Lake Merritt - A Mecca for Birders 3/6/16

In the midst of a barrage of serious storms in Northern California that lasted weeks and my first real tango with shingles, a sunny day happened and I could not resist getting out of town to try to find some flowers and birds.

However, because of the damn shingles, which is painful and exhausting, I couldn't do anything very strenuous.  So I opted to drive to Oakland and check out the gardens at Lake Merritt.  More on those another day.  

Today, I must focus on birds!  Because I love some of these pictures and the birds were so close and amazing and plentiful!  

So, this picture of the friendly cormorant is blurry.  But I had to include it because you can see his beautiful, bright, green eye!  And the pattern in his feathers is very cool too. 

Another blurry photo.  This one is a female bufflehead duck.  The only one I've gotten so far. 

This Great Egret enjoyed posing for photos.  He's quite brilliant with his wispy breeding plumage.  And his little pigeon sidekick. 

And Oh. My. Goodness.  This is a Black-crowned Night Heron!  I was told by a fellow birder that they are "quite common".  I could have done without the slightly disparaging tone, but I guess my excitement was distasteful to her.  Too bad. 

These are two kinds of geese that look somewhat similar.  The one in the back is a Toulouse Goose (it rhymes!) and the one in the front is an African Goose. 

These next phots are also of a Black-crowned Night Heron, but a juvenile this time.  Completely different look.  You may also notice that this little guy is missing a leg.  Very sad.  But it didn't seem to be bothering him.  I observed him on several different surfaces, including the top of one of the buildings so he seems to get around okay. 

After I followed the night heron to the pond, the poser egret followed.  For which I am very grateful because he is amazing!

Grooming is very important. :-)

Fuzzy head alert!

This friendly Canadian wanted his picture taken too.  

This is no longer the pond.  We have returned to Lake Merritt proper to find, to our great delight, some American Coots (back) and Greater Scaup (foreground).

Hey, I'm trying to sleep here!

And this screaming seagull is not helping!  "Mine!!"

Ah. May. Zing. 

And here we have water off of a female Mallard's back.  Her feathers are so gorgeous!  

Another great egret! :-)

 And another.

This is on my drive home and these pictures are TERRIBLE!  But it's the only time I've gotten any shots of White-tailed Kites so I had to include them.  My mission next winter is to rectify my failing in this matter. 

xoxo

Nikon D3000

Mother's Day Road Trip to Lake Tahoe - Emerald Bay/Eagle Falls 5/9/16

For mother's day, I was feeling a little bit melancholy.  My daughter is in L.A., my own mother doesn't know me, and I've been having so many health problems in the last few months that life consists basically of work and very little play.  

Waaah waaaaah!  I know...what a whiner!  I know how blessed I am.  And I am truly grateful for every blessing!  But that doesn't mean I am impervious to feeling blue.  So feeling blue of course makes me want to escape on a road trip.  And what better place to be blue than beautiful Lake Tahoe?

So I got up early on Sunday morning.  Like 4:30 a.m. early!  Because I was hopeful that there would be some sun and perhaps a sunrise over the lake despite the stormy weather we'd been having. 

I've been trying to learn more about the manual settings on my camera and how to use them to capture different looks, etc.  One thing I'd been wanting to try was a slow shutter speed on a waterfall.  So I headed to the west shore and beautiful Eagle Falls and Emerald Bay.  

There was quite a bit of cloud cover which was too dense for any sunrise.  But I did get some interesting shots with a silhouette feel and some with a misty look.  

I've learned that you need filters in order to really capture some of the ideas I was going for.  I don't have any.  Yet.  But I did the best I could.  I confess I did have to do some heavy post-production on some of these, but mainly to adjust lighting, etc. Especially since one of the things I had read was to shoot with the landscapes underexposed.  Which worked somewhat. 

This is Fannette Island. I was going to hike down, but it was intermittently raining so I decided against it.  This is one of my favorite shots of the morning.  I loved how the island was framed by the bare, silver branches and that I got some reflection on the lake surface. 

In this shot, you can see the teahouse on top of the Island.  I will be kayaking there this summer.  :-)

And this is Emerald Bay as seen from the Eagle Falls trail alongside Highway 89. 

Bare trees can add so much to photos!  I just love them and will use them to frame whenever I can.  I particularly love this one. 

This one I like due to the reflections on the lake, the moss on the tree trunk, and the wake from the lone boat exploring the bay. 

One final landscape of Emerald Bay before we head for the waterfall.  Again, I love the bare tree as a focal point.  And the pattern in the water is pretty cool too.  

I parked at the Eagle Falls trailhead and walked toward the falls.  There was a thin waterfall falling right onto the shoulder of Highway 89.  

This is a slower shutter speed which did result in the wispier water effect I was trying for, but also made the picture overall a little blurrier.  And also taught me just how important a Neutral Density filter is!  I need one!

This shot is of the very top of the fall. Again, with the same issues due to not having the ND filter.  

I clambered down beside Eagle Falls using the small, steep staircase on it's left side.  I had to use my tripod as a walking stick to actually reach the ground from the stairs.  There's a bit of a drop!

But I made it and it was worth it.  I climbed around the rocks and terraces of the pretty large waterfall, hoping and praying that I would not fall in.  This is looking across the falls.

And this is looking down them.  I used a very fast shutter speed to try to freeze the water to catch it gurgling and bubbling it's way down to the Bay. 

Another shot of the frozen "boiling" water, this is from another part of the fall with a thick stream that roiled over rocks at a horizontal level before falling to the canyon below.

This was with a medium shutter speed because I didn't really know what I was trying to do.  lol

At this point, I climbed back up the terrace, rocks, and stairs to the road and made my way to the other side of the wide falls. 

I then hiked my way back through the waterfall until I was somewhere kind of in the middle.  I love the tree roots in the picture below. 

The falls with a sliver of Emerald Bay in the background. 

A closeup of those cool roots. 

Meanwhile, looking back uphill, you can see Eagle Creek coming under Highway 89 through a cool tunnel into a wide, granite shelf that forms the top of the falls. 

Through the tunnel

There was a cool, holy rock in the middle. 

And, spinning around, I found myself looking over the STEEP drop of the falls into the valley below. 

I had set up my tripod/walking stick to get some with wispy water.  The next two photos are taken at exactly the same place.  The first one has a fast shutter speed to try to "freeze" the water...

And this one has a slow shutter speed to make the water wispy and soft. 

Cool!

And here's one of the pool and tunnel with a slower shutter speed. 

And to finish off our first post from Lake Tahoe, one can't get enough of the cool tunnel!  Especially with bare branches!

And a look through the "tunnel" in the holy rock. 

Bye Eagle Falls!  Thanks for being my guinea pig!

xoxo

Nikon D3300