Rissa tridactyla

[Juan Aragonés]

First of all I would like to acknowledge to those of you that emailed to me.
I can’t find the proper words to express how much appreciated are your words of support and encouragement in this moment. Thank you so much!

:)

I apologize for my lack of participation in the past weeks but it has been really difficult for me to find time and opportunities to log in. Not too much time to photography in the field but the past Saturday I decided that I needed a break and I went to the coast to spend all a long day shooting and birding with a couple of my best friends. Great day, fantastic… on of the best birding days I can remember. A lot of fun in the company of very good friends, excellent weather and lots of rarities. Six new species in a day is a new record to me, mainly due to the fact that we watch the birds in a place that I know very well and just a couple of hours driving from home. The bad weather in the Atlantic ocean during the past month is the reason why such amount of pelagic birds are arriving to the coast. Lots of Rissa tridactyla, Larus canus, L. hyperboreus, L. glaucoides, L. melanocephalus, L. minutus, Stercorarius skua, Fulmarus glacialis, Hydrobates pelagicus, Morus bassanus. By the way, what a massive gull L. hyperboreus is! Amazing, I think it is almost the same size of a goose (Anser anser). We were fortunate enough as to witness the panic that caused the presence of an individual of Stercorarius skua among a large group of gulls that were resting on the beach. The skua flying towards the gulls looked like a golden eagle ready to attack and, in fact, the skua attacked to the gulls and killed a large Larus fuscus gull (about the same size that the skua but much more light weight).
The kittiwakes were really cooperative and they allowed us to be really close to them. Many birds gently resting in the sand of the beach waiting for the moment to return to the sea and I am almost sure that many of them have never seen a human being so close (I am not talking about injured birds or exhausted birds but healthy gulls).
A really nice experience and I hope to post some more images from that day in the next days.

Juan

Your comments and critics are highly appreciated

Nikon D2X AFS Nikkor 500VR ISO320, f6,3 1/1600 manual exposure, handheld

[Ramon M. Casares]

No critiques needed here Juan, great pose and head angle, wonderfull soft light, outstanding exposure control and lovely BG. Just congratualitons and the best for you and your loved ones!

[joel quenneville]

I love the low angle here and the shallow DOF, they keep all of the attention on the bird. The bird's pose is good, I like those feet tucked under his body as well as that bright yellow beak. I would wish for a slightly wider view, did you crop this one? I would also suggest brightening the head. Looking forward to other images in this series.

[Juan Aragonés]

Joel I have to agree with you, the gull is a bit tight in the frame but the image is full frame. I followed your suggestion about the white areas of the plumage and the result works for me. Thank you for the input :-)
Ramón, thanks a lot to you too :-)

[Mike Lentz]

Nice light and the DOF works nicely here. Maybe a bit more room all around?

[Don Lacy]

The repost is a nice improvement on an already lovely image, the light and exposure is are just about perfect along with the BG.

[Raymond Barlow]

wonderful image Juan, glad to see you were out there.

[Doug Brown]

Terrific job with the bird. I would add a little canvas on the left.