Bolivar Shorebirds
Here are a few shots from my last trip to Bolivar Flats. Turned out to be almost perfect conditions with low wind, calm water and low tide. The light about 1/2 hour before sunrise was amazing. Sheldon and I want out wading in the gulf to get some flight shots while David went to find a spot to shoot from. We should have followed him. Had to do a double take while wading around when I saw a fin come up out of the water. Glad that no one was playing Jaws music at the time. Using my higher intellect, ie. opened my eyes, to detect that it was just a dolphin. I’ve never seen one before on that side of the jetty close to shore. It was very cool to see. Small groups of Avocets kept flying by us so there were some decent flight shot opportunities.
We eventually moved to stake out some sand bars to get down low and shoot the birdies. David was the furthest inland already shotting away, Sheldon was in the middle and I was on the outskirts. There were more avocets there that day than I’ve ever seen. Had to be hundreds if not thousands of them. It’s a challenge to shoot them while they are in such large groups. They tend to stick together and getting an isolated shot is tuff. That’s where being on the outer edge helped as some individual ones wondered in my direction. Had some crappy backgrounds (Sheldon) to deal with but it was all good. We kept following David around and he came upon the Peregrine Falcon that has been hanging out around there. Too bad that he didn’t fly our direction when he launched but it’s always cool to see him. Overall a great morning.
Tim Timmis Photography 
Beautiful photos Tim! From isolating the shots, a great lift, a neat feeding catch and the two twins. Excellent work.
January 28, 2011 at 7:31 am
Beautiful!
January 28, 2011 at 10:45 am
Like a the Sheldon backdrop…
January 28, 2011 at 11:40 am
WOW Tim…….these are all amazing!! The colors are great and the timing on the lift-off was perfect. Can’t say I am too crazy about the background in your last image though………”very” distracting…..:)
January 29, 2011 at 2:52 am
Thanks David. It was another good time at Bolivar.
January 29, 2011 at 9:53 pm
Thanks Melissa
January 29, 2011 at 9:53 pm
Sometimes it’s hard to control the backgrounds. I usually have to worry about boats and buildings, not Sheldon.
January 29, 2011 at 9:54 pm
Thanks Sheldon. You just need to start wearing camo so that you fade into the background.
January 29, 2011 at 10:19 pm