Strolling Yellow-crowned Night HeronStrolling Yellow-crowned Night Heron – Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1/1500, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light

It has now been 4 days since I have been out in the field to photograph birds, longer than that if I subtract the day I went up north and came home with nothing but soft images because of air disturbance caused by heat waves,  cabin fever has begun to set in and I have grown tired of these leaden gray skies. It looks like I need to get through today, tomorrow and the next day before there “might” be enough light on Friday to go out looking for birds to photograph.

Weather January 10, 2017

Weather January 10, 2017

The screen shot above shows the weather here this morning and the cruddy stuff heading my way. I am where that red arrow and aqua dot is. Nice, right? The left side of the frame is where the Pacific coast is, there is plenty of rocky weather heading this way. I really don’t want to sound like I am complaining because the more moisture we get the better in this desert state especially up in the mountains where high levels of snow can mean a good spring run off to fill the reservoirs and maybe even raise the water elevation in the Great Salt Lake but day after day of gray does get to me a bit and it makes me think back on brighter, warmer days.

So this morning my mind drifted back to June of 2009, to a bright, warm day on the Gulf coast of Florida and a strolling Yellow-crowned Night Heron that I photographed as waves churned up behind it. The Yellow-crowned Night Heron came up on me while I was photographing a few shorebirds and I couldn’t resist taking a few photos as it casually walked past me on a ridge of sand heading south towards a lagoon. As I recall I pretty much had the beach and the birds to myself that morning and I was delighted by that and the soothing sound of the waves meeting the shore. It was a great morning spent following my passion for bird photography.

I have a ton of culling to get caught up on so I will work on that today while the gray clouds hang over the valley. If I stay busy the time will seem like it goes by faster.

Life is good.

Mia