Crops & Clips: Early birds

We usually get out  on the Wounded Wetlands early, about a half hour before sunrise. The walk to the lake over the gravel road takes about 15 minutes for Mary Lou, while I lag behind.  It is too dark for photography, so I bird by ear. On December 3 the full SuperMoon was descending as we started.

The evening before, our granddaughter in Illinois texted me a photo she had just taken with her mother's phone, showing the SuperMoon rising over the schoolyard:



I had forgotten about this unusually large Moon, and ran outside to see it ascending over our back yard:



The next morning the sky was crystal clear and I wanted to catch a photo as it set behind the lake in the wetlands, but it already looked much too low, ready to disappear into the trees:



There seemed to be insufficient time for me to get up to the lake before the moon set, so I tried to shoot between the trees for a clear image. It looked truly huge:



Suddenly Mary Lou phoned me from far ahead, "Where are you? The moon is ready to disappear into the lake!" I then hurried along and arrived just in time to obtain one photo before the moon sunk below the horizon:



As poor as this shot is, it does convey an idea of the Moon's super size. The next morning we got out extra early in hopes of making up for my faux pas, thinking the Moon would set a few minutes later. I should have checked the Moon-set Calendar. Whereas it had set at 6:36 AM on December 3, the next morning it set into a cloudy blue sky almost an hour later, at 7:43 AM. Well, I learned a lesson in astronomy!

Here are the results of my quest for the "perfect" Moon-set, taken at 6:52 AM, just after sunrise:



The sun warmed my back as I stood there on the peninsula and watched the Moon disappear into the blue sky and cloud layers, at 7:29 AM:



While I was waiting a Great Egret circled, croaking loudly, seeming to resent my spending so much time in its usual foraging space:





A Little Blue Heron reflected on my presence:



At the rookery, there were no herons in sight, but a female Anhinga was sleeping soundly only about ten feet from the near side of the canal:



As I walked by I shuffled my feet to rouse it before I got any nearer, but it did not awake until I made a soft "shish" sound. It was too big to fit into my camera's viewfinder until it contorted into more compact pose, back-lit by the morning sun:



On the way back home, a White-eyed Vireo seemed to be chiding me:





A Loggerhead Shrike suddenly flew down from a roadside tree and plucked an elongated creature from the ground almost at my feet. I'm not sure whether it was a large insect or a small reptile:



Back at the house, a pair of Egyptian Geese swam past a neighbor's fence:




= = =  = = =  = = = =  = = = = =

Linking to Misty's  CAMERA CRITTERS,

Linking to Eileen's SATURDAY'S CRITTERS,

Linking to FENCES AROUND THE WORLD by Gosia

Linking to SKYWATCH FRIDAY by Yogi, Sylvia and Sandy

Linking to WEEKEND REFLECTIONS by James

Linking to BirdD'Pot by Anni

Linking to Wild Bird Wednesday by Stewart

Linking to Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) by NC Sue

Linking to ALL SEASONS by Jesh

________________________________________________

Please visit the links to all these memes to see some excellent photos on display

________________________________________________