[SBB] A ducky morning at Shoreline

[Mark Bohrer <[[email protected]]>]

Sunrise light is soft and warm - it makes great pictures.
Now that you've found this great light, look for something
to put in it, then find a good background.

I went looking for sunrise subjects at Shoreline Park
Friday morning. It's winter home for grebes, teal, and other
ducks. You'll also see white-tailed kites, egrets and sparrows.

But photographers have to be inventive. The best backgrounds
for ducks have been trashed while the City of Mountain View
finishes repairing the pipes feeding Shoreline Lake.

A male Anna's hummingbird patrolled his usual spot inland
from the island off the northwest boundary that terns and
skimmers will roost on this summer. But the hummer was
sick of the photographer, and flew off to patrol somewhere else.
Avocets, stilts and other sandpipers cooperated around
the island (rafts of northern shoveler couples in the background):
http://tinyurl.com/dl72c

Cinnamon teals took their ease a little farther west:
http://tinyurl.com/dy53y

Everybody was a little too far away for good closeups and
I don't walk on water, so I headed for the 'grandstand'
at the border with Palo Alto Baylands. I was interrupted
before I got there. A sage sparrow sang his heart out from
the brush along the trail, and I stopped to listen:
http://tinyurl.com/8kjw8

A young white-crowned sparrow decided I was OK, and
checked for predators over his shoulder:
http://tinyurl.com/eyaka

And another white-crowned sparrow relaxed and enjoyed
a nice morning: http://tinyurl.com/bek55

A little further down the trail, a young golden-crowned
sparrow played peek-a-boo with me: http://tinyurl.com/au9eo

Finally I reached the viewpoint below the 'grandstand'.
The cinnamon teals and pied-billed grebes were resting:
http://tinyurl.com/9ohkh (teals),  http://tinyurl.com/ckbwc (grebes)
I had to move a bit to shift an empty 10W-30 oil container out
of the teal picture.

The light had gone to hell - harsh and contrasty. It was time
to go. But I'm always on the lookout for targets of opportunity.
This time, it was a white-tailed kite.
He was, what else, kiting: http://tinyurl.com/db2aj

All comments welcome.


Mark Bohrer
Mountain and Desert Photography
www.mountain-and-desert.com

Want better wildlife photos without expensive lenses?
Check out my Stealth Approach to Wildlife eBook at
www.mountain-and-desert.com/M&D_Seminars.htm  


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