Birds in Flight

Today is yet another Saturday where rain or threat of rain has kept me off my bike. This has been a rainy spring as 11 out of the last 15 weekends have had some kind of rain. Hopefully I will be able to get a ride in tomorrow. 

While I sit inside today I have had time to process some photos of some birds in flight I took down at the Edwin B. Forsythe bird sanctuary.  It's a quick hour drive from where I live and usually worth the trip as there are always a lot of birds there feeding in the marsh. This time there weren't as many herons or egrets as usual but there were a lot of terns flying by the road and managed to get a good shot of one in flight as shown in the top of the post. 

There was also an osprey hovering over the road. There are 3 or 4 osprey nest in the sanctuary but this is the first time I saw one flying around. Click on the picture if you want to see it up close. Since it is a slow flying bird I was able to get it in perfect focus and the lighting was good. 

For some reason there were a lot of turtles walking around so I had to be careful not to run over them. 

There are always seagulls and I manage to capture one with a crab in its mouth. 

 

I just wish the lighting was better as the colors are washed out. With my camera on rapid fire mode I took a lot of pictures most of them not worth showing but shooting a lot of photos is the only way to get a good photo of rapid moving wildlife. I am improving my technique so am getting a better ratio of keepers but there is still a good amount of luck and timing involved. 

This picture of a red winged black bird was mostly luck as I was just taking a picture of it sitting on a guard rail when it took off. Luckily my camera kept it in focus and because of was shooting at a high shutter speed it came out pretty sharp. These birds fly really fast so these are not birds that are easy to track in flight. 

I still have room for improvement but enjoy the challenge of this type of photography so will keep trying until I get it right. 

Bridge NOT Out

I led a ride from Yardley this past weekend that went over the Lamberville/New Hope bridge. The bridge was close to pedestrian and car traffic earlier in the year. Last year during some other work being done on the bridge they found that a 4 inch diameter pin was failing which could have caused the bridge to collapse. We go over the bridge on a regular basis so I'm glad the fixed it before it fell into the river. As part of the repair they refurbished the walkway. It's now wider so you don't have to duck into beams to let some on pass you. 

I had a full ride with a few riders that I haven't ridden before. Most of the new riders seemed to like the route and the ride and said they may join me again on my next ride. I don't really believe them because I have a lot of new people come on my rides but very few of them come back. Not sure why. Sure we are a little sarcastic but are a friendly bunch. 

It was a little cold at the start but ended being a beautiful day with no rain for once. We didn't even have any of my normal bridge out crossings or dirt so one of my better rides. This was one of the hillier rides I did this year but felt good so now that it is getting warmer I may venture a little further up the Delaware and explore some of the hills on both sides of the river. 

In other news. I did a ride around the Manasquan Reservoir today and can report that the reservoir is now full as you can see from these pictures of the visitor center

 

and from Georgia Road.

 

So I guess all the annoying rain we have been getting filled all the rivers and reservoirs.