Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Concord, Massachusetts

Yesterday afternoon I drove about an hour and fifteen minutes east to the town on Concord, which is where this intersting refuge is found. It was my first time at great meadows, and I was really impressed with the activity around and how cooperative many of the birds were. My goal for this trip was to capture images of the Marsh Wren, a small bird that can only be found in a few places in the state. Great Meadows NWR has an impressive number of breeding wrens which are much easier to hear than see. I lucked out on a section of the dike trail where one male would sing relatively up high and out in the open for a minute, then drop back down in the cattails. It would continue to do this, and I just sat in position for a while and shot when he popped up. I'm pretty pleased with the few first images I captured for this species.

Other than wrens, the red-winged blackbirds were everywhere and the most approachable I have ever photographed. Normally around my area I need to rely on a quick use of calls, but not for these birds. I was happy to add some better photos to my collection of this species.

There was also a Great Blue Heron hunting on and off the side of the trail, which also was extremely tame. The muskrats were also abundant and close, yet I could not get any quality photos of them.