Western Grebe on Rippled Water, Pillar Point Harbor

A western grebe swimming through striped reflections in Pillar Point Harbor near Half Moon Bay. This shot is from last November, but this is in honor of the pair of grebes that we saw doing their mating dance at the Berkeley Marina recently. It's a spectacle that I've wanted to witness ever since I saw it on Life of Birds. While I didn't get a chance to photograph it this time (it happened quickly and too far off) it was cool to see the birds mimicing each other's movements, and then take off together to "run" on the water!

Año Nuevo Sunset

The sky was gorgeous during our trip to Año Nuevo State Reserve earlier this month to see the elephant seals, and this shot doesn't do it justice at all. As the sun dropped to the horizon we had a nice mix of diffuse light and golden rays falling on the elephant seals of Loser's Beach.

Great blue heron at sunset

We were looking to stretch our legs a bit last evening, but it was too late to go anywhere interesting in Marin, so we decided to check in on the burrowing owls at the Berkeley Marina. We saw two owls, and some other people that we talked to there said that there are as many as four reported in the park. However, right when we got to the park, this great blue heron was hunting rodents in the middle of the playing fields, and I ended up spending most of the good light left in the day on it.



The bird was pretty easy to approach since it was focused on the many gopher holes that cover the fields. We found a nice position and sat down in the grass with it. A handful of times it became very focused on a certain spot and appeared to get ready to strike, but the rodents were lucky this time, since we didn't get to see it catch anything. Eventually, it was spooked by the firing of a bottle rocket and it flew away.



I was excited about the potential of the setting, since the grass is starting to get some height to it. That meant that if I lowered the tripod so that the camera was maybe 6-8 inches off the ground, I could capture a bit of the sea of green around the heron. In the bottom two shots, I really like how the out of focus grass took on a painted quality, with the bunches looking a bit like brush strokes.

Elephant seal silhouette, Año Nuevo State Reserve

The backlit shape of a male northern elephant seal at sunset. This is certainly not my traditional style of photography, but they have a wonderful form when they are reared up like this, and I couldn't help but to snap off a few frames when the opportunity arose.

Great blue heron with attitude

Flipping back through some images from earlier this year, I realized that I have a handful of heron and egret shots from a sunset spent at Rodeo Lagoon in the Marin Headlands. I've had many experiences where great blue herons will fly away they moment they even think you might have seen them in the distance, but I've often found that when they are in fishing mode, they are easy to approach. That was the case for this beautiful bird, as it completely ignored the photographer crouching along the shoreline as it sought out many small fish to make up an evening meal.



Checking out this heron straight on definitely gives an air of attitude, but its attention was totally on the fish it was stirring up with its slow walk in the shallows, and not at all on me.



This particular bird was quite impressive with its fishing skills, as it rarely made a strike that didn't end with a fish. It was a fun opportunity to rotate the camera to a portrait frame as well, as other than the strikes, it stood tall throughout much of the encounter -- often with one eye peering down at the water.

Quick Post -- Great Blue on Blue

Spent some time over the weekend with this handsome great blue heron while it hunted for a late dinner.