I was planning to share some fascinating raptor behaviour with you but an expert friend of mine has sent my image to expert friends of his and I haven’t heard back yet – hopefully next week. In the meantime I recently captured an image of a young Silver Gull that captured my imagination.
Silver Gull (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae) – juvenile
Canon 7DII, 1/2500, f/8.0, ISO 400, focal length 349
A family group of Silver Gulls were foraging in the shallows as the tide turned, the sand was still sodden, which meant my clothes were too, but it was great to be low enough that this juvenile seems to be looking down at me.
I know gulls are common and that many people treat them with disdain but I admire how well they have coped with the mess humans have made of much of their habitat.
In this image I was rapt with the gull looking at me with a ‘what’s she doing down there’ look and I particularly like the way the fast shutter speed and the depth of field captured the reflections on the gull’s underbelly and the movement of the water. The complimentary blue and orange colours would look great in a print. I can’t remember if it was the wave in this image that made me particularly wet but it looks as though it could have been.
Happy birding, Kim
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Although they are common, silver gulls really are good looking, especially when they are in their fun ‘red’ breeding condition.
I wonder if you would be interested in linking your bird blog posts to Wild BIrd Wednesday – a blog link up that runs on my photo-blog from Wednesday (!) to Sunday. About 40 other bird bloggers already join in, and more Australian bloggers would be welcome. The whole linking ‘thing’ takes about 30 seconds!
Cheers – Stewart M – Melbourne
Hi Stewart, I’ve had a very enjoyable look at Wild Bird Wednesday but don’t 100% understand the ‘linking’ concept. Could you explain a bit more about how it works? I am unsure about the URLs associated with the linked sites and would appreciate more information. Thank you for the invite,that’s much appreciated too! You could use the email address on the contact page.
Great photo, love the wave movement.
Looks like the gull is having a bit of fun wading around and enjoying the sun 🙂
Thanks Joy! I think you’re right about the gull having fun, plus being a bit quizzical about what it’s looking at.
Love the wave & reflections! #alllightisreflection. PS: Why the 7D for this shot, just wondering as a photographer
Hi Paul, it was probably for the extra reach of the 1:6x crop factor as I’d have been expecting to take images of more distant birds.
at first thought.. a giant silver gull looking down on the human photographer ! Glad you explained. Brilliant photography, takes me to the beach, Sue
What a neat observation Sue, thank you!
Love that gull. Who looks as if it is walking on water.
Disdaining birds (any of them) says more about the disdainer than the bird.
Much more.
I agree EC, and thank you.