Missed shots, Captured shots

Deb was working late so I took a drive around the Naval Air Station (NAS Pax) to see what I might find.  The first spot has a small pond where Canada Geese were feeding.  I took a lot of shots and have one here cropped to see a few of the flock.  Two of them were plucking rapidly at the edge where water meets the land, one appears to be looking at me and you can see two standing guard on land.  Just after I put my camera back in the truck, I hear this ruckus and thought they were taking off, only to find the whole group was in near take-off but landing to allow the two from land to settle in to the water.  Then nearly all of them, one at a time, rose and flapped their wings briefly and set back to floating.  Really wished I caught the good stuff! Maybe next time.

Since Deb was still working I drove around to Goose Creek (?) to take in the scenery.  Before I was even set up I saw a Bald Eagle chasing away an Osprey!  Missed all the action, but did see where the eagle landed to roost in a tree.  He was a 'dot' on a green back ground.  I put on my 70 to 200mm zoom and took a couple shots.  Nothing great, but I wanted to show how the scene unfolded.

Close up (cropped version of the next photo)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the scene from where I stood

 

 

200 mm setting on the zoom

200mm zoom

Then I drove around to the Gold Coast - the term locals call the Bay side of the NAS.  I saw an Osprey perched on a nest atop a piling mounted nest box.  It was obviously eating a fish, so I took a number of shots, again nothing great.  It was really windy and my tripod would shake just a little with the gusts....   I'll need to come up with a bag strung up on it to add weight and stability.  I also wonder if I could come up with a portable "wind break."

Cropped

While I was looking at the Osprey, I saw several flock of dark colored sea birds skimming the surface of the water and took a number of shots to catch them.  The image is cropped roughly at 2:1, and this one I'm fairly happy with.  When I zoom-in even closer I'm fairly confident that these are some Cormorants.

And that's how my drive home went - very nicely, very nicely indeed.

Peace,
Brian

200mm cropped