Day 14 ** CBWPC 2010/2011

12/26/10

Well, it was a very cold morning to be in the blind….but someone’s gotta do it…I got to the ranch at 8am and set up my gear in my blind, it was 30 degrees, a bit warmer than it was earlier. I was set up by 8:30am and ready, but nothing happened, hmmmmm.

At 10:00am, I decided to drive thru the ranch. I went towards Margaret’s Pond and nothing there either….so I drove over to the Little Swing Gate area. The landowners have shredded it since I last tried going down there, so I toured the area, it’s gorgeous….found a really cool area with lots of big oak down in the creek, might be a great photo area for later….

I then headed back to Coyote Hill and saw something in the brush just before getting to the owl blind. It was a roadrunner and he was hunting for food. I think it’s the same one I’ve “captured” before, cause he wasn’t scared of me….walked right up to the truck. I got the camera, the Canon 5d Mark II, 1.4x and 500mm and handheld it for a series of shots….the 5d is a little bit lighter than the 1d, so I was able to shoot some clear shots hand holding it….wow.

The bird just kept coming, it wasn’t afraid of me and I really thought it was going to climb up on the truck….it got all bulled up like it was trying to scare me off, interesting behavior…I was able to retrieve my Gitzo tripod from the bed of the truck and got the camera stablizied, but the bird walked off into the next field. I watched it and kept photographing as it was hunting for food. Got some great stuff.

Here are a couple I won’t be entering, figured you’d enjoy seeing a some pixs of it…..

Blessings to all….sylvia

You talking to me!!

Bird on a mission........