Black-Necked Stilt
I had a lot of fun driving around a couple of our valley wildlife refuges this weekend. There were more birds than I've ever seen hanging out here for a winter stop over. You aren't allowed to get out of your car except at designated parking areas, but you can shoot out of your car window at the national wildlife refuges.
As I was driving around the loop at the Merced National Wildlife Refuge, I propped my big lens out of the truck window and tried to get a nice capture of this little guy. The stilts seemed to feed by themselves and stayed near the shoreline where we could capture them easily. There was a great-horned owl roosting at another parking area, but it was too dark to capture him when I got there. If you are ever in the area of Los Banos, there are three large wildlife refuges worth visiting.
Black-Necked Stilt
I had a lot of fun driving around a couple of our valley wildlife refuges this weekend. There were more birds than I've ever seen hanging out here for a winter stop over. You aren't allowed to get out of your car except at designated parking areas, but you can shoot out of your car window at the national wildlife refuges.
As I was driving around the loop at the Merced National Wildlife Refuge, I propped my big lens out of the truck window and tried to get a nice capture of this little guy. The stilts seemed to feed by themselves and stayed near the shoreline where we could capture them easily. There was a great-horned owl roosting at another parking area, but it was too dark to capture him when I got there. If you are ever in the area of Los Banos, there are three large wildlife refuges worth visiting.