After being cooped up for a while I took advantage of a small break in my schedule to fit in a quick practise session photographing birds-in-flight at our local harbour.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.

As I pulled into the parking lot at the harbour I immediately saw that the ice had melted significantly. I knew this likely meant that the majority of the birds had moved on.

Sure enough, all I found were a couple of dozen Canada geese, a handful of ducks and a few gulls. Determined to make the best of what Mother Nature offered, I grabbed my camera and headed off to the shoreline.

After a small group of ducks landed there wasn’t much airborne other than some gulls, so I concentrated on them.

The wind picked up noticeably as a cold front was moving in today… so much for the ‘balmy’ weather we’ve had for the past few days!

The strong wind gusts made the flight paths of the gulls a bit more erratic than usual which was a positive addition to my short practise session.

After capturing a number of pretty standard image runs of the gulls flying past, I focused my efforts on capturing more dramatic wing positions.

Even though I didn’t have that many photographic opportunities during my 40 minutes at the harbour, it was still a great experience to get out with my gear in the fresh air.

There’s something about photographing nature that is life affirming. It reminds us that regardless of the challenges faced, life finds a way of moving forward.

I saw my first egret this afternoon when I was out with my wife. Unfortunately I didn’t have my birding kit with me as we were photographing some local architecture. Still, it was great to see an early arrival. Hopefully that bodes well for the spring birding season.

Technical Note

Photographs were captured hand-held using camera gear as noted in the EXIF data. Images were produced from RAW files using my standard process. Cropping is noted where applicable with each image.

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