Thursday, April 10, 2008

The warm weather is here and I am back in my yak. Of course, some guys had it even better than me.

It was a beauty of a day. I couldn’t ask for better weather for my first day out. T-shirt weather. Calm water, very little wind till I was coming in, but nothing to write home about.

Besides the pair pictured above, I saw an Osprey, a Merganser (that I once again failed to get a decent shot of), a few Great Egrets, Mallards, Yellowlegs, and a couple of Double Crested Cormorants. I also saw a Belted Kingfisher. Those guys are fast and I’ve never been happy with any shots I’ve taken of them, but another season awaits.

I went out with the high hopes of getting a Merganser pic before they leave town. I think they summer north of here, but with any luck I’m wrong and I’ll have more opportunities to blow it like I did today. Two minutes after I’m on the river there he is, standing pretty as a picture that I won’t get to take, on the right bank of the little inlet where I put usually put in. And there I am, with my camera still in my dry bag, grinning that grin because I know he’s gonna take off on me before I can get said camera to focus, which he promptly does. Of course.

I just missed on a couple of Mallards, but I got a decent shot or two of the Yellowlegs. I’ll try to post one tomorrow. JK