[Leica] A morning by the river with Telyts (long)

[Doug Herr <71247.3542@compuserve.com>]

Sunday mornings, with wife and kids sleeping in, are my time for wildlife
photography; several spots near home have been quite productive:  a
secluded pond is home for beaver and otter, as well as several species of
birds; another pond formed by the trout hatchery's outflow is great for
herons, and a park further downstream is ideal for photographs of wild
turkey.

Today I chose the hatchery pond.  The hatchery's outflow inevitably has a
few fingerlings, which have never seen predators before.  The water
percolates from the pond to the American River, but the fingerlings are
trapped in the pond.  The herons in the area (Great Blue Heron, Green
Heron, Black-crowned Night Heron, and Great and Snowy Egrets) have
discovered these dumb, trapped hatchery fish and are willing to accept the
occasional human visitor in order to take advantage of the feast.  The pond
also is winter home to a flock of Mallards.

Mallards are extraordinarily common in North America and are often
overlooked or taken for granted just because they're so common.  As a
personal excersize I've been trying to see and photograph the Mallard for
what it is, an unusually striking and beautiful bird.  Armed with
Kodachromes, Telyts and a couple of SLs I set out for the pond.  The path
to the trout hatchery pond passes the salmon hatchery's outflow which
empties directly into the American River.  Mergansers, Goldeneyes, an
Osprey and a Great Blue Heron find breakfast here, and a River Otter joins
the feast (no photos yet, too much fog).

My session with the Mallards is productive but I get the feeling that
productivity is a low priority.  The view of a Mallard through a Telyt and
the SL's viewfinder is stunning.  The SL's viewfinder is hell on the film
budget.  The view is so great that I use way too much film, thinking each
view of the duck is the best yet, which must be recorded.

My youngest brother Joel (of "Doug and Joel's excellent adventure" fame) is
a crack programmer who has written a birder's software package to compete
with Peterson's and Thayer's birding software.  All he needs to be
competetive is some decent photographs - do I sense an opportunity?  At
this point I have photographs of nearly 400 species of North American birds
and with each field trip I try to add a few more.

I could make a legitimate claim that the field work is all business but my
emotional response to the Telyt view of the Mallards, and the otter, osprey
and many other wild creatures so close to my suburban home tells me my
field work is all pleasure.

Doug Herr
Sacramento