A Birthday Bounty Of Bear River Birds

Wednesday of this past week was my “medicare birthday”.  I’m sure older readers will understand why my psyche needed some bolstering and I felt justified in burning up some extra gas and putting even more miles on my pickup for a trip to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge to help take my mind off of my advancing age.  It was worth the trip!  While I didn’t get any truly spectacular shots it was a wonderful morning with excellent weather and light, lots of cooperative birds and great company – thanks to Mia.  The only downside was that I had 35 gigs of images to cull when I got home…

A couple of notes about my techs:  a), regular readers are probably aware that I nearly always shoot with the 1.4 tc attached to my 500 mm.  On this morning I got so close to many of the birds that almost half of the images I’ve posted here were taken without the tc and b), many of these images were taken with a very high shutter speed which is typical for me since I’m usually set up for action shots after firing off a few times on more traditional poses.

All photos are presented in the order they were taken.

 1/1250, f/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc

On the road to the refuge we came across a pair of Short-eared Owls cavorting in the air right after the sun came up.  One of the owls was “sky dancing” but by the time I got the pickup turned around for a better light angle we missed that performance.  One of the birds vamoosed immediately but the other owl gave us a couple of flybys and I got a few shots in the low and directional light.

 

 

 1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc

 A few minutes later this Great Blue Heron came by reasonably close and I couldn’t resist firing off a few shots even though it was slightly past me by the time I locked on.

 

 

 1/4000, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4

The ubiquitous American Avocet at Bear River – a species that I prefer to shoot in the very early morning for the better chance at getting a good exposure on the blacks and whites.

 

 

 1/5000, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4

At one small pond we found three species gorging themselves on fish – Snowy Egrets, Forster’s Terns and a single Great Egret.  I’m always surprised by the dramatic size difference between Snowy Egrets and Great Egrets and I thought this shot illustrated that fact pretty well.  By weight the Great Egret is about 2 1/2 times larger than the Snowy Egret.

 

 

 13200, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4

The Great Egret almost flew off as we approached but I did so extra slowly and in the end it decided that we weren’t a threat.  If we’d been on foot we’d have never have been able to get this close – one of the several advantages of shooting from a vehicle.  This bird seemed to be able to snag fish at will and caught several of them while we watched.  I don’t get many chances at this species so this one was a treat for me.

 

 

 1/3200, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4

Soon after we arrived at the pond a couple of Forster’s Terns decided to share in the fish bounty and they worked the pond for quite a while.  Though I spent most of my time shooting the Great Egret I did get a few shots of the terns with wing positions that I liked.

 

 

 1/3200, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4

 I find it to be incredibly difficult to get light in the eye of terns, especially in flight.  Which means that I end up deleting most of my shots of them but I liked this one for the dynamic flight posture combined with a good catch light.

 

 

 1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc

Bear River is well-known for its swallows – thousands of them of several species.   It’s somewhat difficult getting them in a natural setting because they’re usually perched on man-made structures like bridges and pavilions.  So you can either try to get them in flight (truly a lesson in frustration) or look for them perched in the vegetation as you cross one of the smaller bridges on the loop road.  The problem there is that the background is often very busy but at least it’s a natural setting.

 

 

 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc

 This Barn Swallow gave me a variety of stretching poses in nice light.

 

 

 1/1600, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4

When I found this White-faced Ibis feeding close to the road I spent some time trying to catch it tossing its invertebrate prey in the air before swallowing it and I succeeded about a half-dozen times.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen an individual with such a pronounced “white face”.

 

 

 1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc

My experience with Black-crowned Night Herons is that they’re usually quite secretive and spooky so I don’t have many images of them where the bird is out in the open against a clean background.  This bird was the exception and for that I was grateful.

 

 

  1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc

 When it took off I was able to get it almost full frame.  I do wish I had a little more depth of field but that’s the price you pay for being so close when the wings are out.

 

 

  1/4000, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc

As we headed down the last stretch of our second (and last) trip around the loop road we came across this pair of Forster’s Terns on a floating matt of reeds.  I believe this to be a mated pair beginning nesting activities on the matt as last year we found a nesting pair on a similar matt in almost the same place.  Every time another tern flew by both birds would begin calling raucously and displaying like this which I suspect is a defensive/threat behavior over the potential nesting site.  I was able to get many images of interesting poses like this but tossed most of them because either one of the birds was soft or I clipped some wings or (most often) there was no catch light in either or both birds eyes.  Frustrating…

It was a spectacular morning at Bear River and a wonderful way to celebrate (mourn) my birthday.

Ron