One More Bird Pic

[MiniChris]

It's supposed to be a hard freeze tonight and the Egrets are beginning to mass at the base end of the Bayou. Fortunately, the water temp is still in the mid-50's F which will keep them from freezing to death. Tide was coming in as I shot this frame. Don't know abou them, but I was freezing my little tushee off.

Shot with a Tamron 70-300 at 300mm. They were about 120 meters (350') across the bayou.

[mythlady]

I love them -- they often look kind of grumpy, when they've pulled their heads into their shoulders. The reflections are a nice touch. Well done.

[MiniChris]

I liked the reflections, too. I had a great sequence of one of them coming in for a landing and about the same time as I began clicking, the sun came out in full force, overexposing the setup by almost three stops and I lost all the feather detail...I was on a tripod with a remote release and couldn't make the exposure adjustment nearly quick enough...sitting inside my truck, out of the cold wind.

I came back to this place about an hour later and the tide had come way in and the birds inched themselves closer to the reeds in the background. It would have been a real busy shot, especially given the distance, low aperture and even forced lower shutter speed. That little burst of sunlight was pretty much all of what we got for the day.

So, today I drive to Atlanta to see my daughter and her family and it's even colder than home with snow still on the ground....BRRRRRRRR