at Maple River. But few were close by....

Another pic from Sunday's excursion to the Maple River State Game Area. Once again the ISO's too high, but it's less obtrusive. Just wanted to mention that our feet got wet; there are several places where the water's overflowed the levees.

At Maple River State Game Area, north of St Johns, Michigan. This is not as sharp as I'd hoped--I had the ISO set too high--but at the smaller sizes the photo looks fine.