Streams of birds graced the colorful morning sky on our first morning at Merced NWR. 5

Tags:   Animal Bird CA California Merced NWR NWR National Wildlife Refuge Nature Orange USA beautiful beauty in Nature colorful dawn flying morning sunrise wild © Alice Cahill

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This is the closest Harrier flyby I saw during our day at Kern WLR. A three shot composit showing the wing pattern of this magnificent bird in flight. Here I added a background shot also taken the same day to give a sense of the environment. Which version do you prefer?

Tags:   Animal Bird CA California Hunting Kern County Nature Northern Harrier Outdoors USA beautiful composit flying free raptor wild wings

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While touring the Kern National Wildlife Refuge we came upon a small flock of Stilts feeding in the shallow water. I have always admired these graceful birds with their bright red legs and iridescent feathers. As we watched a few of them took flight. I like their spacing and reflection in this shot.

Tags:   Animal Bird Black-necked Stilt CA California Kern County Nature Outdoors Reflection USA Water beautiful flying wading Bird wild

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I was back out at Marina Spit this morning for more King Tides photography. I saw 'my' Phoebe again and again became obsessed with catching him in flight over the water. Just one time he flew directly toward me and I was able to take one clear shot. I love photography for allowing us to really "see" what happens faster than we can register when we are out observing Nature.

Tags:   Animal Bird Black Phoebe CA California Central Coast Coast Estuary King Tide Marina Spit Morro Bay Nature Ocean Pacific Ocean Reflection SLO county USA Water feeding morning wild

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I went to Marina Spit Thursday morning to photograph during the 'King Tide' event. At one point most of the birds had moved out of range except for a Black Phoebe that kept flying out multiple times to hunt insects on the surface of the water. So I got the bright idea to try to photograph him. OMG! What an almost impossible task! I was very happy to find one shot among all the many blurs and misses that caught him in action.

Tags:   Animal Bird Black Phoebe CA California Central Coast Coast Estuary Hunting King Tide Morro Bay Nature Ocean Reflection SLO county USA Water flying morning wild

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