They call the festival “Godwit Days”, and when the migrating Godwits are in the bay on the mud flats in their 300,000s, it certainly justifies the name, but Arcata California in the spring will, for me, forever be about the Marsh Wren. I know of no where with a similar abundance of wrens. On a good day, there is a singing male every 30 feet or so along the cattail shore of many of the ponds at Arcata Marsh Nature Center at the edge of town. This year they seem to be past establishing territory. Most of the males I saw were collecting nest materials, and only taking a few moments out to sing over their work. That still gave me several opportunities to shoot the singing males on reed tops or sharp folds in last year’s leaves.

On a good day, the spring light in Arcata is also just right for wrens…with just enough warmth to bring out the rich hues of the plumage.

Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. 3 of the 4 with 2x digital extender for 1200mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred. 1/800th @ ISO 400 @ f7.1. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet. Assembled in Pixlar Express.