Drawdown

[Reef Bass]

I live 25 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean and the river that runs through here is a basically a glorified tidal slough that drains into the even closer San Francisco bay when there's not runoff from rainfall. Both fresh and saltwater birds can be seen here.

The local water treatment facility performs annual drawdowns of its finishing ponds. The draining of each pond draws shorebirds in concentration. I was out at sunrise with my camera.

Imagine being any small edible aquatic life form with this going on and nowhere to hide.

 

[IPT]

the lighting on the mouth skin of the pelicans is awesome. Must have been quite the scene!

 

[Reef Bass]

I confess I have a fondness for pelicans. They're delightfully odd. I was fortunate that one of the two places from which I could shoot without being blocked by tules allowed for wonderful backlighting of the pelicans' pouches when they were oriented appropriately. Being early, the light was less harsh as well.

There was an interesting calm at the pond, as though everyone had declared a truce so they could focus on eating. Any minor squabbles were intraspecific, not interspecific.

The concentration of shorebirds here with this seems similar to when the salmon start running and eagles concentrate along shorelines up by you.

 

[JaYbIrD1969]

Wow! What an incredible concentration of wild birds! Jealous!!

 

[Misled]

Should put it in the bird shooting thread, "go to beach."


Pretty amazing Ken.

 

[Reef Bass]

Thanks Jay. That's a compliment coming from you.

Thanks Jesse. As usual, it's more about right time right place than much else. I often bike around there and when I saw the big diesel pump with 6" hose set up, I knew I would be returning with my camera in a couple days. I timed it well, as this was the morning after they shut off the pump with their drawdown goal realized. Having witnessed drawdowns on the other ponds, I knew that would be max bird time.

I was going to inquire about some sort of organization for bird pics. I was not aware of the "go to beach" thread. We have a "Bugs" thread. And the wonderful "Tips for shooting birds" thread. Would you suggest posting bird photos without tips there? Or would a "Bird photos" thread be useful? There are some talented bird photographers here.

 

[Reef Bass]

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