Fly a kite

kestrel

A friend had a gran mal seizure at coffee and things got a little bit frantic this morning.

Afterwards I decided to take at least a partial mental health day and go out to my favorite wildlife area and shoot some birds.

In a photographic manner of speaking, anyway. Would help me decompress and hopefully help me out of what has been a terrible funk.

It was a fine day to be out in nature. Mostly by myself, a few errant birders flew in but we mostly stayed out of each other's way.

The ponds are still pretty dry up at San Jacinto but there were still some things to see.

My photographs largely sucked, hopefully the problem is with me and not my equipment. The 400mm 2.8 e does not exactly love the nikon 1.7 teleconverter.

If I had any money and could pay my regular bills I would send my rig up to Nikon to be checked out, calibrated and fixed if need be. But I don't.

My highlight was seeing a kite, I forget is it black shouldered or white tailed again? They keep changing it. Anyway I love kites and they are always a thrill to see, photographically captured or not. A sleek, ghost of a raptor.

It is funny, I ran into two birders at the Walker Ponds and they sort of scoffed when I mentioned that I had seen a kite, the hardcore professionals much more interested in recent reports of Pectoral and Baird's Sandpipers at SJWA and the recent Wilson's Snipe. And I could honestly pretty much care less about peeps.

I am definitely a raptor guy but certainly not a fully fledged, comprehensive birder. We all like what we like. I have come to grips with my avian limitations. I think that I can live with them. If you can't you can shoot me, preferably with a medium format Hasseblad.

 I hate it when my equipment acts up, when I miss an opportunity. Actually feel a sense of shame. Need to get back out there and nail it. Soon.