You always hope for the best but I knew my chances of spotting one of these beautiful birds would be pretty slim as I only had a general idea of where the best place would be to begin looking. My son-in-law, (not a birder), and I were walking along the coast when he saw a bird land on the cliff face a good distance away from us. He thought it just looked like it was flying differently than the gulls etc that we were seeing. So we headed in that direction a few hundred yards away and stood for a while scanning the area in front and to the sides. We were just about to continue along with our walk when he tapped me on the shoulder and pointed down to our right ; "there's one right there" ! I knew he had never seen one before either so my first thought was probably just a big gull of some sort. I couldn't believe it when I peered over the edge and saw him looking back up at me. Having this bird in my viewfinder was the "rockstar" sighting of my trip to Southern California.
Gary
Very nice. Gotta love it when you find a beautiful cooperative subject like that. Good on ya for paying attention and jumping on the opportunity. Great images!
You were richly rewarded, Gary! Those are really sweet images of one of my favorite raptors. I normally go out there during their courting, mating and rearing their chicks when they are really active. You can easily bump into 50 other photographers during that “busy” season in the weekend.
He heard you were in town so he (or she) showed up to pose.
Congratulations on getting some excellent shots on your first try.
You need to schedule some renovations during nesting season, just after they fledge.
Teleguy1 wrote:
Very nice. Gotta love it when you find a beautiful cooperative subject like that. Good on ya for paying attention and jumping on the opportunity. Great images!
Yeah, I was pretty lucky. Thanks !
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AGeoJO wrote:
You were richly rewarded, Gary! Those are really sweet images of one of my favorite raptors. I normally go out there during their courting, mating and rearing their chicks when they are really active. You can easily bump into 50 other photographers during that “busy” season in the weekend.
Joshua
Ha ! That's probably why I had no idea where to look, no other photographers ! But as I was leaning over and photographing 2 guys with 600 f4's came running over from out of nowhere. Appreciate your help Joshua
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Bobg657 wrote:
Beautiful shots Gary, I'm glad you found it!
Bob
Thanks Bob
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dclark wrote:
He heard you were in town so he (or she) showed up to pose.
Congratulations on getting some excellent shots on your first try.
You need to schedule some renovations during nesting season, just after they fledge.
Dave
Oh yeah. already planning a "me" trip in May. Appreciate the comments
Appreciate your help Joshua