Upde Designs

My beloved D3 is now setting in Gardena, California destined to arrive at the Nikon technical center sometime today.  Hopefully I’ll get some type of notification tomorrow as to the fate of the repairs.

Yesterday at 11:30 am my 4th replacement Sigma 50 – 500 mm lens arrived and the 3rd one departed.  So on my lunch hour I took it out to the “duck pond” to see what its performance would be.

It was a gray and cloudy day (unlike a dark and stormy night) and the wind was blowing hard enough that I did not take my hand off the tripod for fear of it blowing over.

Almost every morning when I come past the Interpretive Center there are dozens if not hundreds of geese on the pond.  Apparently they have spent the night on their migration journey.  At noon there will be 20 – 40 around with some of them starting to build nests.

There will be a good number of them that build nests, lay their eggs and raise their off spring.  It is fun to watch and if you’ve followed this blog you will remember last Summer I had several images of the young families eating and swimming. This pair of geese are building their nest.

There are 8 or more  little islands that grow up pretty high with grass and they are home to many families of geese during the season.  When I leave work and head for home the pond is generally pretty vacant except for those nesting geese but I know by the next morning the no vacancy sign will be out at the pond.  Soon there will be other types of birds arriving at the pond.  It becomes one of my favorite places to have lunch.

I got back in my car and started back to the office.  It was just too windy to get any type of good shot for evaluation of the lens.  Even on the tripod it was shaking so bad I found it difficult to keep the focus point on a bird.

I saw this guy at the South end of the pond so I drove over and parked next to the pond on the shoulder.  He and his mate were swimming around one of the small canals and he came very close to me (I was in my mobile blind.) Then he started dipping his head in the water and throwing his head back very quickly so that the water went all over his back.  He did this a dozen times.  He would shake his head and then repeat the process.  I really like this image and you can click on it for a more detailed look.

Well that’s it for today.  Enjoy your PreFriday.  Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog.  Oh by the way all these geese pictures are for you Betty.  🙂  Be careful.