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Yosemite under Orion's gaze

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

San Jacinto Wildlife Reserve


Ken and I drove out to this refuge, east of March Air Force Base yesterday, to snap some bird pictures. Turned out it was opening day of dove season and not the optimum day to try to take pictures. Shotguns and birds aren't normally a good mix, at least for those of us whose shots don't literally kill.


Neither of us had been there before and the place is pretty cool.




I have a new lens and am trying to figure it out.

It is smarter than I am and I am frankly struggling a bit.

In addition I have dust on either my sensor or focussing screen and have to send it out to get cleaned. Driving me up a wall!


The refuge has a lot of different marsh lands and ponds. We saw hundreds of egrets, herons, ibis, shore birds, ducks and various raptors including a kestrel, a black shouldered kite and a ferruginous hawk. Normal red tailed circled overhead.



 I climbed up a pond wall and scared about a thousand ducks away.





Very pretty critters.





Black shouldered kite.




 I look forward to surmounting my technical issues and returning there soon!

4 comments:

Sanoguy said...

Looks to me like you done good!

Anonymous said...

If the dust shows on the pictures it is probably on the sensor and if it won't blow off you may get stuck having to send it out. The Giotto rocket blower is pretty darn good. If the dust is on the focusing screen you may be able to take it off and blow it out, it depends on the camera model I suppose. Ken knows Nikons and might be able to tell ya if the screen opens up. It usually does if screens can be interchanged. Sadly, if the problem is caused by camera devils you might have to arrange for a exorcism on a midnight when the moon is full and the coyotes are howling.

Anonymous said...

I'm pretty sure Blue has experience with exorcisms.
I like the the b&w at the top, and the backlight hovering hawk.

Helen Killeen Bauch McHargue said...

Like them all.