I pulled into the boat launch parking lot around 6 a.m. It was my birthday, and I hadn’t wanted to waste my time sleeping in when I could be out in search of birds to photograph. After a quick look, I could tell there were indeed a lot of waterfowl on the lake, but, to my disappointment, they were nowhere near the dock. Well, I thought, The sun hasn’t come up yet; I’ll drive around the lake.
A ways down the road, I pulled over, donned my ghillie suit, grabbed my camera, and headed into the field bordering the lake. My grandpa and aunt had brought me birding here before, and we had seen some fun birds in the field, but were never quite able to get to the water’s edge.
Now I found myself walking down a mowed path right toward the lake! As I got closer, I started hearing ducks and seeing them fly overhead. I crouched down and slowly kept going. As the grass around me got shorter, I went down on my hands and knees. I was getting really close now, and there were birds everywhere! When I finally made it to the water’s edge, I lay down, partly hidden by a clump of grass. This is perfect! I thought. Lots of birds around, and some already within reach of my lens! Now all I have to do is wait for the sun to come up.
A heavy fog lay over the water, which, from my angle, would be backlit once the sunlight hit. Within a few minutes, the sun crested the mountain and instantly turned everything to gold.
I was trying to get shots of some grebes when suddenly I heard a louder bird call right behind the clump of grass. As I raised my eye from the viewfinder, I saw a beautiful pair of Trumpeter Swans glide out in front of me! I quickly adverted my attention to them and was very happily surprised when they stalled in front of me.
But that was just the beginning. They spent the rest of their morning right there in front of me! I can’t help but wonder if it’s because they were curious about what I was. Maybe they knew something was there, but, with my full-body ghillie suit, they didn’t consider it “danger.” Or maybe God was just giving me a special little birthday present!
Regardless, they fed, bathed, and preened within 20 feet (6 m) of me for the next hour! I was delighted to be able to experience and capture these birds’ behavior like I’d never been able to do before.
After a while, the fog burned off and the lighting grew worse, from a photographer’s perspective. So, with a sore neck, I headed back, thanking God for such delightful, foggy-morning fun with some of His spectacular creation.
