Those of you who read my blog from time to time know that I’ve occasionally had some rather remarkable days as far as birding photography is concerned. Thursday, Mar 15 (the Ides of March) was one of them!
We somehow managed a very abrupt change in the weather on Thursday about midday. The sun came out and the temperature warmed to almost 50-degrees. The downside of this was that the wind was blowing all day, so hard in fact that I didn’t take my morning walk for fear of entering the forest under such circumstances.
I ran some errands over in Burlington and, as is usually my habit, I drove by the Cap Sante Marina on the way home to see what might be there. I almost missed about 30-40 Dunlin that were scattered over the mud flats instead of at water’s edge. They can be difficult to pick out against the reflection of the light on the wet mud and among the rocks that litter the beach. I decided that the conditions were good for photography so I rushed home, grabbed my camera and returned to the marina.
I’m getting too old for this, but I eased myself over the sidewalk railing and inserted myself among the rocks lining the northwest corner of the marina while the Dulin were a couple of hundred feet away across a small drainage ditch. I was mentally prepared for a long wait, but the strong wind blowing and my position among the rocks taxed my physical resolve.
I had barely gotten settled when something spooked the Dunlin and they made several quick circles around the area and landed about 30-40 feet directly in front of me! The lighting conditions were almost perfect and I began taking photos… scores of them! The Dunlin wandered the entire beach, at times coming so close to me that my camera wouldn’t focus on them!
While the drama with the Dunlin played out a group of three Red-breasted mergansers landed in the water out in front of me but the wind was really blowing hard and I was disappointed when they went with the wind and disappeared around the north side of the docks. Later a single merganser came floating by with the wind but it too was too far away for effective photos. But later I saw it or another one round the north side of the docks and paddle right along the shoreline where I was ensconced. I began taking a few photos when it was in range and then, in another fortuitous moment, it waddled up on the beach right in front of me and began preening! What had I done to deserve this?
But the show wasn’t quite over… a few of the crows that were in the area wandered through and I obtained full-frame photos of them, in the sun, sitting on the rocks. I even obtained photos of one of the crows calling and you can see the red of the inside of its mouth!
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