After weeks of excessive humidity and heat, the weather finally broke and puffy white clouds in bright blue skies was a welcomed change. The day has been so beautiful, there was no question that I should get out and visit Fort Smallwood Park in Pasadena, Maryland.

Even though I live only 10 minutes away from the park, it was the Anne Arundel County Bird Club that introduced me to the park in March during their annual Hawk Watch field trip. Fort Smallwood is situated on the Patapsco River and was built to protect the entrance to Baltimore Harbor. This Battery Hartshorne was built in 1899 to house long-range firing breech-loading artillery, one of three artillery stations built along the Patapsco River during that time period. (source: http://www.chesapeakeboating.net/Media/Feature-Stories/Forgotten-Fortresses.aspx“).

This visit was intended for me to practice more with my new Canon 100-400mm IS L USM lens and Canon 7D. With this heavy set-up, my first outings with this lens proved that I really move when taking my photos. Hoping to build the strength and ability to actually hold the camera and lens steady was my objective today.

Also, I wanted to practice birding as there is definitely a certain level of skill in seeing bird silhouettes and trying to figure out what they are. Migration season has begun and many birds find the Chesapeake Bay an ideal stopping point on their flights southbound.

Fort Smallwood park is a popular place for families, fishermen and water lovers with a long waterfront along the Patapsco River. The small beaches provide an excellent place to kayak or paddleboard. I loved the Chihuahua in the kayak with his mom. He even had a little life vest on!

Fishermen tried their best to catch fish while huge freighters passed by out in the bay.

Beautiful star white flower caught my attention as well.

Ummm….but didn’t I mention that this was supposed to be a birding/photography trip? The wetlands were strangely quiet of bird songs, but I did manage to catch this Great Blue Heron, as well as turtles snoozing in the sun.

I kept walking around the wetlands in hopes of finding some birds. Coming back towards the picnic area, I found some ! Oh…they’re pigeons…that’s okay though. They’re still a bird and I can still practice getting focus on my bird shots.

Also, this mockingbird was a great model for me as well.

Things are starting to look half-way decent! From many other birding photographers, I’ve been advised to select Aperture Priority, have an ISO that will support a fast shutter speed and let the camera decide what to do. This is counter intuitive to me as I always thought it would be better to use shutter priority. But I have to agree that this suggestion works well. With more practice though, I would rather go to Manual and keep a steady set of settings for my bird shots. Although that may prove to be challenging as you move from woods to sunlight areas rather quickly.

The scenery along the way was stunning with the bright blue skies, and I managed to catch this fabulous antique car with its driver out on a Sunday’s ride.

All in all, I’m really happy how these photographs came out. I’ll keep practicing with the 100-400mm “Beast” and I know that practice will make it perfect ! Have a great week!