I headed out early a couple of Friday's ago and stopped at Younger Lagoon Reserve. The Lagoon is located North (or as locals say West, more on that in later posts) of Santa Cruz and near Natural Bridges State Beach.
This week features a few more photos than usual because I just received a new Nikon 70-200mm f/4 lens. I got this lens for walking around when birding isn't the only thing I'm doing and for travel to lighten by load.
We were heading home from Monterey, CA looking for a Black Skimmer reported in the area around Seabright State Beach in Santa Cruz County, CA. We didn't see the Skimmer but there were 2000+ Elegant Terns on the beach in 2 flocks.
Capturing birds in flight is arguably one of the hardest photographic endeavors you could pursue. The short is to take a lot of images and do it in bursts.
If you could ask 100 photographers about cropping, you will probably get 20 answers. Some say get it right in the camera. I agree with that but in nature, especially birds, you are lucky if they stay still along enough to get a sharp image let alone an interesting pose.