4 THE AUDUBON BULL Baga 
At four o’clock, with visibility getting poor, a lesser yellowlegs 
stations himself fairly near the blind and we take our first picture. 
Tired but not wholly discouraged we leave the blind and get our first 
breath of fresh air and hear again the kildee chorus. 
That we never know what to expect in this world is especially evident 
in bird photography. The yellowlegs are generally considered to be less 
difficult to photograph than the Wilson’s snipe. Our experience proved 
contrary. The day following our encounter with the yellowlegs we 
moved the blind to a point near the center of the swamp. We entered 
and even before the voice of the killdeer had been stilled a pair of 
Wilson’s snipe flew from their hiding place in the tall grass and settled 
down just where we wanted them. 
This was exciting. In their search for food the birds were hurrying 
about but their general direction was toward our loaded camera. To 
the birds those few minutes meant merely a dinner, but to us they were 
high lights in our lives. One of the two birds was selected and the 
camera was aimed. We had been so silent during those few minutes 
that the birds and we were equally startled by the slight sound of the 
camera’s action. The longer the birds remained, however, and the more 
pictures we took the less timid they were. Their probing search for food 
carried them around three sides of the blind so that the camera had to 
be moved occasionally. At one time one was so near that he was under 
the focusing range of the camera, and we had to make considerable noise 
to drive him far enough away to take additional pictures. 
Before leaving the swamp we moved the blind to a location in which 
we expected to photograph Virginia, sora and king rails as they ran 
hurriedly to and fro from the dense concealment of the weeds to procure 
their delicious crustacean dinner. It was three or four days before we 
were able to return to the swamp to carry out these intentions and we 
were astonished to find a dry bit of lowland with grass already sprouting 
and, of course, no birds! Mother Nature had changed her mind. Of our 
disappointment I offer no description. 

