Quintessential Singing Wren Shot

You well may get tired of wrens over the next few days and weeks. It only happens once a year, when I visit the Godwit Days spring migration festival in Arcata California…world capital of Marsh Wrens. There is a trail at Arcata Marsh Wildlife Center where, on a good day in April, the male Marsh Wrens compete from the cattail tops every 30 feet. Three way duels are common. And, since the trail runs right along the edge of the cattails, and the birds are perched, for the most part, against the blue of water behind, it makes for some spectacular opportunities.

Like this one. I only had to wait about 5 minutes for him to hop up on that cattail. I used full zoom and the 1.5x digital tel-converter function to fill the frame (1800mm equivalent field of view). In processing I cropped a bit from the left for composition.

Canon SX50HS at 1800mm equivalent as above. f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 125. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.

One Comment

  1. Reply
    Rachel April 28, 2013

    Super! What a little cutie. Great shot, very nice detail.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *