Pinkney!

(November 28th) After filling up on the Thanksgiving dishes that I'm so fond of, I woke up early to head to Pinkney NWR. I know the refuge fairly well, having been to it a dozen or so times. It's fairly large and all access is by foot, so it was good to head in early. The refuge occupies the bulk of an island with salt marsh and oyster flats around the perimeter and oak woods and freshwater ponds in the interior. Most of the action was around the freshwater ponds today. The sun hadn't been up more than half an hour when clouds rushed in. It was densely overcast the rest of the time. As I found out, the overcast conditions made for perfect shooting the Common Moorhens I watched for some time. Here is one of the adults.

This Eastern Phoebe didn't seem to mind the overcast morning. It also was pretty nonchalant about my presence.

After an enormous alligator and a mockingbird, I ran into a flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers. The kept darting around the trees a couple of yards away from me. They'd alight for a few seconds, take a look at me, and then hop off to another branch. I was able to snag loads of images, like this one of a juvenile.