Mirrored Black-necked Stilts

A little after sunrise, the wind was calm and the sky was entirely clear. The surface of the lake mirrored the unblemished blue from above. The morning silence was broken by the strident flight calls of two Black-necked Stilts as they settled near the water's edge.









Two more arrived...



and three others joined them, seven in all:









My camera's auto-focus was confused about whether to sharpen the real or the virtual image, and I too was a bit dazzled by the sight of fourteen black and white red-legged birds. Over the open water there was no sense of depth perception and my photos appeared to be two-dimensional:



It was like spelling banana-- I didn't know when to stop!

















Suddenly they flew off together and left me all alone, looking at an empty mirror:



The next day (April 2), the Sun again rose against a cloudless sky. Venus shone above the crescent Moon:

 

In the semi-darkness twenty minutes before sunrise, I had set my camera at maximum sensitivity and was rewarded when an Eastern Screech-Owl decided to call from a small tree next to the path. I did not use a flash and the image is a bit soft (hand-held with an exposure of 1/20 second at ISO 16,000). Click on the photo and look closely at its eyes to see a reflection of dawn's light on the horizon:





 

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Linking to Misty's  CAMERA CRITTERS,

Linking to Eileen's SATURDAY'S CRITTERS,

Linking to SKYWATCH FRIDAY by Yogi, Sylvia and Sandy

Linking to WEEKEND REFLECTIONS by James

Linking to BirdD'Pot by Anni

Linking to Our World Tuesday by Lady Fi

Linking to Wild Bird Wednesday by Stewart

Linking to Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) by NC Sue

Linking to ALL SEASONS by Jesh

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Please visit the links to all these memes to see some excellent photos on display

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