The Bodega Headlands

Two of these photos had been shown at the end of a previous posting. Along with the landscape, I felt they deserved their own place.

     I had read the Headlands were thee place to find migratory birds on the Pacific Flyway. As it is only about an hour from my little ranch I loaded up the truck with camera equipment and set off on an adventure. I have often photographed in the southern end of Bodega Bay but had not been out to the Headlands.  I pulled the Ford into the  car park, I was not greeted by a single bird.  I set up and photographed the landscape, above, and sat down to wait for the birds to show up, perhaps they were on their lunch break. An hour later still no birds, zero, zip, nada.  I sat on a log, Nikon over my shoulder, to enjoy the sun and a wonderful view.  I saw something out of the corner of my eye, it was a Brewers Blackbird stopped to catch his breath, with wings slightly extended to cool off.  He sat so close to me I could have reached out and touched him.  
     He looked at me and in typical bird non-verbal communication said, "Hay, I'm a bird take my picture." I brought up my Nikon and snapped several of his likeness. "Thanks" I said and off he went to join his friends.  He was the only bird I saw that day at the Bodega Headlands.

     On my drive back along the bay I noticed a flock of shore birds out on a tidal flat. What really caught my eye was from my point of view the flat resembled the Nike Swoosh, the athletic shoes iconic logo. I saw a gull approaching and grabbed the Nikon, leaned on a tree to steady the camera because I was at fully extended telephoto and shot a short burst of five photos. I chose the shot you see with the gull setting down at the apex of the swoosh. 

     Good bird shots are always a matter of happy circumstance, just being there camera ready.