Gulls!

I mentioned in the previous post that we had nice looks at gulls, specifically herring gulls. They were easily the most common bird at the park that day.

As you can see, they covered the last fifty meters of the jetty. And there were several large rafts in the inlet.

They were almost all herring gulls. We spotted the occasional great black-backed gull, but they were too far off to get a good photo. And as we were leaving we spotted a birder friend arriving, there to look for a reported glaucous gull. We bade him good luck and expected he would need it. We hadn't noticed it.

The herring gulls made good targets for a photo workshop though. Close enough so that everyone could get frame filling shots while calm enough in our presence to give everyone time to futz with lenses and settings.

So while not as showy as some of the fancy ducks we saw, they are definitely photogenic.

And they gave everyone a chance to practice their technique and experiment with things like depth of field and composition. An excellent bird to have around for a first time trip leader on a bird photography trip.