The first few are from a stroll Tim and I took yesterday.  I didn’t bring a telephoto lens, but noticed that there was some amazing bird life and decided to come back today and practice some birds-in-flight shots.  As you’ll see from the photos below, I still have a lot to learn, though I think there are some fun shots.

Note:  I don’t know much about birds.  It’s entirely possible that I have completely mislabeled the birds below which (1) would be a deep disappointment to the judge for whom I clerked and (2) I encourage any of you to correct.

First:  a red-winged blackbird, reminding me of long ago days in Missouri.

Lucky enough to catch it in flight, which inspired me to practice more birds-in-flight shots today.

Not tack sharp, but fun.  (A sort of refrain for my photos.)

Fuzzy gosling bottoms!

Part of the point of returning this morning was to see pelicans, which a fellow photographer we met promised would be flocking in abundance in the morning.  When I arrived, the lone pelican was . . .  still asleep.

Rough night, Pelican?  Luckily it woke up after a short time, and I got some excellent pelican shots.

 

Here are some of my birds-in-flight practice, with varying results, starting with my favorite:  a bit of avian remodeling.

 

This next photo was a bust, focus-wise, but I thought the effect was sort of cool.

This heron photo seems unremarkable or even slightly disgusting, given all the crud the heron is wading in.

I was going to delete it until I realized that the no small part of the debris consists of tennis balls — circled in red below.

It’s a popular park for dogs but they’re not supposed to swim in the lake.  The evidence suggests otherwise.

More birds:

Something large laid its eggs by the side of the small island in the lake.

It was very buggy.  I’ve decided to blame that for any excessive graininess, rather than possible photographer error.

Randomness.  For example, random grapes in the middle of the path.

Random floating art (I think).

Squirrel!