Monday, January 23, 2012

Killdeer at sunrise, Point Reyes National Seashore

Killdeer in dew covered grass at Point Reyes National Seashore

One of the most fun parts of spending years photographing wildlife in Point Reyes National Seashore was that I never knew what subjects I would find on a given day. Sure, I always came up with a plan of what I would be targeting as I drove through Marin County to arrive at a trailhead before sunrise, but a lot of my best work was from the luck of finding something unexpected along the way. On this particular morning, I had hoped to photograph shorebirds on the beach of Limantour Spit for my first trip to Point Reyes in 2011. Instead, I was treated to an amazingly colorful sunrise over the thick fog blanketing the rest of the park. After spending some time watching the fog roll over Inverness Ridge, I continued on to my targeted destination and pulled into the Limantour Beach parking lot. As I got out of the car into the cool (and so refreshing) early morning air of Point Reyes, I was greeted by the call of two plovers in the dew covered grass nearby. I quickly grabbed my camera out of the car and set to work photographing these beautiful shorebirds in the morning light. As the killdeer eventually started crossing the pavement, I left them behind and headed to the beach with their calls to each other still echoing behind me.

View more photos of one of my favorite areas of Point Reyes National Seashore in my Limantour Beach Gallery.


11 comments:

  1. Wonderful shot, Pat. I just went over to your
    Limantour gallery and thoroughly enjoyed viewing all of your fabulous shots. What a pleasant way to start my day.

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  2. Wonderful capture Pat!! I love the light in this.

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  3. One stunning photo. The clear individual water droplets really add to an already great photo.

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  4. Fantastic shot! Getting up early has its rewards.

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  5. Wonderful lightning !
    Great !
    Regards,
    Olivier

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  6. Pat, excellent shot! The light and the sharpness are perfect. I love to see the dew on the grass! A very pretty bird as well!

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  7. wonderful lighting and sharpness Pat

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  8. beautiful bird; superb photographic moment

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  9. Great post Pat, like I said on Flickr, there is just something fantastic about this photo, whether it is the dew or the exposure or something else, but I love it!

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  10. It's usually so hard to get decent pictures of these guys. This one is perfect!So clear and he was looking right at you.

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  11. Love the light in this shot! Lots of expression in that eye.

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