I went out to Whytecliff last Sunday morning since i hadn't been there in a while.
The place was crawling with divers though.
The tide was coming up and the Harlequin ducks fled as soon as i lumbered down to the rocks leaving me with not much to shoot at.



all i typically get are hybrids still i liked the comp.

Had a little fun today after work though.
It was still early in the day and i wanted to get some shooting done so went to West Vancouver and noticed along the way that it had started to rain.
Since i travel with blind in car i thought i'd bring it out and set-up on shore in hopes of not spooking the Harleys and whatever else was there.
It was cool because no one was there (although i found out Wu had been there earlier).
Blind popped open in a flash and i found it blocked the wind and rain nicely.
Of course the harlequins fled as usual but i was determined to wait them out.

In the meantime 3 Common mergansers swam around nearby.



as well, i got close but brief looks at a small group of Barrow's



and

Black Oystercatcher



An hour and a bit went by but the harlequins didn't come back and i decided to pack it in.
My decision was hastened by a couple of large waves that came in and had me jumping
It took me forever to get the damned blind to fold back into it's pouch.
10 minutes later i got the twisting motions right and was a bit flustered.
Good thing it took so long though because as soon as the blind was done the Harlequins flew back from wherever they had been.
I scrambled to get my gear out again and was successful in getting a few long-rangish shots to cap a fun afternoon.



thanks for looking

All very nice, but I especially like the merganser pose.

can I ask you what size lens you've used for these?

Hi Paul (quite a few Paul's on this forum ),
bread and butter is my second-hand non-VR 500mm f4 AFS along with it's sidekick, a 1.4x teleconverter, giving me an effective range of 700mm.
1.5x crop factor of D300 helps as well to bring the subject in closer.

I really like the harlequin duck, especially now than I know all the efforts involved in that picture. It's always a pleasure to read your stories Paul. i was just wondering what kind of "blind" are you using. Is it some kind of tent?
Thanks in advance

Thanks Paul! That's my one beef about Olympus - the longest lens they make is my 300mm.

http://birding.bc.ca/community/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2706

i'm not really actively selling it anymore, and i'm sure you could find a comparable one for less money but it shows what it is, i just have to get better at folding it back up

Thanks for this Paul. It must be very useful in some cases to have one of these blinds.

Nice shots indeed. Call me crazy, but I like your Seagull pic the best!

I've never been to Whytecliff for birding, so I guess I should check it out since it's not that far.

Superb work again Paul, the Barrow's and Harlequin duck shots are great! Silly question but are the Harlequin ducks predominantly marine based or do they ever venture into parks or lakes? Something tells me no.

They are sea ducks and extremely shy, usually prefer rocky beaches like the seawall.

Just beautiful pictures.

I like the high key pic of the merganser as well as the beautiful harlequin duck.