Okay, so I can’t seem to stay away from shooting birds at the Commons Open Space. So much so that lately that is all I can do! Met a couple of other photographers this morning and yesterday morning drawn by the Great Horned Owls that have become celebrities here in Broomfield these past couple weeks. Monday, in fact, the parks service put up orange snow fence to keep people away from the tree where the nest is. An unbelievable number of relentless snapshot takers were trying to get in right under the nest (where you can’t even see the owls from there anyway) because their camera phones and point and shoots can’t get a decent shot of them from a distance. These types of things are irk me to no end. I find it irksome. Bunch of inconsiderate irks…Anyway…Keeping a respectful distance from the area, I was surprised to see the male owl keeping watch (though napping too) a couple trees away in the sun. I had a great view with almost no branches obscuring the shot, and great morning light to boot. Other than the attraction of the owls, a Crested Cormorant was fishing in the pond. I must have been knelt down for at least forty five minutes trying to get a good click of him with a fish in his mouth. The trouble I was having was that he would dive down, and I couldn’t tell where he was going to surface again. This required some very quick reflexes, which wasn’t a problem, except the camera’s auto-focus was having trouble acquiring the subject fast enough. So I got two so-so images out of about a hundred. Yellow-headed Blackbirds are more abundant this year than they have been in the past, and are just a cool bird to photograph in the bright light with their contrasty plumage. One of the other photographers I met directed my attention to a couple of Northern Flickers that had carved a home out of the old cottonwood near the small parking lot off of Lowell Boulevard. Yesterday the Flickers were residents, today the European Starlings had taken over that prime piece of real estate. Of course the Red Tail Hawks were circling, with some nice clouds as a backdrop yesterday as well. This morning the star of the blue sky was a lone Peregrine Falcon that I nearly missed shooting. He flew directly above me at a high rate of speed, and I almost fell over backward trying to get the shot! I wasn’t sure if I made a decent shot, since the technique ended up being more “spray and pray” than careful shooting. Whatever the method, I got lucky and came away with a nice click.
