Here's my entry for this week's Show Me A Photo contest in the Feathered Friends community - the theme is WINGS.
I'm glad for this prompt because it nudged me to finally spend some time processing photos I took last December. My wife and I took a short vacation to a tiny cabin to get a break from our kids after months without a moment of quiet in pandemic isolation with them. While she read books and took naps, I did a couple of long hikes with my camera.
On the second day I went to a nature center along a lake. There were some cardinals, sparrows and chickadees in the woods as usual, but when I made it down to the lake I was rewarded with something I don't ever see at home - a large flock of seagulls and a large flock of cormorants were both taking advantage of the peaceful water.
This presented some challenges for me as a photographer; I'm still roughly a beginner at this, and I haven't shot a lot of birds on water. The trail wound around a small peninsula jutting into the lake, and the winter afternoon lighting was very difficult on one side of it. Still, I had a great time watching this huge assembly of birds and I think I got a few good snaps out of the trip.
This first shot is my contest entry - the way the cormorants took flight from the water was greatly entertaining, and this was my best attempt at capturing the noise and chaos of a group taking off all at once.
Now just for fun, here are a few more photos from that weekend:
I'm pretty pleased with this one aesthetically, but it also gives a hint of just how many birds were out there. It was impossible for me to get a good shot showing the full scale of the situation.
This is the best shot I got of an individual gull. Not great but it was good practice trying to catch them up in the air!
Just some cormorants enjoying the sunny afternoon.
After all, who doesn't love just sitting on a log with their buddies?
A belted kingfisher on the hunt.
I followed this heron nearly a mile around the shore of this lake, but not on purpose -- he just kept going the same way the trail led me!
Wow, thanks for sharing all these photos, along with sharing their identifications! The more time I spend in nature, the more I realize I have a lot of neighbors I don't really know at all!
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Lovely to see all these birds. The flock of cormorants in the water is such a delightful view.
Wow you captured that kingfisher nicely. I see/hear them flying around here but have never been able to get near one perching like that.
Thank you! I didn't get very close to it either - I just have a long lens that I'm slowly getting better at focusing and holding steady.
Was you trick to just sit in one spot by the water and wait for all the birds to kind of show up around you?
Well, all of these were taken along hiking trails. I generally walk a bit, and if a spot looks promising, stop to look around and listen for a while. Or with the kingfisher, for example, I was watching the edge of the water as I walked, and I saw it in flight so I stopped to find it and watched until it perched in a decent spot.
I'll try and employ that tactic, sadly the rivers I see them at don't have a good walking edge next to them. Might have to break down and get some flyfisherman pants to wade in the river along the edge.
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