Playing catch up

For Thanksgiving I was in the LA area. All of the bird photographers in that area go to San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary and I wanted to check it out. Fortunately it is a quick 5 minute drive from my Aunt's house where I was staying and went on the morning after Thanksgiving (also known as Black Friday to the shopping world) So, as the country was beating up one another for the new x-box or whatever was on sale I was in a peaceful, serene sanctuary (with an airport next door! haha, only LA!). I don't think I have ever seen so many different water foul species in one small area before. I don't have photos of every species, but there is a good representation below.

First, a cinnamon teal, Anas cyanoptera, which is an interesting little duck that has bright red eyes and a bill like a shoveler.

 

Next, an American coot, Fulica americana, which looks like a duck, but they do not have webbed feet. Instead they have large claws. They, like the cinnamon teals, have red eyes too. 

 

 The next two photos are of great egrets, Ardea alba.

 Why did the heron cross the road? Yeah, I really don't know I just thought it looked funny when he was walking across...

 This photo is of a black-chinned hummingbird, Archilochus alexandri. (The next photo is also a black-chinned) I was working on getting the moon in the background and as I was working to get the moon in focus- which required me to back up from the hummingbird and use the smallest f-stop I could- he decided he was going to fly away. Before he did I managed to get a cute butt shot and the moon in there but not quite in focus yet.

 The last two photos are black-necked stilts, Himantopus mexicanus, sleeping and pruning. I have actually never seen so many stilts in one spot before, there were probably about 100 all together.

As always, thanks for checking out my photos and comments are always appreciated! :) Also, If you want to see any photos larger you can click on the image and it will open to the size I uploaded the photo as.