(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Animal shops? (Photo diary) [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-07-02 So, the family (with another family we’ve been close to for years) went down to Myrtle Beach a bit over a year ago. It was the first time there for most of us, and we mostly did the normal beach-town stuff. I will give a shout-out to the Pirate’s Voyage dinner show we went to, one night. It was a lot of fun, though I do have one major regret. I had my camera and, purely coincidentally, the perfect lens for shooting this sort of thing with me (85mm, f/1.2). But I assumed photography wouldn’t be allowed, so I left it in the car. Ugh. And I feel like I should mention Dolly Parton, who… produced the show? Financed its creation? In any event, she was involved, and she’s awesome. The point of this, though, was that we went shopping in what appeared to be a normal, if high end, strip mall while we were there (Barefoot Landing, I think. I shouldn’t wait so long). There was a large pond in the middle of it, and there were birds, turtles, and even a gator there. So, two days later, mostly on a whim, I went back with the camera and a 500mm lens that was the best I had at the time (the Sigma Sport f/4; not the new f/5.6 one. Really big and heavy, but I’ve been happy with the results). I stayed for a couple hours, and took a few hundred pictures. The one major disappointment was that the gator never did anything photogenic (the one below is a cell-phone shot taken when the family was there); it was in the water and swam away as soon as I saw it. I got a couple shots, but they were… meh, at best. This looks like a nice spot to… do whatever I want? Note that this was only a couple dozen feet from the walkway, though there is water in the way. And the walkway is raised. This was the best of the turtles, I think. “I’m not shopping for anything. Leave me alone.” This was not my first shot of the day, but I did run across this Anhinga as soon as I got there. But I didn’t get this angle until later. Anhinga branching out? Saw this one pretty early on, too. Great cormorant, I think (merlin said that or double-crested, and it doesn’t look double-crested to me. But I’m far from an expert) Walking around towards the back side (relative to where I came in, at least), I ran across some sparrows. Really proud of this shot, because I think this is the first swallow I caught in-flight without following it from a perch. This might be the same Barn Sparrow. Not sure. Walking around a bit more, saw this House Finch sitting on a shop roof. And incidentally, my wife just got me a bird feeder with a camera, and I got a shot from that of a House Finch. So I still haven’t personally seen a house finch in my area, but I do know they’re around. Regardless, they’re pretty. The one on the left was perched higher than the one on the right, but went shooting off. Not sure if it’s a female house finch or … maybe a house sparrow? Going to another roof, saw this brown one sitting around, and caught it taking off. I think it’s a juvenile grackle, though I’m far from certain. “Go west, young man”? As I was heading out, a tern and a seagull decided to distract me for a few minutes. “Hey, don’t go yet” Just ignore that poop down there... Finally, just as I was about to get in the car, this one flew by in the distance. “I am above it all. And no, I’m not coming closer.” I made another bird outing the day after, and I was going to include the results of that, but this has so many pictures already, and the other will have considerably more, so I’ll cut it off here. But I’ll include a poll involving my purchases at the shopping center. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/7/2/2250594/-Animal-shops-Photo-diary?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/