Delaware Valley Wildlife Photography - The Birds we saw at Marsh Creek State Park
Today, @cmp2020 and I took a short trip to Marsh Creek State Park in Upper Uwchlan, PA, and we took a short walk on the park's "Red Trail". The weather has been fairly cold for most of the last months, but today it was very warm. And this led to quite a contrast at the lake.
First of all, there were many more people there than I had expected. I figured we'd be there by ourselves, but we probably saw 50 people or more in different areas of the park.
Second, despite the warm weather, the lake remains frozen (I didn't expect that, though I probably should have), and out on the lake there were a couple of guys ice fishing. Meanwhile, maybe a mile away from the warmly dressed ice fishermen, a shirtless guy was taking advantage of the 60 degree weather, by sunbathing in a grassy field.
You might actually remember Marsh Creek from August of 2016, when @cmp2020 posted this video. Many of the photos in that video were taken at Marsh Creek - in August. Today's photos show the same park 10 years later, but in winter time (obviously ;-).
Because of the frozen lake, I figured we were gonna get "skunked" on wildlife photos, but I was wrong. We eventually managed to get a few of them. (I also missed several others 'cause the birds moved too d*mned fast.)
According to multiple AIs, we managed to capture photos of a Red Tailed Hawk or Red Shouldered Hawk in flight, and a Great Blue Heron standing on the ice near the ice fishermen... probably hoping for handouts from the bait bucket, I guess.
Personally, I only got one photo of the Red-Tailed Hawk, so here it is - before and after AI enhancement.
(306 mm focal length / roughly 6x magnification. Based on the focal length and bird size, Gemini estimates that the bird was 115-150 feet away.)
Before enhancement
After enhancement
And here are the photos I captured of the Great Blue Heron. Only the last one was enhanced by AI.
(135mm focal length / 2.7x magnification; 235mm focal length / 4.7x magnification. Based on focal length and bird size, Gemini estimates that the bird was 75-90 feet away.)
Before enhancement
After enhancement
All photos were taken with a Nikon P1000 camera, and image enhancement was done by Google Gemini.