Snow Geese, Lots and Lots of Snow Geese

It was quite cloudy here in North Vancouver when I woke up this morning. And the clouds didn't clear as the afternoon approached. Yesterday it absolutely poured all day so I didn't get out to shoot but I had to take at least one photo this weekend. It was at this point a thought occurred to me.... most of the time, the clouds stick close to the mountains. This left me Ladner and Tsawwassen as places to go take photos that are far from the mountains.

I decided once again to go to the Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary in Ladner and try for some duck photos. However just before I reached the entrance, a photo opportunity presented itself, or themselves I should say. Snow Geese. LOTS of Snow Geese. I really don't have any photos of Snow Geese other than a shot of a flock of them from quite far away so I couldn't pass this up.

And above I mentioned there were LOTS of them....here's what I mean.

1/1500 @ f/6.7, ISO 400, 170mm

I took a bunch of photos of them and had to stop when a passing car stopped and decided to feed the birds. The reason I stopped was because the entire flock flew away. I personally said my "thank you" in a very sarcastic tone to the car full of life's D students and decided it was a good time to head into the sanctuary.

For whatever reason there weren't too many birds in the sanctuary today so after about 30 minutes I decided to take off.... just like all those Snow Geese. Thanks Again people.

However it turns out 30 minutes is enough time to allow Snow Geese to return to their field. I pulled the truck over and continued taking photos of the Snow Geese.

1/1500 @ f/8, ISO 640, 400mm

After taking a good amount of photos and feeling like I had some keepers, it was time to head home. But I started thinking, I'm already in Ladner, why not head down to Tsawwassen and see what Boundary Bay has to offer in terms of photo opportunities. So I did and I'm glad I made that choice because I came across a pretty interesting Great Blue Heron.

I was able to get fairly close to the GBH which is always good. But I could tell it had some trust issues, if that makes any sense. For the first 10 minutes it just stared at me. It completely forgot about trying to catch dinner and just watched me. But once that 10 minutes passed, it realized I wasn't a threat to it and continued looking for food. Another 10 minutes pass and it finally found something to try and eat...key word, try.

1/1000 @ f/8, ISO 640, 400mm

The above photo is of the GBH not catching a fish.

And the below photo is of it looking quite embarrassed after.

1/1000 @ f/8, ISO 640, 400mm

It stared at the water waiting for fish for another 10 or so minutes and finally took off. I did the same and overall it turned into a pretty decent weekend, photo wise.

The rest of the Snow Geese photos can be found here

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2434819&id=61927899276

And the rest of the GBH photos can be found here

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2434744&id=61927899276

Thanks for reading,

Brandon Broderick