Sunday, November 26, 2017

Post #123 - Photographing wintering waterfowl and other birds from my kayak

Wintering waterfowl have arrived! It took a bit of time for them to materialize from their more northerly nesting grounds, but wigeons, pintails, scaup, scoters, mergansers and everything in between have finally settled into their winter digs around the San Francisco Bay Area. I am very excited about these arrivals as they give me the perfect chance to dust off the kayak for some winter waterfowl photography. I currently have a Sea Eagle 385FT, a two person inflatable. It is very easy to cart around, assemble, and inflate; It takes just 15 minutes from car trunk to launch. It is also very comfortable, spacious, and stable, important considerations given the fancy photo gear that I am using it to haul around. It does take a considerable amount of effort to move through the water compared to a hardshell kayak, but hey, that's the price of portability and convenience. 


The beauty of the kayak is that it gets me out onto the water with the various waterfowl that I want to photograph. Waterfowl can be very skittish, but they seem less so when approached from the water and in boat as low profile as a kayak. Interesting, it's the act of paddling that seems to cause the birds the most angst; Birds seem much more tolerant of a drifting boat than an actively paddled one. This makes for a great photographic challenge as I must paddle the boat into the optimal photographic position while being every-ready to drop the paddle and quickly pick up the camera when the desired opportunity finally presents. This is particularly true for take-off and flight shots where I might only have a second or two to ditch the paddle, grab the camera, get the lens on the bird, acquire focus, and crack off a few frames. It's really hard but totally worth it when it all works!

***AS ALWAYS, CLICK IMAGES FOR 
HIGHER-RESOLUTION VIEWS***

Surf Scoter (male) - Melanitta perspicillata
Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS II on EOS 7D Mark II
1/3200 at f/5.6, ISO 400

Surf Scoter (male) - Melanitta perspicillata
Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS II on EOS 7D Mark II
1/5000 at f/5.6, ISO 500

As you can see from the close-up above, some individual birds will tolerate very close approach. Sometimes though, and particularly for flight shots, it's actually better not to get too close as it is important to have the space to capture the fully extended wings. There's nothing worse than getting a perfectly-focused, well-lit flight shot only to find out I've clipped even the slightest bit off the wing. I was stoked to get the full bird below!

Surf Scoter (male) - Melanitta perspicillata
Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS II on EOS 7D Mark II
1/4000 at f/5.6, ISO 400

Surf Scoters are both the most numerous and most approachable ducks in the Pillar Point Harbor where I have been doing most of my shooting. They are also relatively easy to expose, the white bits being comparatively small/unimportant to the much larger amounts of blacks. More challenging from both approachability and exposure standpoints are Buffleheads, the high-contrast speedsters of the waterfowl world. The trick is to get enough exposure to reveal their beautifully iridescent heads but not so much that all the whites are blown away.  

***Again, click images higher resolution views***

Bufflehead (male) - Bucephala albeola
Canon 500mm f/4 IS + 1.4x III on EOS 5D Mark IV
1/6400 at f/5.6, ISO 640

Bufflehead (female) - Bucephala albeola
Canon 500mm f/4 IS + 1.4x III on EOS 5D Mark IV
1/4000 at f/5.6, ISO 800

Bufflehead (male) - Bucephala albeola
Canon 500mm f/4 IS + 1.4x III on EOS 5D Mark IV
1/4000 at f/5.6, ISO 500

My recent outings have focused on waterfowl, but I have run into all sorts of other birds long the way. The murre below was at one point right next to the kayak, so close that I could have reached out, put my hand under it, and lifted it into the boat!

Common Murre (winter plumage) - Uria aalge
Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS II on EOS 7D Mark II
1/5000 at f/5.6, ISO 400

Common Loon (winter plumage) - Gavia immer
Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS II on EOS 7D Mark II
1/5000 at f/5.6, ISO 400

Common Loon (winter plumage) - Gavia immer
Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS II on EOS 7D Mark II
1/5000 at f/5.6, ISO 400

Lastly, I was also able to snap a nice shot of the the continuing immature Red-footed Booby that has been hanging around Half Moon Bay for the last month. He prefers sitting at the far end of a protective rockpile/jetty, and I was easily able to access that area with my kayak. This was ABA seen bird #724 for me (Tamaulipas Crow at the Rio Grande Birding Festival was #723). He's very regular and predictable, so much so that I've seen him on all 4 of my recent Half Moon Bay Outings. And yes, I also got him for the bike list! So that was pretty cool.

Red-footed Booby - record shot

So, that's it. I hope I've sold you on the kayak as a great way to photograph waterfowl and other water birds. I'll certainly be doing more of this through the winter, so please so stay tuned for more results in the near future. 

This next week I'll be taking a cruise ship pelagic from Los Angeles to Vancouver. My main target bird is Mottled Petrel, and I'll have an information-packed recap for you when I return next week. I'll also have 2 days birding and photographing in Vancouver, so hopefully that will yield some good blog fodder as well!

4 comments:

  1. As usual, great shots. How much angst do you have with a lot expensive photo equipment in a kayak? One can stow it in waterproof bags, but then its not immediately accessible.

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  2. The inflatable is super stable, so I have zero reservations about it flipping over. If I'm paddling into the wind, water sometimes splashes into the boat, but not so much that a towel placed over my gear isn't enough to fend it off. All the gear that I use is designed for professional use and, as such, can take a fair amount of abuse. That's not to say it would survive a plunge into the sea, but it is durable and weather sealed. It's quite easy to have my 5D4/500/1.4 and my 7D2/100-400 between my legs and reach for the appropriate rig at the appropriate time.

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  3. Wonderful shots. Have you tried a pedal-drive kayak, like the Hobie mirage drive? Seems like that would be ideal for photography as it would leave your hands free, and less likely to spook birds than flailing with a paddle.

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    Replies
    1. Great idea! And no, I haven't tried the pedal-drive approach. My issue is that I do not own property and have a very tiny apartment, so the inflatable is the only way I can go at the moment since i have nowhere to store anything larger. All the pedal-types that I have seen are hardshells, unfortunately.

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