Gopher Snake, California Bunny, Golden Plover (20161024) Last photo day in California for this trip

We drove home last night from Palm Springs in a Lightening and rain storm, a bit of an anomaly in Southern Cal.  and when we awoke on Monday morning it was still raining. I was disappointed to be held indoors for most of the day as I was hoping to get back to my favourite Bolsa Chica. Later in the day Neil and I decided to brave the remaining mist and head over. I knew the lighting conditions were going to be tough with ISO never being below 2000 just to get any image. The background skies in this Long-billed Curlew shot will give you some idea of the grey type of day it was.

These are such unique birds I just love shooting them whenever and whereever I find them. Here is a second image.

Now I am going to throw in a shot from a previous post that shows a Reddish Egret. I do that to provide an introduction to this video. This little "short" will provide more context of the conditions we were shooting under. The video to watch the entertainment is HERE.

As we made our way back to the car to head over to a separate area of the park we captured this Gopher Snake. Yet another first for both the blog and I.

Estimate length of this sweetie is about 6 feet. Here is a second, zoomed in image.

Whenever I get a chance to shoot uncommon birds for me, especially when I can get a number of them in a frame, I shoot them. Here are 6 Black-crowned Night Herons resting next to the Pacific Coast Highway at Bolsa Chica.

We didn't get away from the weather totally. Here you can see a few raindrops in this next shot along with a beautiful Western Grebe.

As we walked the other area we were pleased to find this American Golden Plover, that due to its postion allowed for a nice bokehed image.

If I have a current nememis bird for a great shot it is this one. The Belted Kingfisher is known to be a difficult bird to get, so I will have to settle for this ong distance landing image.

I thought this little group of Blue-winged Teals deserved an appearance here.

Then all of a sudden the Sun made an appearance and I was able to shoot this wonderfully cooperative California Rabbit.

When I was able to shoot this "golden" in golden light with a golden background I had to take the shot.

We had been watching this Northern Harrier make its passes back and forth along the shoreline. I found the use of its legs to help in steering the course to be very interesting. I don't ever recall watching a Harrier using this manoever.

I'll wrap up this post and this entire trip with what I think is a terrific Golden image taken in "golden" hour light, non silhoette version.

This just goes to show you why I love coming to Cali, even on a very tough day there are spots where you are ging to find subjects to shoot. It also is a great place to put a little "wild" in your life!
Turbo