California Gull flying straight at me – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
In my Common Goldeneye post from yesterday I mentioned that from day to day that the number of birds can increase or decrease substantially in a specific location and how that had happened when the number of goldeneyes increased at one of my local ponds. There has also been an increase in the numbers of California Gulls at my local pond too. Not that long ago most of the gulls I saw there were Ring-billed Gulls but now it seems like there are as many California Gulls as there are Ring-billed.
I know, some people hate gulls but a bird is a bird is a bird as far as I am concerned and I’ll photograph them just for the fun of it and will readily admit that I love gulls.
Besides, it isn’t all that often I get to photograph a gull lift off from the water and fly head on directly towards me like this California Gull in winter plumage did a few days ago. This is the sixth photo of a nine image series of this gull flying straight at me.
Close up California Gull in flight – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
And this photo is the last one of the nine image series taken as the gull started to turn and by this time I wondered if the gull had flown past the minimum focusing distance of my lens, fortunately is was just far enough away to acquire one last sharp photo of the gull.
I don’t know why the California Gull flew directly towards me. I didn’t have any food so that wasn’t a reason for the gull to fly straight at me. I guess I’ll never know why it decided to do what it did but I liked the resulting photos enough to share them with you all.
Life is good.
Mia
Click here to see more of my California Gull photos plus facts and information about this species.
I hope to post three more of this series in my photo galleries later today.
Love these photos! Thank you Mia!
Gulls are beautiful (if sometimes annoying) creatures. They seem to know our schools’ bell schedules too because they show up just in time to “clean up” after the kids on the different campuses.
A very nice twist on ‘in your face’.
And I too love gulls.
It almost has a porcelain-like texture, maybe because its feathers are all compressed down on its body as it moves through the air towards you.
That is obviously a seegull…..
I love gulls, too. Yes, I know they’re persistent and pesky scavengers and all the other bad stuff about them, and still, I love them. They’re graceful fliers, which is always a good thing in my world, plus they’re just gorgeous. Yes, I’m easy with birds and critters, but easy amusement is a good thing that has served me well in life 😉
Back when I was a child, my family vacationed in Florida every summer and I spent a lot of that time feeding oyster crackers or bread to the gulls who would come right to my hand so I could see them up close and personal. Being a critter person from the get-go, their flocking and flying delighted my heart, so here we are. I’m stuck with adoring their good qualities and overlooking their bad habits. I do that with humans, too, which is probably not a good thing. Birds/critters deserve it–humans, not so much.
Unbelievable images! Wow just wow!
Fantastic photos. I sometimes think that birds fly directly at you just for the heck of it. “How close can I get before she ducks?”