Sea Gulls Have Models Too!

Some of you will think that I am making this up, while others may think something equally worse, like maybe," he's had to many shots of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky." While both make me look bad, it is also funny to know that the captions under the images ARE accurate about these birds. 

One thing that I have learned the past 17 years is that animals are way smarter than we give them credit. Especailly, with waterfowl, they  have such keen smell, sound and sight. They watch our every move. While editing images, I always look to see what the subject is doing and then look to see what the subject is looking at. It's amazing that generally, they are focused on us more than we are foused on them. Some---I tell you---act as if they are models.

Like a Crow, Sea Gulls do remember individual humans. These three were flying a couple of miles from where I usually shoot images of them flying. They made a big circle and came back and paraded infront of me sitting on a park bench. After looking at some of my previous images...these three are in most of my images of seagulls.Not all...but most!

 

This one is one of my favorites.It will pose for the camera until it hears the click and motor run end. Then, it parade and watch to see if the camera is pointed at it. It then, does the same thing and will stop to pose until it hears that click and motor run end.

This one is the same one that flew in and landed on the post of the dock at Sun Set Bay. All three are camera hounds!! I'm telling you....they know what they are doing. 

Fishing Was So Good, I Went Back A Second Day

It seems amazing to watch a cormorant dive for fish, but they have been doing that for thousands of years. In Southeast Asia, fisherman train them to bring up fish to the boat. They have a cord around the cormorants neck so that a fish cannot be swallowed while they are working!

Anyway, with the heavy rains of the past, the tidal pool is full of fish that came over the dam and down the spillway into the tidal pool. And that's where the cormorants and Great Egret and Great Blues have been fishing in extraordinary numbers of late. I've got in nearly 8 hours and  hundreds of shots that tell this fish story.

Nice Fish!

And Another Fine Catch

The Old Birds Know To Get Away From The Crowds that try to steal your catch.

The Return of the Big Pelicans

A pelican takes flight

It's nature's  Park Bench for the Birds !

The pelicans have returned to the lake once again. The gulls will follow soon. Then--the cycle ends and it starts all over again for next year. Somethings in life are timed by their cycles.