Gyrfalcon (dark phase) at Pitt Polder, Maple Ridge.

After four days of rain, it was good to get out of the house. I headed to one of my favourite birding and hiking sites. Pitt Polder Ecological Reserve is an 88 ha (1 hectare = 2.49 acres) wildlife refuge which hosts a plethora of bird species. I usually stay east of the main road into the area, but today I decided to head west adjacent to a cranberry farm. Today I walked west along Koerner Road, a distance of about 4 km return. I saw a number of song sparrows, juncos, towhees, and even a male and female flicker. It wasn't until I got back to the car that something extraordinary happened.

I saw a fellow with a camera and long lens shooting at something high up in a tree. A large bird, a raptor, was near the top. I engaged in photographing the subject as well, and we mosied all over the place, ending up across the main road where the light and position were amiable. It was a gyrfalcon (dark phase), and the bird didn't seem to mind our interest in it. Then it started.

A car pulled over and two windows opened up and a pair of long lenses protruded. Another car stopped and a man with a large tripod, camera, and enormous lens began setting his equipment up. Then another and another and another. Before long this spectacular encounter of myself and one other fellow with this wonderful bird turned into a melee of cameras and lenses. I am certain that the falcon's image was captured over 1500 times in the span of maybe five minutes.

At the end, it saw something in the distance which captured its attention and it flew off. As it left, every camera panned with the flapping bird, the entire array of cameras and lenses rotating in synch like a battery of radio telescope dishes following a moving spacecraft. After the bird left the crowd dispersed. I was probably the first to leave. It was time to go home, eat, and review my images.

I took 174 photographs in all, two-thirds of them were of the gyrfalcon. Of those, I got a half dozen images I am very happy with. I think that is one of the reasons I like bringing my long lens and camera on a walk; you never know what you will find.

Thanks for reading.     Ericspix     Eric Svendsen

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