Bolsa Chica Conservancy 

  

click photo to enlarge		 Over the years the reasons for some of our little outings have changed. Sometimes they are all about taking pictures. Well, this was on of those outings just to shoot pictures of birds. What a great place Bolsa Chica Conservancy turned out to be for that. My cubicle neighbor lent me a zoom lens to use and the results are stunning and I bought myself the same lens. This guy is saying don't come any closer pal because I am comfortable and don't want to have to fly away.

click photo to enlarge		 Look closely at this guy. He is coming in for a landing and as he lowers his body and changes the angle he is getting wind turbulence on his back and it is ruffling his feathers.

click photo to enlarge		 If you look closely at his wing farthest from you you can see that there is a shadow between the 2 layers of feathers because he has lowered the second level of feathers in order to bank and turn. Shooting a bird in motion like this takes a certain level of skill. You have to pan along with the bird at the same speed he is flying. If you are off just a hair the bird will be slightly blurry. After I got home and saw the results I was hooked. Yeah I had quite a few that were blurry but I had some that were pretty good.

click photo to enlarge		 This Kestrel let me get in pretty close before he took off. It was very surprising to see just how large his wing span was.

click photo to enlarge 		This fellow was dining along the shore. As the tide goes out of Bolsa Chica many kinds of aquatic life get stranded and become dinner for the birds. Bolsa Chica is right along the Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach. I'll be back to do this again.