Shooting The Wing

If the eye were a lens, and the brain a shutter, what images I could share with you! How often I lament my inability to capture so much of the beauty which accompanies my every waking moment. Yet, like the proverbial optomist, I continue to shoot and click - hoping, I suppose, some day to really have a half-full glass of the best-of-the-best to share with you.

Anyone who has pursued the winged creations knows the frustration. They are abundant. Any daylight hour, any season there is some flittering or fluttering, twittering or buzzing passerby tempting me to run outside and play chase! However, I am always 'it'. They are ever elusive. Thus when I capture a few decent images, I feel like I've really accomplished something.

Here are a couple dozen of the hundreds shot within the last week or so. Okay, so the first little guy doesn't really qualify, but, you have to admit he's cute - and he does look like he's curious to know what I'm going to post!

Birds in flight are particularly challenging. Obtaining the proper elevation from which to capture them at a good angle is better than half the challenge. Thus I was particularly pleased with my shot of this Northern Harrier.

Of course birds are not the only critters with wings. Catching a prone butterfly can also stretch, if nothing else, one's patience. Catching one highlighted by back or low side lighting - that is nothing short of pure luck!

Anyone who follows Elk Lake's Facebook page is familiar with the Heron who comes to dinner. Our spawning trout have become a Heron (and Eagle) smorgesboard. It is when they do not consume what they kill that I get upset. So, while I *loved* the photo opp, I was also giving him the evil eye!

Of course, not every bird photo opp presents itself 'on-the-wing' or in my backyard. In fact, not every one has even hatched (that was my 'first' duck nest find in the last 10 years)! Yet each and every one is special - if for no other reason than the images it evokes in my mind - sights, smells, sounds, the wind in my face, the light on the hillside - whatever the setting, whenever the moment. Each is another slice of life, a tidbit to be treasured, found only at Elk Lake!

So ends yet another series of gorgeous days at Elk Lake. I hope, wherever this summer finds you, you also are observing (and perhaps capturing) the beauty outside your door!

Lady of the Lake