It was 6:15 AM as I turned into the parking lot at Bolsa Chica Wildlife Reserve. There were lots of clouds and haze in the sky and I knew the light would be soft and muted. So, I turned on Auto ISO (min, iso of 400 and shutter speed of 1/250) and left it there. As I walked across the wooden bridge, I noticed this Rock Dove (AKA, pigeon) sitting below me on a wooden beam on the sunny side.  Normally, I would not have taken the shot but the light and angle "called" me:

It was quite quiet ...  very few birds around. I did notice some ducks sitting and mucking around on a spit almost under water from the high tide:

There were two pairs of Canada Geese squawking a little further up on the trail. They let me get pretty close and with my telephoto I captured this image of one of the males:

And, this shot of the male of the other pair:

At one point, a duck came winging by and I grabbed this shot:

Then a Snowy Egret flew by in the other direction. I've got hundreds of shots of this bird so I normally wouldn't have taken the shot ... but the light and lack of other activity made me do it! :)

And the last shot of this post is a simple backlit shot of flock of cormorants sitting on another spit waiting ...

It was a quiet, peaceful morning but sometimes, with nature's solitude, there is often a reward!

As always, thank you for taking the time and effort to look and comment. 

Adam