White Rock Lake, Dallas, Texas,  USA

February 3 2012

Pelican Peak Abstraction with Legs and Feet

The second biggest drawback of having a sharp 600mm telephoto lens is that sometimes it's just a little — or a lot — too powerful. The first big drawback is that it's so heavy and difficult to wrangle. But the images from it can be amazing. This, I think, approaches both conditions.

Wing-clipped Pelican

I liked this one every run-through I did, just thought it wouldn't work here, because, well, we can't see its wingtips. Now I just don't care. Love the back-lighted and glowing tail feathers. Someday I'm going to have to watch those carefully during flights, to see if, like feet, they do a lot for bird flight stabilization.

At First

At first, I didn't like this shot. On my third run-through, however, I started thinking, hey, this might be worth posting. Maybe. 

When I Finally Got It In Focus

I followed this pelican in from way out. I managed to keep it in the frame almost all the way in, but never quite catching focus on it, but follow, follow. I wasn't on the pier, or I would have had a clear shot. I was on solid ground behind some weeds, trees, people and other obstructions. I finally managed full focus when it had touched down and was skidding in for a stop. But I need the practice.

The pier is no longer stable. I'm worried a crowd is going to be out there rocking and rolling, and it's going to tumble into the shallow dreck of all rotting that white bread and sugared pastry, getting everybody wet and probably hurting some of them. The pier at Sunset Bay's twists and turns change almost every day lately.

Three Pelicans and a Gull

It's not unexpected, since I've broken me in on a few other telephoto lenses over the years, and I expect this one might take even longer, because it's heavier and more difficult to handle. But eventually, I hope to be able to find little dots of birds high in the sky, pull them into sharp focus and capture them that way. These shots are the results of keeping trying without usually succeeding. They'd bob in and out of focus up there like a turtle playing with a fisherperson's float.

Cormorants Everywhere

These guys were much easier to focus on, probably because they're all over the place. The pelicans above kept totally blurring out till the view looked just like all the other sky up there, then they'd unblur back into a semblance of sharpness, then blur out again while I struggled to hold the heavy thing up and get something in focus.

Cormorant Flyby

This one worked out pretty good. I'd like to have had more darkness behind and more detail under those wings, but photography is always a compromise or two or …

Pelican Takes Off

It's hard to discern since the telephoto tends to make depth look compressed, but this wing-flapping pelican did the usual five or six hops on the water before it finally got up into the air.

And Away

It's always a surprise to me when I can follow a sequence of action

Over the Fishing Party

So it flew over the rest of the fishing party, landed toward the front middle of it,

Landing Forward

But when it landed, it didn't catch any fish, but at least it was closer to the front of the pack.
 

February 2

Two Pelicans Sharing a Log

So I took the longer version of the lens today. For some things, it's great and wonderful and amazing …

Two Pelicans Sharing A Log

Like these two pelicans sharing a space well out into Sunset Bay.

Fishing Party

Or getting a little closer and more detailed with pelicans, cormorants and the occasional gull well out across the lake.

Pelicans Looking for Fish

But especially when the fishing party comes a little closer — only halfway across the lake — so we can get a little better understanding of what all is going on out there. These guys are all up in arms — or wings — about finding them some fish. Kinda the whole purpose in being in a fishing party.

Near the End of the Fish Scuffle

Well, maybe. Sometimes I just stare and stare, and I can't figure out much. It must be a situation of coalescing understandings and time spent.

20 of 38 Fishing Birds This Day

Twenty of the 38 American White Pelicans I counted in this day's fishing party. A guy came up to me on the pier at Sunset Bay the other day, insisting that there were only 35 pelicans in the bay at any time. I told him I had counted up to 70 there.

Pelk in the Air and a Jet-propelled Takeoff

As you can see, when I'm behind the camera I tend to focus on birds taking off and sometimes landing, because I didn't see many fishes out there, just a lot of fishing action.

Pelican Face Sploosh

Although that must be what's going on amid all the splashing and thrashing in this shot. I hope it got it, but I don't know.

Yet Another Cute Action Picture Title

More Fishing Party action.

Canvasback Ducks Out Near Dreyfus

Nice to have a 600mm lens when some birds this interesting skirt the perimeter.

Red-winged Blackbird Giving His All
 

February 1

New Visitor to Sunset Bay

But we've seen them — if not this exact same bird — plenty before. Canadian Gooses seem to like Sunset Bay, and they often hang out with the more-or-less domestic gooses that live their year-round. 

Drink Water, Tilt Head Back, and Swallow

Big, built like our regular gooses but with a slightly different head and neck shape and color configuration, these distinctive birds are not at all uncommon this time of every year. Especially in Sunset Bay.

Grackle Stare

I love it when these dark, shiny black birds show up as iridescent blue.

Beak-up Behavior of Great-tailed Grackle on Small Weed Island

Grackles point their beaks up like this when they're challenging another male for — oh, whatever they usually fight about — breeding rights or territory.

Two Pelicans Ready to Fly Away

One of my major goals lately is to capture images of the first few seconds of a American White Pelican take-off, so I've been watching the Peninsula Pelican Flock for any visual tip-offs that broadcast their readiness to fly off, and I think this is it. Kinda obvious, really. They step up into the very shallow water and line up in front of their compatriots in this position of alert readiness. Then the ones who are actually lined up front are the only ones who take off.

Not that I figured it out until after I'd shot this readiness shot, then watched kinda stupidly as they splashed hopping across the water in front of me, and took off. Maybe next time I'll figure it out before I see them hop into the air. Goals are important.

American White Pelican Flying Low and Fast

I realize that many of you are tired of seeing pretty much the same shots of these superb flying birds, but they're still exciting for me to shoot, and I keep trying to get better at it. The new lens is a big help, since it's so much sharper than my old telephoto lens. Remarkably so.

Primary Feathers Touching the Water's Surface

This pelican is coming in for a landing and needs to know exactly how close it is to the surface, or that's just what happens when wing feathers get that close.

Rudders Dragging Straight Out Behind

I'd never noticed this before. Its tiny, little feet forming dual rudders to keep it straight as it settled quickly into the water.

A Quick Ankle Turns And Those Dainty Feet Become Skids

Then quickly turned 180 degrees and flattened out, so the bird could …

Flat-footed Skid

… splash-skid in till all that energy dissipated …

Body Surf Skid to Stop

… and the pelican sloshed in to join the flock.

Feather-drying Machine

After a loud-wing-slapping-the-water bath, American White Pelicans tend to raise their wings, so the wind can get in their and dry out all their wet wing and other feathers.

Pelican Float with Ruffles

They sometimes look like floats that have escaped the nearest flower parade.

Composition in Black, White, Orange & Gray

Where there are brilliant white pelicans, there usually are jet-black coots.