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| Cascade Reservoir was literally a hotspot during our most recent visit. The west mountains above the Tamarack resort where aflame. This is also critical Great Gray Owl country. |
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| At least three helicopters were hauling large buckets of water to douse the flames. A couple planes with fire retardant were hard at work too. |
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| I add this picture just because you can see the water falling from the bucket of one of the helicopters. |
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| The firefighter camp in a meadow at the south end of the reservoir. |
Cascade Reservoir and the surrounding area is a fantastic Idaho birding location and for all kinds of other recreation year round. It is so good for birding in fact that the Idaho Birding Trail dedicated a section for both the
east and
west sides of the lake. Waterfowl and song bird rarities are often seen in this area. It is also a great place for owls and woodpeckers.
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Young Ring-billed Gull Correction: California Gull (Thanks Charles) - Who can tell me in which molt cycle? Come on you bird nerds! I know you can figure it out. |
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| A hunting Great Blue Heron - the setting was awesome, but my photography skills were not a match. How would you avoid over exposing in this scenario? |
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| Our girls running along the shore |
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| Claire playing with the muddy sand...Heaven! |
The heron sure found a great eating hole! Great setting. Hope they get the fire out - remember, fires are healthy for forests, right?
ReplyDeleteHi Bob. Nice shot of Ring-billed and for what it's worth I think it's a first summer in post juvenile moult. With the heron I would just point and shoot and use Adobe photoshop and there's not a lot wrong with your picture. I wish we had strong light like that most times.
ReplyDeleteSorry to see the forest fire, of course. Unfortunately I couldn't tell which molt your gull's in, either (long has it been since I lived anywhere that had gulls.) Lovely shots, though.
ReplyDeleteHope all went well and the fire got put out :/
ReplyDeleteThose bird shots are awesome!
I can only dream of nice lighting like that most days (hazy, dusty).
No idea with the gull though.
Robert -
ReplyDeleteWe drove through the area yesterday and it looks like the fire is out (although I hope it created some good woodpecker habitat!).
This gull is a first cycle gull but despite its bill markings it is a California Gull not a Ring-billed Gull. (I can go into detail but a look at Sibley should confirm this.)
I'm also getting into dSLR photography and proper exposure can be tricky. A couple things to try if you're not sure your meter will give you the right exposure would be to "bracket" the photo or use "exposure compensation" to alter the aperture w/o altering the shutter speed.
Charles.