More birds in flight, a turtle, and a foggy sunset

Doing landscape photography had made me inclined to dislike sunny, cloudless blue skies. Clouds add drama to the sky and often to the light falling on the scene as well. On the other hand, a sunny afternoon (March 9) lake outing (my third or fourth real attempt at shooting birds in flight) made me appreciate the good qualities this kind of day can have for catching avian aerobatics. The underside of a bird in flight over a body of water is illuminated by daylight reflected off that water. It's hard to top the strength of non-cloud-filtered sunlight when you're relying on a reflection of the source.

The turkey buzzard was not over the lake, but soaring over the land nearby.

No wing tips ever touched the water:

Crows are so dark, they're difficult to expose for some detail and highlights while retaining color in the bright sky above.

Really close encounter with the moon, and no - no Photoshop manipulation, the bird and moon were in exactly that relationship.

Even when I'm trying to watch for surprise overhead flybys, I try to remember to look down occasionally. I think this is a box turtle, but I never saw more than this much of it.

Finally the sun was at a low enough angle to throw some light across this crow's wings. It's a pretty specimen, in my opinion.

And a lovely foggy sunset ended the day!

[Gear: Canon EOS 1DX and 1DMkIV, 300/2.8 L IS II + Ext 2XIII, 100-400/4.5-5.6 L IS]

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