Daily Bird Photos - No. 3 ~ A Trip To The Bird Sanctuary ~
What a great day for birding! Perfect weather, bright sunshine. We jumped in the car and made it to Esquimalt Lagoon by about 8:30 AM. This is a sample of the different bird species captured today.
All photos taken by me today with a Nikon D750 and Tamron 150-600mm lens.
Non-Breeding European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)
Black Oystercatcher (Haematopus bachmani)
Northern Pintail Duck (Anas acuta)
Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)
American wigeons (Mareca americana)
A Seagull skims the water
Brewer's Blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus)
Common Merganser (Mergus merganser)
Please click on the images for a larger view, thanks for taking a look!
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Thank you!
Superb, great! There is a passion here (not only for photography)!
Thank you! Bird photography is a passion for me yes. I'm not an expert on birds, I just like to take photos :)
It is a very beautiful passion that makes you move in nature.
Thank you @pixresteemer!
What a terrific day this must have been. Pictures are excellent Keith!
And knowing what species is amazing. The area certainly attracts a lot of variety.
Thanks so much! I had to look about half of these up... there are so many birds there. I didn't see any swans or bald eagles and I waited and waited for a heron to catch a fish, but no luck. I have photos from previous visits though.
Takes as much patience as if you were fishing yourself. Very peaceful though. I don't suppose it was a boring wait.
Good job with the identification....
No, it's lots of fun but the camera & big lens get heavy. I don't use a tripod because I want to be ready for birds in flight and I need to be able to aim anywhere, so these outings don't last much beyond an hour... time enough to take lots of shots!
We hang out around the lake quite a bit simply because we see a lot of nature without having to go too far.
We decided last night we will start hanging out at the river....maybe see differnt varities of nature....never know.
I need a better camera!
There is no doubt that your equipment plays a big role in bird photography. Normally I'd like to say that it's all about the photographer, not the gear, but for birds having a decent long lens really helps. Enjoy your river walks!
They are fantastic shots! I lived my entire life being confused about grackles and starlings I thought the one in your picture was the grackle and it took me my whole entire life to learn that I was wrong. And not only that I taught my children wrong. I've since corrected my mistake with them. Hopefully it doesn't get passed down to another generation.
Ah yes... the great grackle vs starling debate... Honestly, I didn't know that was a thing, but when I checked further I found there is a lot of talk online regarding the differences. Apparently, it comes down to beak and the tail. I found this page which is helpful:
http://birdinggirl.blogspot.com/2008/06/difference-between-grackles-and.html
Glad you liked my shots Melinda. I take a lot of bird pics, so I'm going to be posting every day if I can keep it up :)
It is easy enough to tell the difference, I just had the wrong name! I must have learned it wrong in childhood and somehow never corrected it! I love your bird photos!
The bottom photo is of mergansers, I'm pretty sure Common Mergansers based on their sharp cutoff between the color of the head and the white of the breast, which in Red-breasted Mergansers should "bleed" together. None of our cormorants would have white wing patches. Nice photography.
Thank you, that makes sense. It was the white on the wings throwing me off, I couldn't find a cormorant that had those markings. Common Merganser fits perfectly.