Today we were headed to Oswego to photograph a lighthouse while there was still ice in the harbor but as it happens all too often we were visiting and the time flew by so we decided to postpone this particular adventure until we had more time and a better list of things to do.
Instead we headed down to Pillar Point to see if there was any ice piling up, as it does from time to time. No dice, no ice. At least the accumulation we were hoping to see.
However… we did see some water birds. They were a ways off and smallish so I pulled out the longest lens and took a few shots. Close up examination on a small camera screen is sometimes near impossible, especially when the subjects are so far away.
When we arrived home and pulled the files up on a bigger screen we confirmed they were goldeneye ducks.
It’s easy to tell why they earned that name. The eyes are brilliant yellow gold. The white cheek helps to identify them from a distance.
Even though they were quite a ways off we had fun watching them dive under the ice and appear in an other hole. This is about as close as we could get and the sun was not optimum but there will be more chances.
On a side note, these guys were really hustling and this is a hand held panning shot and fairly tight crop at that using my new 80-300 Nikon lens. I am beginning to like this lens and feel like it is a good addition to my bag.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.