I was exhausted last night, and hit the sack at 7:00 PM. I ended up waking up a little early, so I decided to visit local wildlife refuge. They've been doing major construction to the road leading to the refuge, so I was hoping to beat the construction crews. Nope. Construction stopped me about 1/4 mile from the place, so I had to turn around and go ALL the way around to come in the back way. Great, I lost 15 minutes so now I'll be lucky to get 45 minutes of shooting before I have to get to work. Grumble.
I made the long detour, cursing the entire way. When I got back near the refuge a construction truck was blocking the street. And I do mean blocking, since they had a backhoe filling a dumptruck. I had to wait and wait and wait and wait while the truck got loaded with dirt. After most of an eternity the dumptruck was full, and I was able to drive down to the refuge. But I was down to 35 minutes of shooting. Grumble moan.
I parked, grabbed the camera and the 400mm L, and a single gig card since there's no way I'd fill a gig in 30 minutes. Stupid construction cost me a half hour, and they'll probably block me on the way out, too! Grumble moan snort grrrr!
I walked down the trail, which is a dike between two ponds, and the place was dead. Grumble grumble. Nothing. Moan whine snort. Not even a goose! Grumble grumble moan whine snort grrr ARGH!
Now I'm thinking that I won't get a single shot, let alone fill a gig card. I debated just going to work early, but the very thought of such a deed snapped me back to reality and I began to hope for even a very slim chance of maybe possibly even seeing a bird.
The morning sucks. Why did I bother getting up early??
Whine whine whine....
So I got to the first opening in the marsh grass, and snuck down to the edge of the pond. This opening gives the first good view of the left pond, and there's a big "puddle" frequented by peeps and sometimes even a green heron, so I'm careful to hide behind the marsh grass on one side. Sneak sneak sneak slip crunch stupid rocks sneak sneak.
I managed to sneak up on a big dry spot that had once been a puddle. We've been relatively rain-free, and I looked around and realized that practically the entire pond has dried up.
And birds? NOTHING!
Grumble moan.... Forget it. I'm way too depressed to grumble by this time.
So I headed back up to the dike, making a lot of noise hoping to scare any bird in the refuge and maybe get a flight shot of a distant pixel with wings. Nothing. So I headed to the next opening in the marsh grass.
This opening exists to allow the water to flow between the two ponds. There's a culvert under/through the dike, with big grates on each side, and deeper channels leading through the centers of the ponds. The grates are normally blocked, and the Park Rangers open them to control the water levels between the two ponds. As I mentioned we've been dry so the channels on either side of the culvert are the only places there's water today. The pond is usually only a foot deep, so the channels are the deepest parts and the fish congregate in or near the channels. So I know that if a GBH is anywhere around it will be here at this channel.
So I creep up quietly just in case there's a GBH fishing (fat chance today!) and lo and behold there's a GBH! (Yippee!) He was standing perfectly still with an eye cocked towards the water. He's so damn still that the water is a mirror, and there's a perfect reflection of him.
But he's too close for the 400mm, so I take a few quick headshots just in case he flies.
Then I backed up across the dike and he's still too close. So I backed *all* the way up and curled the toes of one foot over the edge of the grate as a warning not to back up any more. I aim, focus, fire off 4 shots, and chimp them. I was unsteady since I'm hanging off the grate, so I cropped him, either the head or butt, in all four shots. So I do it again. Got 1 that time. So I do it again and again. I manage to get a few shots where he's just barely in the frame completely. Well, no legs, but at least his entire body and head are in the frame.
Man, I should brought the 100-400 since zooming out would have given me a very nice reflection shot. A *perfect* reflection shot. But all I have is a prime. Bummer.
Suddenly WHAM! and he snags a fish. Clickclickclickclick and I snag a few frames.
Then he starts to walk away, the bastard! A few more clicks every time he turns his head to give me a shot.
He walked up to shore and threw the fish down. I snagged a few more shots as the fish flopped around with the GBH watching. The fish was kicking around a lot, so they should make good shots...
Well, not really, since this pic doesn't show the fish kicking too much.
Well, not at all I guess.
But it was very exciting watching the fish kick around.
Trust me.
WHAM! and he snags the fish again, tosses his head a few times, and slaps it to the ground. WHAM and he snags it again.
He then takes it over to the water and washes it off.
A toss and the fish is back on the bank, and the GBH stares at it.
Wham! Wash. Toss.
Wham! Wash. Toss.
This went on for 8 solid minutes. (Yes, I checked the times on the pics. EXIF is good.) He threw that fish to the ground at least a dozen times, and washed it 4 or 5 times. Meanwhile, the CF card is filling up since I'm trying to time the attacks and fish flops. (I didn't get a single attack timed correctly. And as you've already seen, this digital still camera doesn't really show the fish slopping much. Harumph.)
After snapping a lot of this playtime I had 10 shots left, and he's not done with this fish. And I don't dare chimp and delete since he'll probably do something while I'm chimping. So I wait.
Click. Clickclick on another couple shots. And then I have the idea to switch to JPG, and suddenly I have 24 shots left on the card. Cool.
Good timing on my part, as he picked up the fish, tossed his head back, and swallowed.
This swallow routine was a series I took in JPG, never releasing the shutter button for the 5 seconds it took, and I have 30-something shots of a GBH swallowing a fish.
And here they are....
http://www.itsanadventure.com …GBHSwallow/GBHSwallow.htm
Warning: There are 26 images, cropped and quick-processed and not up to standard, and they total about 736K. But if you've never seen a GBH swallow a fish...
With 2 shots left - JPG only, not even enough room for a single RAW - he decided to mosey on, and he caught a little minnow as desert. I grabbed a couple reflection shots in JPG.
IMAGE: http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/GBH_61037.jpg
And I was done for the morning.
Which, apparently, was much better than I thought it was going to be...
