SHOREBIRDS, ENTERTAINING AND BEAUTIFUL

Black-necked Stilt, San Joaquin Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary, Irvine, California

While visiting wetlands and marshes in any part of the country I’m always excited to find and photograph different shorebirds. It’s not easy, often challenging, but always great fun to have them in the viewfinder of the camera. Both locations I visited last weekend, Bolsa Chica and as well San Joaquin March, have the same disadvantage as the beloved Green Island Wetlands here in the Upper Mississippi Valley have. The trails are mostly on dykes, elevated quite a bit above the water surface. This is very obvious in the first image I show you today. There was a flock of about 30 Black-necked Stilts in one of the ponds but access is only possible from high above on all four sides. However, this bird species is one of my favorites and zooming in as much as the lens allows helps a bit to make the beauty of this stilt stand out.

Willet, Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, Huntington Beach, California

Much easier work with this Willet in its non-breeding plumage during winter time. The bird foraged between the gravel with its long bill on top of the dyke in the Bolsa Chica Reserve. The Willet didn’t seem to have any fear and walked right up to me and my tripod and even underneath the lens. Not the most thrilling background but at least not distracting and showing how well the bird blends in even in a men-made environment. Many birds look better in their breeding plumage, some of them even spectacular, but as wildlife photographers we want to tell the story of the moment, even during times of less favorable appearance.

Short-billed Dowitcher, San Joaquin Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary, Irvine, California

The best place to get down to eye level with the birds was right in the parking lot at San Joaquin Marsh. Still about a foot above water level, but at my arrival a bunch of Short-billed Dowitchers foraged right in front of the rental car. They were probing with their long bills in the mud and between the rocks at the shore with high-speed. The power of the California sun helped to shoot with short exposure times, between 1/1000s and 1/2000s, and it was the gesture with the Dowitcher’s head tilted to the side that made me choose this photo for today’s blog post. Still more to come from last weekend, so please stay tuned my friends…

INGREDIENTS

Black-necked Stilt, Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve, California, 2017

Light, gesture, and color are still the main ingredients for a photo that may not even get more than just one second of attention span these days on social media. Ok, nothing new here, but if a picture doesn’t even have at least one of the above mentioned, it goes down the digital drain without any notice. A good photo hardly ever needs all three ingredients, one just can make the difference.

GOING BACK TO THE VAULT

Black-necked Stilt, Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, California

Live stood in the way for any new photography during the last few days. I like to keep my blog up to date in regards of the season, but if I can’t find the time to shoot new pictures I have no reason to panic. It doesn’t hurt to dig out some images from the vault that are a few weeks or even months old.

Back in April I was in one of my favorite locations to photograph birds, the Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve near Huntington Beach, California. By the way, a good photography friend of mine from Germany might be there in the next few days (Hi Maren!) and I wish her nothing but the best light for her time in this great location!

As I was about to call it a day, a pair of Black-necked Stilts did everything to attract my attention, just next to the parking lot. The wind from the Pacific swayed the bushes in front of the lens and almost all pictures I made have this green disturbance left and right. My favorite shot, the one you see above, was cropped to “portrait orientation” in post. This leaves all the green, left and right, out of the frame but I had to sacrifice a lot of pixels. So is this all bad? Not really, at least not for this photo in my blog today… 

NATURE CLICKS #371 - BLACK-NECKED STILT

Black-necked Stilt, San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary, Irvine, California ----------

Hard to believe that it was already a week ago when I visited the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary in Irvine, California. It was very exciting to see and watch many birds that we don’t see here in Iowa. One of them is the Black-necked Stilt, who feeds in salt and fresh water. I first saw them a few years ago in the Great Salt Lake, Utah, than last week again in the salty water of the Pacific Ocean at the Bolsa Chica laguna, and finally in the fresh water ponds at the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary. Their legs are extremely long in proportion to their body, only exceeded by flamingos. This stilt feeds on tadpoles, mollusks, aquatic insects, snails, flying insects, seeds, and even small fish (source: iBird Pro App).

The photo was made with the Sigma 1.4 tele extender attached to the Sigma 150-600 lens and camera was set to DX crop mode. This is the equivalent to an angle of view of a 1275 mm lens. This shows the bird a lot closer but handling this focal length, even on a tripod with gimbal head, is not an easy task. This combination is unforgiving when you make the slightest mistake while focussing on a moving subject. The Black-necked Stilt has some good contrast in its feathers and therefor it is a great shore bird to practice with a long lens.