Visit to the Gilbert Riparian Preserve in December

I stopped by the Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch (RPWR) for a couple of hours. This post has some pictures.

 I didn’t see anything remarkable – just the usual characters, so I posted some pictures of them. I think that the Snowy Egret in flight came out nice. It’s the best of the bunch (in my opinion). I’ve posted several Verdin pictures in other posts, but I think this one is the best, even though the branch is in front of him. The Verdin is difficult to photograph because they move around so fast, and tend to stay up high in the trees. I chanced on this one close to me on the trail. He was moving fast so I wasn’t sure whether any of the photos would turn out. There were approximately six Black-crowned Night Herons. The one in flight was OK, but the wings are a little blurred, I think due to both the depth of field and the shutter speed. The shutter speed for this was 1/640 compared to 1/1600 for the Heron. With a focal length of 285mm and an aperture of F/13, and a distance of maybe 40ft, the DOF was about +/- 1.5 feet, which should be OK. The Heron had F/10 and came out better, so I think shutter speed was the main culprit. The other Black-crowned Night Heron shows him calling. I thought the goose was unusual because of the large knob on his head and the thick legs. I looked it up and found out that it’s a domesticated Chinese Goose. The Desert Broom is in bloom throughout the preserve, and the floating seeds were on everything (e.g. the Verdin picture).

Here are the pictures: