Just standing and waiting around paid off a few times the other day. Mid morning there was a lot of moving around. Nothing dramatic, but scenes like this of life in a marsh.
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Herons are big, Wood Storks are bigger. Plus he was out numbered here. Still, as with all these birds, there was no hesitation about dropping in.
As the birds have been flocking together more lately I have gone back to carrying a monopod. This allows me to shoot longer with a big lens and keep the f stops wider. However… close in flight shots are rarely good when I have one attached, it just gets in the way.
I’m not sure exactly where I was positioned when this bird came by. However, standing on a dike between flocks gives me the best vantage point when they move to join another group.
The distance was great, he filled my view finder but no cropping of wing tips.
The temperatures in the morning are dropping now so soon these birds will shift a little south. In the winter this marsh might get a frost. I don’t think they are big on that.
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And once again… dropping in from the sky and crashing right in the middle of all the others.
This is so common I time my shots when I see it coming.
I guess it’s proper marsh etiquette since no one gets too upset.
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I had put aside photographs of large flocks in the marshes. They are hard to size, finish correctly, and in general a difficult composition for me.
So I cropped the images in a wider, non standard format and I think it worked. The presentation is better. It’s a treasure to capture this many wild birds at one time, just hard to focus on one subject.
Each of these would require rather large custom frames to hang. We have some and they look great. However, most people want standard formats.
On line , all you need do is click to view full screen.
It still amazes us when we come upon flocks like these.
Sometimes you just take the shot. No clue who was more goofy.
The Alligators watched this flock and just couldn’t help but float along to join them. They were too big, and too many, to go unnoticed. Even I saw them moving and tried to walk down a dike to get a better angle.
The birds kept their distance. In fairness it was a half hearted attempt anyway.
