Totally Unauthorized

Sunrise over the delta.

This morning was a failure, by normal standards.

Larry Ledgerwood and I got up well before the crack of dawn and headed out to the delta, planning to photograph the migrating birds in general and the sand hill cranes in particular.

The ride was beautiful.  We got to our location just as the sun was coming up, and the noise from the hundreds of thousands of birds was wonderful–a magical cacophony of geese, ducks, cranes, frogs and who knows how many other critters.

So everything was great, but the photos suck.  Shooting wildlife takes more experience than I have, and much longer lenses.  I have maybe 1 decent picture for the day, the sunrise above, and I shot that with my iPhone, not my fancy Nikon.

Technically, this is the definition of failure–I went out to get bird photos, and I don’t have any.  Can’t hardly do any worse than that without getting arrested for mopery.

The good news is that I’m re-defining success: I had a great time.  The bird watching was fantastic.  The sounds were incredible, including the booming of shotguns as hunters all around were bagging dinner.  The ducks on the water were much smaller than the ones I usually see, and I couldn’t believe how fast they were paddling around the flooded cornfields.  The Sand Hill Cranes are enormous, 5 feet tall, and they sleep later than the smaller birds–you could watch as they were slowly waking up and stretching their wings while the other birds were already wheeling in the sky.

Sunrise is almost always beautiful–I like to see it, I just hate to get up in time.  Couldn’t they make the sun come up about 9:30?

Riding along with a friend talking about the state of the world is a perfect way to pass the time.

Breakfast at a little local diner in Walnut Grove is a classic American morning ritual–even if the owner is Vietnamese.

So what if the photos didn’t work out this morning?  I’m calling the trip a smashing success.