If there’s a possibility you’re going to collide head-on with another bird in flight, you don’t want it to be with a 16 lb. pelican.
Comcast (Xfinity), in its infinite wisdom and usual late and condescending way, informed me late yesterday that I’d be without internet and TV for “one day”, beginning at 6 AM today while they’re working to “enhance” my internet experience. As a result, this morning I decided to publish a post that didn’t require a lot of writing or even much thinking, so I could get it done before the 6 AM deadline.
Hopefully I’ll be able to get online today using my hotspot.
1/8000, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
Yesterday morning, while I was photographing other birds on the ground and on the water at Bear River MBR, a small group of Double-crested Cormorants flew by unexpectedly. They weren’t real close and blue sky backgrounds aren’t my favorite but as is my habit I instinctively raised my lens and fired off a short burst anyway. You just never know when you might document a bird that’s unusual in some way or an interesting behavior.
So these three sequential photos are grab shots. Total elapsed time from first to last was less than 2/10ths of a second.
1/8000, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
The cormorants were headed north but suddenly a south-bound pelican appeared at the top of my screen. In this shot they don’t appear to be particularly close to each other but the pelican was headed for a pond to my left so it was descending quickly. Quickly enough that in the next shot in the burst…
1/8000, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
the pelican and one of the cormorants nearly collided. At least it looked that way.
I had no idea the pelican was anywhere in the area and it happened so quickly all I saw through my viewfinder was a large flash of white zooming through the frame from right to left. So I didn’t know what had occurred until I looked at my photos at home. I figure their closing speed was somewhere between 50 and 60 mph so it’s a damn good thing they missed each other. Just imagine the explosion of feathers.
With birds you just never know what might happen and that’s another way they make my life more interesting.
Ron
PS – In case you’re wondering…
1/5000, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
Yes, I found Old Stoneface in ‘his’ favorite spot for the third time in my last three visits to the refuge. And no, he didn’t move a feather while I was with him. But he’d moved a few feet from where he was the last time I saw him a few days earlier, so I figured he wasn’t dead. Probably…
Autor Ron Dudley
