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| Red-shouldered Hawk Take-off, SF Botanical Garden |
My favorite shots today weren't of the vagrant Northern Waterthrush. In fact, I almost failed to get any shots of the rare bird at all.
As I was walking around the northern edge of the Ancient Plant Garden (where all those Chilean rhubarbs are) I spotted the small bird bobbing down by the little creek. I knew what it was right away, having viewed video of it on All About Birds a couple of weeks ago.
I spun the exposure dial down a few clicks before I even brought the camera up to my eye, then fired off a few frames, only to realize my exposure was still about two stops too low. In the time it took to dial in the correct exposure, the bird had utterly disappeared. I spent a lot of time trying to find it again to no avail. Later, after I'd wandered around the garden for a couple of hours, I even returned to the area for another thorough look. No dice.
I wasn't sure if I could coax a decent picture out of those dark files, but Lightroom saved me again.
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| Northern Waterthrush |
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| The squirrel was gnawing on the fruit of one of the area's trees and was much easier to photograph. |
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| I'd arrived late in the morning, about 11:30, and wasn't seeing many birds. As I rounded the back of the Children's Garden, a red-shouldered hawk swooped onto a nearby branch, then soon flew over to perch on the fence. |
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| The hawk tested my determination to wait for it to take off again. |
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| Interestingly, it landed on a new perch just a little ways past me, completely unbothered by having a camera pointed at him at such close range. |
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| California Scrub Jay |
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| The jay was content to pose for a few shots as well. |
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| I was surprised to see a few pipevine swallowtail butterflies today, but I was unable to photograph any of them. A couple of monarchs were also fluttering in the sun's warmth. |
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| Back in the Ancient Plant Garden and looking in vain for the waterthrush, a Townsend's warbler consoled me with some close-ups. |
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| A yellow-rumped warbler also passed through, but much higher up. |
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