Wow - such talent on this board. It's inspirational to see all the great photos and read the stories that go along with them.
Here is my favorite shot of 2007. A birding group that I often walk with in our local wetlands area met at 8 am one Sunday morning in September. However I couldn't join them until noon. When I arrived, they all told me that I "missed" a rare sighting of a peregrine falcon doing some (unsuccessful) fishing in the foggy morning light.
We had lunch and explored the area until about 4 pm, when everyone disbanded. I decided to go back to the wetlands pond area to see what I could find. Had my 500 mm set up on a tripod at the water's edge and was seeing mostly slow moving birds - killdeer and such - with my eye to the viewfinder most of the time.
Suddenly, I heard a loud ruckus of noise straight ahead. I panned as fast as I could to see some sort of bird (I thought it was some sort of hawk) attacking a killdeer and before I knew it he was flying off with his catch. I was trying desperately to keep sight of him in the viewfinder - no easy task for me!! It all happened very fast. I found out later I had experienced my first-ever sighting of a peregrine falcon. Wow - so cool, except for the killdeer.
I was shooting the slower moving birds at 1/1000th and I was in "one shot" mode, so only got 3 half-decent shots of the whole episode. How I wish I had been in servo with a faster shutter!! Oh well, it was a great experience and this is my best shot of the event.
When I sent the photo to my friends that evening, they all wish they had stuck around for the 2nd sighting of the peregrine!!! It was a rewarding day.
Hope you enjoy it and "Happy Holidays" to all.