Reifel Bird Sanctuary

From Photo of the day (2009)

From Photo of the day (2009)

Made a day trip out to Ladner for my birthday to meet a friend I hadn't seen in a few years and see the Reifel Bird Sanctuary which I haven't been to yet. Chuck brought his Canon Rebel XTi and I was armed with my Nikon. I was disappointed by all the fog - and how tame the ducks were - almost like a zoo. We had a train of them following almost constantly. I did like the tame Coots though as it is usually so hard to get decent shots of them. Towards the marsh end of the park were signs warning of the aggressive Sandhill cranes which can be dangerous in spring when they defend their nests. I was not expecting to see any in the thick soupy fog, but my studying for the bird call parts of my exams at UVic paid off when we heard a chorus of them off to the left. They got quite loud before taking of and doing a circle right over us and a few other onlookers before disappearing back into the fog - I managed to snap two shots, one of which, remarkably, came out quite well. I also liked this shot of this male pintail duck - they are not common visitors to city parks so to get such a close shot was nice. A bit of highlights/shadows editing to make up for the poor light and some sharpening brought both of these out pretty well.