Reader’s wildlife photographs

January 13, 2016 • 7:30 am

We’ll have a short selection today because I have a biology post hard on my heels. Fortunately, reader Kip Roof sent in four bird photos with a description. Roof notes that he doesn’t know either the common or Latin names of these birds, so I’ll leave the readers to identify them. His notes and captions are below;

I don’t know anything about birds, but since I take almost daily walks in the nature preserve by my house, I decided to give it a try. I normally photograph weddings, so bird photography is definitely not part of my skill set. Since I didn’t have a long lens handy, I had to sit still and wait for the birds to come to me. Didn’t enjoy the experience, but I’m happy with the results.  I’ve attach a few to this email and you can download the rest, if ya like, here.  Also, you can view them in this flickr album.

All the photo were taken in the Bolsa Chica Wetlands nature preserve.  I am fortunate enough to live just a few minutes walk from wetlands (and also, the ocean). You can see the wetlands in this album.

I love the way it looks like it’s barely putting any effort into flying.  Like it’s no big deal:

BolsaChica_Birds-001
This one looked to me like a soldier standing watch at the border:
BolsaChica_Birds-020
This one reminds me of a spaceship:
BolsaChica_Birds-022
This was right before it took off.  I thought it looked happy!  This one got closer to me than any of the others.  It was about 10 feet away.  It stayed for 5-ish minutes until some other people walked behind me.
BolsaChica_Birds-027

20 thoughts on “Reader’s wildlife photographs”

  1. Pelicans: Brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis)
    Small heron on the boom: Looks like a green heron (Butorides virescens) but it’s hard to tell
    Bottom photo: Great blue heron (Ardea herodias)

    1. I think the heron on the boom looks too long-legged to be a Green Heron. From the silhouette it might be a snowy egret Egetta thula (but it is hard to tell if it appears dark just because it is in silhouette or because it actually is dark…snowy egrets, of course, are white)!. Another possibility is Little Blue Heron Egretta caerulea which has a broadly similar outline but blue grey colouring. Little Blue Heron, I believe may be found wintering on the west coast although its breeding range is in the SE of the US.

    2. Pelicans are the best. I love the way they glide just inches over ocean waves seemingly without effort, like they have a hidden jet pack or something.

  3. I had no idea where this nature reserve was. Bolsa Chica is just right in, or outside, Los Angeles. What a great place to keep some natural landscape. I hope it’s not too overrun by thrill seekers from the city.

    1. I usually walk for an hour or so and rarely see more than 15-ish people. and a few of those appear to be professional bird photographers.

  4. I will have to reassess my opinion on how close one can get to blue herons. From what I have previously read and experienced, getting 10 feet from one is not to be expected.

    1. A couple of days before winter break I got within five feet of one on the UC Santa Cruz campus. I saw it across the street and walked closer to take a picture. I kept expecting it to bolt but it let me get closer and closer until I was less than my height away from it. It didn’t seem injured or anything, it just didn’t seem that interested in me. At the end it took a couple of steps away from me, but didn’t bolt.

      1. See, this is interesting. There is a blue heron that hangs out in a large pond a couple blocks from my house. I never even bothered trying to get into camera range (the topography makes the approach difficult), but now I think I could give it a go.

      2. I had to wait a loooong time sitting very still, but I think the birds in the area are getting used to people being close by. That’s a great pic from your phone, you must have been really close!

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