Shorebird Jackpot
Hit the jackpot last weekend at Bolivar Flats with my shorebird friends. The morning started out a little boring but ended up with a bang. Tried to get close to a group of Avocets by wading out into the Gulf with my intent to lay down on a sandbar that was still several inches under water. Decided that it wasn’t a great idea with a pricy lens in tow. Moved my position around a couple of times and ended up lying next to a small tide pool area with several Avocets hanging out beyond it. Couldn’t get closer without spooking them so I decided to get into a decent shooting position and wait for them to come to me, I hoped. Was rewarded when one Snowy Egret came into my area to catch a fish. That attrackted several more Snowy’s and other birds. Ended up with having 6 Avocets, 6 Snowy Egrets, 3 Willets and a Yellow Legs within 30 ft of me. They got too close at 700mm and I had to settle for head shots in the end. A great problem to have.
It was a good day with taking 3627 photos. Took a while to sort through them all but ended up with saving 1200 with 146 being potential wall hangers. Here is one of my favorite Avocets from this outing. Only cropped to a vertical shot. More to come…
Taken with Canon 7D and Canon 500mm F4 IS II lens with 1.4x III teleconverter using a Skimmer ground pod with Wimberley II gimbal head
1/1000 sec @ F 10, ISO 250, evaluative metering, -1/3 exposure compensation, 700mm
Tim Timmis Photography 
WOW ! Love love love this photo! So do you wear special gear to lay in the water so long or do you just get soaked? That really must be a sight to see.
December 5, 2012 at 3:06 pm
Beautiful capture! Like the head angle and light along with the perfect background. What’s not to like…Great Job!
December 5, 2012 at 4:41 pm
Thanks Bella. The goal is to not lay in the water but that almost never happens as the sand bars typically have some water on them. In the winter I wear waders and a coat but still get wet. For the rest of the year, I just get wet wearing jeans and a shirt. Clean up is the biggest pain but well worth it.
Here is a link to an early blog post on what I look like in the more muddy areas of the flats.
https://timtimmisblog.com/2011/02/01/down-and-dirty/
December 5, 2012 at 6:52 pm
Thanks David. I was pleased on how this one turned out. It was nice to see some individual Avocets walking towards me. Good times.
December 5, 2012 at 6:53 pm
Tim, great photo – the light is the thing that makes it!
December 6, 2012 at 12:28 am
Thanks Rick for commenting. I would have liked even better light just after sunrise but I didn’t make it over to this spot early enough and when I did the birds were just standing around and not moving. Luckily they finally came in my direction.
December 6, 2012 at 4:44 am