![\"hailstorm-8163\"](\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/hailstorm-8163.jpg\" "\\"hailstorm-8163\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nCanon 40D, 1\/200, f\/16, ISO 500 @35mm, ev 0.0<\/em><\/p>\n 5:30<\/em> pm<\/em>.\u00a0 We were photographing American Avocets and Wilson’s Phalaropes on one of the refuge ponds when we looked behind us to the west and saw this impressive storm heading our way.\u00a0 It was really dumping on the foothills surrounding the valley and we figured things might get interesting so we decided to stay at the pond and see what happened.\u00a0 Good thing we were shooting from my pickup or we’d have been in trouble…<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Canon 40D, 1\/250, f\/16, ISO 500 @17mm, ev +0.33<\/em><\/p>\n 5:52 pm<\/em>.\u00a0 The slow-moving storm took a while to get to us but when it did it was impressive.\u00a0 It began to rain very hard.\u00a0 It was\u00a0so intense that neither of us could keep water off of our lenses – in spite of the 7″ long hood on the end of my 500mm lens.\u00a0\u00a0 I love my new Ford F-150\u00a0pickup but<\/em> the\u00a0engineers did a poor job on the roof rain channels and water simply poured in off the roof whenever a window was down.\u00a0 As you can see in my side mirror, Mia (who shoots from the back seat) has taken a temporary respite from the downpour and has her lens pulled in and her\u00a0window up.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Canon 40D, 1\/100, f\/16, ISO 500 @56mm, ev +1.00<\/em><\/p>\n 6:15 pm<\/em>.\u00a0 A temporary reprieve from the rain – with rainbow and light.\u00a0 But it was literally the “calm before the (real) storm”.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Canon 7D, 1\/320, f\/5.6, ISO 800, ev +0.33, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n 6:31 pm<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 As the most intense part of the storm approached, the birds reacted by bunching up in flocks of their own species\u00a0and flying around nervously.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Canon 7D, 1\/640, f\/5.6, ISO 800, ev -0.33, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n 6:32 pm<\/em>.\u00a0 The hail begins.\u00a0 Here you can see it impacting the water and if you look closely you can see that it is coming in at a slant from left to right causing the impact plumes on the water surface to splash to the right.\u00a0 Later the direction of the hail would change.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Canon 7D, 1\/500, f\/5.6, ISO 800, ev -0.33, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n 6:33 pm<\/em>.\u00a0 The behavior of the birds seemed to indicate that they didn’t know what to do to escape the hail.\u00a0 They flew in these tight flocks for a while but soon changed tactics.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Canon 7D, 1\/640, f\/5.6, ISO 800, ev -0.33, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n 6:33 pm<\/em>.\u00a0 When the hail continued to intensify most of the avocets settled into the water while others simply raised their wings in the wind and hovered over their companions.\u00a0 They were really being pummelled by the hail and\u00a0seemed confused and frightened.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Canon 7D, 1\/640, f\/6.3, ISO 800, ev -0.33, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n 6:35:02 pm<\/em>.\u00a0 Within a couple of minutes they got out of the water and bunched up tightly against each other and against the background brush.\u00a0 Avocets were just too large to huddle under most of the plants along the shore but that’s exactly what many of\u00a0the smaller phalaropes did.\u00a0 There are\u00a0phalaropes crouching out of sight\u00a0in the brush behind the avocets.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Canon 7D, 1\/500, f\/6.3, ISO 800, ev -0.33, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n 6:35:17 pm<\/em>.\u00a0 Within seconds most of the hail abated and the intensity of the rain increased.\u00a0 The avocets reacted immediately by beginning to tentatively walk back toward the water.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Canon 7D, 1\/640, f\/6.3, ISO 800, ev -0.33, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n 6:35:24<\/em> pm<\/em>.\u00a0 The phalaropes reacted to the hail stoppage\u00a0almost as quickly as the avocets did. \u00a0Here you can see three of them emerging from the\u00a0 background brush and hovering\u00a0over the avocets.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Canon 7D, 1\/800, f\/13, ISO 800, ev -0.33, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n 6:37 pm<\/em>.\u00a0 Even though it was still raining hard the avocets seemed almost jaunty in having the hail part of the storm behind them.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Canon 7D, 1\/500, f\/6.3, ISO 800, ev +0.00, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n 6:48 pm<\/em>.\u00a0 At times the rain would intensify again but the birds seemed to do fine with it, flying in small groups in tight little circles and then landing again – seemingly in celebration of having survived the hail (anthropomorphic of me, I know).\u00a0\u00a0 Notice that the direction of slant of the raindrops has now changed from some of my earlier images in this post.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0Canon 7D, 1\/1250, f\/5.6, ISO 800, ev +0.00, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n 6:57 pm<\/em>.\u00a0 These “celebratory” flights provided some nice opportunities for photos of the birds in flight against the threatening dark skies in the background.\u00a0 I liked this image of the avocets with a single phalarope amongst them in a formation that seemed almost protective of the phalarope.\u00a0 The background “noise” in this image\u00a0is really rain.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0Canon 7D, 1\/600, f\/5.6, ISO 800, ev +0.00, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n 7:01 pm<\/em>.\u00a0 The phalaropes joined in these flights also.\u00a0\u00a0 Most of these birds are Wilson’s Phalaropes but a sharp-eyed observer will notice that\u00a0at least 6 of them are Red-necked Phalaropes (slightly smaller\u00a0with white markings on upper wings).\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n