Sitting Still in One Spot 
by Keith Hendrickson

We have all been there…paddling along in our boats, quietly moving as stealthily as possible just to push whatever wildlife that is around the bend way out in front of us on to the next bend. Their survival relies on their ability to pick up on any movement and to them…our slow approach is the equivalent of a stalking predator. Despite this, we as boaters can actually use our form of transportation to see larger numbers and varieties of wildlife over those that are on foot or traveling in a motorized craft or vehicle in the right conditions.
With this in mind, I recently decided to go into an area at one of our many National Wildlife Refuges and pay attention to where there was a fair number of birds using a small area…getting to that spot in my kayak knowing I would scare everything that was there away…then parking my gear, boat, and myself somewhere up on the bank in the grass and brush in all of my camouflage, just to see if I could get a decent photo session making myself stay in one spot.

I located a shallow point that lead out to a sandbar in a small cove that had a good number of shore birds and even a few ducks using it. I pulled the First Class™ Seat out of my Ultimate 14.5 and set it up in the brush along with my camera, long telephoto lens and tripod, and then stashed the boat and paddle on the back side of the point in the bushes so any birds flying overhead would not see them. Before too long, some small wading birds flew in and landed on what little grass was out there emerging from the water out on the sandbar. I fired a few shots, reviewed the images and their histogram on the back of my camera’s LCD and made a few exposure setting changes to insure I was getting a decent shot. Then a beautiful snowy egret landed out in front of me not too far from the other birds…and it basically just sat out there preening and cleaning its feathers. I fired several shots and then decided I would adjust the camera’s exposure compensation and make several shots at slightly different exposures (bracketing) to insure getting a properly exposed bird. White birds can be difficult to photograph because your camera’s meter wants to try and see that white as a neutral gray…all depending on how light or dark the rest of the background is. If the bird was up against a light sky, the meter would tell the camera to adjust the exposure to make it all a bit darker. If the background was predominantly dark, it would try to lighten everything up to a neutral gray and the whites would be too bright loosing detail…it can all get a bit confusing…so the easiest thing to do is to shoot several shots changing the exposure up and down slightly from what the camera wants to shoot it at. Doing this will about insure that a couple of the shots will be usable. You want to be able to see some feather detail in the whites…not a bunch of bright white glare because the camera (or you) exposed the shot incorrectly.

I soon found that this egret was probably the best decoy a photographer could ask for. Avocets, ibises, and many other smaller shore birds flew in and out of the location giving me fairly regular action.

Then off in the distance, I could see a pair of small ducks pitching in with their minds made up they were going to land with the other sanderlings and sandpipers. Greenwing Teal.one of my favorites.landed and began dabbling around in the mud, then sat and preened not paying any attention to my camera clicking off shots.

As the afternoon wore on, I noticed a small raccoon wading along the shoreline of a not too distant small island. As I turned to try and get a shot, he saw my movement and quickly scurried into the grass and brush. I continued to watch the teal out in front of me and then something caught my attention from the corner of my eye. That little raccoon forgot I was there and swam the short distance to my point. He had worked his way to less than six feet from me.so close; my camera wouldn't focus on him. Well I jumped back and at the same instant he saw the brush move.luckily he took off the other way! As the sun began to sit low in the sky, the light turned to a nice soft yellow and then a small flock of white ibises sat down just a few yards from me.

The number of birds using the area attracted more birds.like a big magnet pulling everything to it. Avocets moved in and out with the ibises, the egret finally decided it was time to go find some dinner, but the ducks were content just milling around. Northern Shovelers came in to see all the commotion the teal were making.males were trying their best to fight and impress the few gals that were around.and soon more Shovelers followed. They played, courted perspective mates, and preened after mock fights between each other.

Then suddenly everything became alert.and in an instant, all the birds flushed and flew off in all directions. A Northern Harrier moved in hunting for her evening meal. It soon moved on in its hunt and just as well.it was time for me to move on too and make my way back to the truck. I stowed all of my gear back in the kayak, placed the seat back into position, and pushed off.happy I decided to sit in one spot and just blend with all that was around me.