Leon Turnbull Photography

I went back to Folsom River (Lake?) again the other morning to do some more bird watching. I like this location for a couple reasons: (1) there’s usually no one else there so early in the morning. Sometimes I see fishermen here, but it seems to be even too cold for them at this time of year, and (2) I can usually spot quite a few birds along the river (lake?) here. This morning I saw a heron, plenty of geese (of course), a rock wren, other unidentifiable birds, a woodpecker, and plenty of these killdeer (shown above here). I am really starting to like the rock wrens because (a) they are cute, and (b) they don’t seem to care if I get very close to them. The heron took off before I got within a hundred miles of it (slight exaggeration). So I concentrated on stalking these killdeer, which I have not seen at this location before. They don’t like you getting very close to them either, and this was the only good shot I was able to get of these birds. As you can see there was frost on the ground, and thus it was rather cold. I didn’t spend much time here because I had to get to church for music practice, but on the way back to my car, I saw a woodpecker and I got a somewhat decent shot of it as well which I may post a bit later.

You may be thinking I’ve been more into bird watching lately than landscapes or waterfalls, and whazz up with that ? Well, I just think that bird watching can be a nice change of pace and can also be rather fun. Sometimes (such as this morning), I don’t have enough time to go find a nice location for sunrise. But frankly, I do prefer shooting the landscapes. Landscapes don’t move around constantly. They just sit there. The only thing that moves is the sun, and as long as you are in the right spot before the sun gets there, you are good to go. I can handle that. But nonetheless, I had a fun morning shooting the birdies down at the local river (lake?).