I had hoped to get a blurry shot or two of the Cave Swallow at Iona but hadn't heard a positive report since Wednesday, heading out there first thing probably wouldn't be the best anyways, for i planned to get up at my regular work day time of 5:15am and just head out with my camera.
Since Boundary Bay was a blast last friday i decided to start there again, only i got there so early i had to wait in my car almost 1/2 an hour for it to be light enough to see anything
There was only one other car parked and i found out later it belonged to the lone hunter, set-up by the waterline, duck decoy wings flapping in the wind and his duck call going over-time. I secretly hoped that my movement out there would discourage any ducks from falling for this guy's blood-sport but at the same time i didn't want to get too close, for obvious reasons.
It was kind of cool to have the whole place to yourself, first time it has every happened to me there.
I saw a couple of great whites and was able to get some shots of a pair from a distance.
I was using the 500mm and the 1.4x tele and got pretty wet, crouched down on my knees.
One of the 2 birds i encountered decided to do a bit of flying around but the other was content to stay put and i was able to nail some shots, again from distance.
I've always wanted to get one of these (and Shorties for that matter) on a nice stump and this one will do i think.
Getting my shots and leaving with the bird still perched meant good bird karma for me as an American Dipper flew out of nowhere and landed by me at Maplewood later that morning
Images cropped, ISO 800, no flash.
PS, i never saw the Cave Swallow at Iona (did get a couple of blurry shots of Barn swallows though) but did meet a couple of nice birders out looking for it at the same time.
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