Longwood Gardens
Chester, Pennsylvania
This morning I’m heading up for a great field trip. Heading just north of Amish country in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, my destination is Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area.
Middle Creek is renowned for the thousands of snow geese that migrate via the Atlantic Flyway and stay for several weeks refueling. Waiting for a strong stiff wind from the south to boost their final leg to the north, these snow geese fill the lake waters and skies.
The last count from February 28, 2013 were 50,000 snow geese along with Tundra Swans, a variety of ducks and all sorts of other little birdy goodies. This will truly be an experience of a life time. The 500mm is packed as well as lots of thermal wear as the temperatures and winds are brisk.
Hope you have a great Sunday and tune in tomorrow for an visit to Middle Creek with me. Bella
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This tree was captured along the entrance walkway at Longwood Gardens, and intrigued me with its unique structure. Appearing to be quite old, this tree greets all visitors to Longwood.
Edited in Color Efex Pro. Full detail extractor, B&W conversion high contrast. Lightroom edits: exposure +.49, clarity +22.
Canon 7d, 24-105mm f4.0 L. 1/60 sec at f/5.6 ISO 100, Cloudy white balance.
Categories: Foot Prints, Nature, travel
Emily Carter ~ Nature as Art 
Have a great time… can’t wait to see the pics!!
Thanks Sally ! Cherry blossoms are around the corner. Interested in shooting them?
Yes, that would be fun.. where would be a good place to meet?
I’m hoping to make it down there twice. Morning for dawn and afternoon for sunset. When we get closer we can figure out what day is best for weather.
Tidal basin / Haynes Point
OKay, I’m in.. where do you usually park? And How do you get there?
I’ve parked at Haynes Point and it’s a short walk in to the Tidal basin. For the morning shots, I park along the Potomac river across the basin from the Jefferson memorial.
The tree is almost scary! I hope that you take lenses other than your 500 mm, I’m tempted to tell you the story of my dad, his homemade adapter to mount a spotting scope to his camera, and mountain sheep so tame that they would almost let us pet them. 😉
Oh Mountain Sheep that are docile. Oh do tell! Depending on the field trip, I do take different lenses. This was a Macro 100mm L and the 24-105mm L trip. the 500MM is strictly for wildlife and birds.
It was a trip to the Canadian Rockies. We decided to hike one of the trails up a smaller mountain. Everything my dad had heard about mountain goats and sheep was that they were very shy, and hard to photograph because no one ever saw them close up. To save wait while climbing the mountain, my dad took his camera and spotting scope rig. When we reached the top of the mountain, the sheep all gathered around us, apparently, people often feed them. So, there’s my dad with his spotting scope rig on his camera, and all the sheep were too close for him to photograph with that set up, so he never got a single photo of a sheep that day. Luckily, we ran into other herds on that trip.
Yeah maybe the tree looks scary but at the good way – very well captured… 🙂
Thanks Drake ! It is such an old tree that could tell some stories.
Wonderful image. We are just heading into spring, thank God, and you are heading back into winter!! Take care out there. xx
Winter just won’t leave Corinne. Now they’re calling for a big snow storm this Wednesday. Time to batten down the hatches. Can’t wait for spring.
Can’t wait to see your photography from this trip – what a great outing.
Thank you so much Mary.
Black and white. Beautiful. I was just talking to my sister I want to know how I can utilize the hand me down camera and take a picture in B&W. I’m really tecky challenged on this gadget. Looking forward to see the geese. I just heard the geese having a fly by.
What kind of camera did you get? I bet you will have great fun with it.
Medusa tree. I am envious of your birding trip. I was fortunate enough a couple of years ago (primarily due to the heavy snow melt and being in the right place at the right time!) to see an estimated 100,000+ snow geese in flight near Long Lake NWR. I got a couple of shots but it was so dense with geese that it somehow didn’t look real.
Medusa Tree. Is that the official name? Don’t know why I didn’t get the name of the tree when I saw it. It is true, photographing so many snow geese is difficult. I bet you loved seeing them in Long Lake NWR. Can you imagine how many geese there are on this continent?
Lovely, seems almost like a charcoal etching! Look forward to some amazing bird shots 🙂
So happy you enjoyed this Madhu. Thank you!
I have gotten more into bird migration this year. I am on the Pacific Coast flyway and have come to really appreacte tboth the process and the amazing creatures that make this trek .
Your black and white photo is very enjoyable thank you for sharing the phot and your information.
I would love to hear more about what kinds of birds you see on the west coast. I bet you get all sorts of fun things over there that we don’t see on the eastern seaboard.
Terrific image Emily. I have not been to Longwood Gardens since high school which was a couple years ago. 😛 😀
Hope you have a great time at the WMA.
Hi Phil ! yes, I’m sure it was just 2000 when you graduated from Longwood gardens. 😉
Took hubby with me today, so felt a bit rushed, but I got lucky and watched three flushed of the geese. It was amazing! Met some Chinese photojournalists who live in New York, but publish in China.
Love the tree shot! Love the Amish region! Can’t wait to see your pictures 🙂
Well, we flew through Amish country and ended up at the Wildlife Management Area. So no Amish this time. 🙂
LOVE this…! So beautiful. Always a survivor. 🙂
It really is an amazing tree isn’t it?
It’s just GORGEOUS!!