All of the images on this post were taken on the same day at the Bolsa Chica Reserve in Huntington Beach, CA.

The first image is of a group of Cormorants headed for a school of fish at sunrise.  I don't know if it was  a coincidence or if this is really four pairs of birds. 

A single morning dove in flight. I really liked how the sun hit the trailing edge of the primary wing feathers:

A Great Egret fishing from the shoreline.  Notice how that speck of white stands out?  This is another of the "simple" pictures I like to take.

Great Egrets can not swim but forage along the banks.  This one spotted a fish near the surface and flew out to try and snatch it with its long beak.  It is NOT standing but keeping itself aloft with those giant wings:

Success! With fish in its mouth, its headed back to Terra firma:

This is a cousin of the Great Egret ... the Snowy Egret. It is much smaller; has a black beak and yellow feet compared to the Great Egret's yellow beak and black feet.  Snowy Egrets are more common at this location.

My pilot friends will recognize this brown pelican "coasting" in ground effect ... a situation where a cushion of air is created under the wings of any flying object once it gets within a certain distance of the ground (or water).  It is like getting a free ride; requiring little energy to stay aloft.

The exact instant of touchdown:

This is an endangered bird ... once called a Clapper Rail, it has been renamed a "Ridgeway's Rail".  It is abut the size of a big chicken; it can fly but rarely does; preferring to hunt for its food in the Pickle Weed that grows in most tidal marshes.  And, again, I really liked the way the light fell on this particular bird.

It is all hanging out as this Brown Pelican maneuvers into position to start its dive.  I love the sense of motion in the image ... much of it comes from the trailing primary feathers standing up on the birds left wing:

Two backlit brown pelicans:

"Hey, what you looking at?"

I cropped this image into a square.  The object was this amazing wing.  And, did you notice the water droplets falling from the tip of the beak?

That's it for this post.  Thank you for stopping and taking the time to look!

'Bye for now.

Adam