The Black Oystercatchers have returned to winter at Port Townsend, Wa.
They were very relaxed and gave me a lot of chances to get them!
1.

WOW Bonnie. These FANTASTIC shots. #4 is STUNNING. Love them all.
dan

Bonnie,
Great set with an AWESOME finish, the last shot is fantastic.
It has a great DOF giving it a 3D feel
Tim

Oh my Bonnie, now I'm jealous of you! I so want some oyster catchers!!!

These are fabulous, 1 is just the shot I would love to have and 2 is 3 times better! 4 is oh how should I say this? Too freaking amazing!! Jody, look out



This is getting to be one though town to shoot in

Tim

Booyah!! #2 and #4 Rock!!

Very beautiful!

These are a delight Bonnie.

Morris

They are all beautiful, but #4 is beyond beautiful - it is so exceptional it defies words.

Fantastic captures. The last is my pick

Dick.

Real beauties, Bonnie. Since #3 shows 380mm, were these taken with the 100-400?

Tony

Awesome shots Bonnie, great job on the OCs inflight and the Mergnaser........wow, just fantastic. Verno

WOW !! Beautiful images, what lens did you use ? Thanks for sharing

BAM!! Nuff said

Note to self: Go visit Bonnie asap
Incredible work my friend, #1 is amazing with perfect exposure!! Sweet DOF on the trio IF and that last frame is beyond the top Bonnie, hats off Lady

Tom

Oh Bonnie, Bravo!! for #1, 2 and 3, Love them! Standing ovation for #4 OUTSTANDING!!
Larry

Imagemaster wrote:
Real beauties, Bonnie. Since #3 shows 380mm, were these taken with the 100-400?

Tony
Yep--the 100-400!

Thomas Sanders wrote:
Note to self: Go visit Bonnie asap
Incredible work my friend, #1 is amazing with perfect exposure!! Sweet DOF on the trio IF and that last frame is beyond the top Bonnie, hats off Lady

Tom
Hey, Tom--come on over when we get a break in the weather! We can kayak over here too!

Bonnie, your posts are always so sharp and well exposed. You are a great photographer. Bruce

Bonnie, you are cleaning house on stunning shots! Oystercatchers are showing sweet exposures and really nice detail throughout. Great work on the dark feathers, they show a very nice tonal range and love the orange pop in their eyes. Wow, how pretty is that threesome, very cool

Wait, hold up, #4 has that 'extra dimension' to it! Bonnie, this shot has it all for me, great separation, motion, rock solid sharpness, great exposure and sweet eye contact. I absolutely love this shot and you must be on these early to lock focus because I don't remember the 1-400 being that quick to focus!

Impressive..............and most enjoyable!

Karl

Fantastic! Ditto everything that Karl said.

Beautiful work, Bonnie! Lovely color and clarity.

Awesome! Wow!

Wonderful shots, #2 is my favourite.

Rob

wow

Very nice Bonnie. I especially like 1,2, and 4. Not that there is anything wrong with 3

I have noticed the "flecks" in the eyes (those that look like globular extensions of the pupil) before, in African Oystercatchers, and I just tried to find some info now... A fairly recent paper suggests that these flecks are somewhat sex-dependent. i.e. Those with the largest (or most) flecks are probably female. Anyways, that was sort of interesting.

Also, young birds don't have as bright yellow of an iris, and as defined an eye ring. So, maybe the individual closest to the front in #2 is a young one.

The function/cause of the eye flecks is unknown.

OKAY - I'm done rambling on


Cool image from the paper I was talking about above (Guzetti et al., 2008):