All summer so far I have been trying to photo a Least Bittern. They pop up and fly off so fast and I am either so happy just to see it that I don't remember to photograph it or it is in such horrible light its not even worth the effort.  I went out for a 3 hour inspection of the marsh this morning and on my way back in on my Kayak this morning I decided to take one last look up this small gut that I usually find them in. As I paddled along, I looked up this very small gut and saw one at the waters edge as I glided by the small opening. When I was out of the bitterns sight, I put the Kayaks brakes on as hard as I could, which is me paddling backwards very hard. If it was asphalt I would have left black marks. I turn around and gave a few strong strokes so that as I would glide up to the mouth of the gut I would just drift by slowly to snap a few photos. It was a small opening and I was ready. So as I came up the wind blew stiff and it held me in front of the mouth of the gut and I snapped away. I was able to do this twice. I was blessed with so real nice shots. They aren't the quality of Bill Hubick's Least Bittern, but I am still very happy with what I got. Finally a Cecil Photo Lifer that I wanted more than most. Please e-mail me off line if you want to see the pic.

Other birds of interest.

Double-crested Cormorant 7
Wood Duck 14
Spotted Sandpiper 6
Pectoral Sandpiper 1
Western Sandpiper 3
Semi. Sandpiper 5
Least Sandpiper 30 plus
Least Tern 10 
Forsters Tern 12
Caspian Tern 2
Ring-billed Gull 8
Great Egret 1
Green Heron 1
Little-blue Heron 1
Great-blue Heron 15
Coopers Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Bald Eagle 3rd year 1
Osprey 2
Bank Swallow 20
Rough-winged Swallow 4
Tree swallow 100 plus
Barn Swallow 25
Eastern Kingbird 2
Marsh Wren 10
Warbling Vireo 1
Common Yellow-throat 15
Yellow-breasted Chat 1
Orchard Oriole 1
Bobolink fly over's 6
Swamp Sparrow 2

Sean McCandless
Cecil Bird Club President
Elkton, MD