Last Sunday morning I spent another magical morning at the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge. I was in the area for the Springtime Made in the South show, and since the show didn’t open until 11 on Sunday morning – I had time to head out for sunrise.

I’m really glad I went out to the refuge, the sunrise was spectacular. There was a lot of fog and mist in the marsh, and some clouds in the sky. All of these combined to create wonderful colors and patterns in the marsh.

I spent the time before the sun rose, and just after it crossed the horizon photographing some of the marsh grasses near the entrance to the refuge. The colors were incredible lots of soft pinks and purples that turned to orange once the sun rose. Here are a couple of my photos of the marsh grasses.

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

Since the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge is known for the quantity and variety of bird that winter at the refuge, I did take a few photos of the cormorants near the entrance. Here’s what I saw when I first arrived at the refuge – a tree with many cormorants in the branches. As the sunrise progressed, most of the birds woke up and flew off into the marsh.

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

After most of the birds flew off, I noticed a couple of birds were still perched on the branch at the far right of the photo. In the distance, I could see the silhouettes of some of the trees with the wonderful draping of the spanish moss. From where I was standing, it looked the birds were admiring the wonderful colors of the sunrise. I just had to take a photo of the birds enjoying the sunrise.

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

Once the sun was up, I headed further into the refuge. I was hoping to photograph more of the Spanish Moss in the filtered light that I had seen earlier in the week. But along the way, I spotted some cattails in some wonderful golden light that I just had to stop and photograph.  At this time of year, the heads of the cattails are full of fluffy seeds. The sunlight seemed to create halos around the cattails.

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

(c) 2010 Patty Hankins

I wasn’t the only photographer from the show out photographing in the marsh that morning. Dan Williams was also photographing at Savannah NWR. His The Magic of Light post describes his experiences at the marsh. Be sure to double click on Dan’s photos in the post to see the larger versions of the photos.