What’s Up?
After receiving several dire reports of “no birds at all at Bosque” from blog regular David Policansky last week, I scrapped my idea for a January 2017 Bosque IPT. Having had such a blast in San Diego and with the 2016 San Diego IPT having been such a huge success, I decided to put together another visit in January 2017. It is very possible that my 21-season streak at Bosque may come to an inglorious end…
I do hope that you can join me in San Diego next January for the pelicans and more. With my 30+ years experience photographing there it would be hard to find anyone who knows the birds, the locations, the tides, and the winds better than me.
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San Diego offers a wealth of very attractive natural history subjects. With annual visits spanning more than three decades I have lot of experience there…. |
2017 San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) JAN 11 thru and including the morning session on JAN 15: 4 1/2 days: $1999.
(Limit: 10/openings 8)
Meet and Greet at 7:00pm on the evening before the IPT begins; Tuesday 1/10/17.
Join me in San Diego to photograph the spectacular breeding plumage Brown Pelicans with their fire-engine red and olive green bill pouches; Brandt’s and Double-crested Cormorants; breeding plumage Wood and Ring-necked Duck; other duck species possible including Lesser Scaup, Redhead, and Surf Scoter; a variety of gulls including Western, California, and the gorgeous Heerman’s, all in full breeding plumage; shorebirds including Marbled Godwit, Willet, Sanderling and Black-bellied Plover; many others possible including Least, Western, and Spotted Sandpiper, Whimbrel, Black and Ruddy Turnstone, Semipalmated Plover, and Surfbird; Harbor Seals (depending on the current regulations) and California Sea Lions; and Bird of Paradise flowers. And as you can see by studying the two IPT cards there are some nice bird-scape and landscape opportunities as well.
With gorgeous subjects just sitting there waiting to have their pictures taken, photographing the pelicans on the cliffs is about as easy as nature photography gets. With the winds from the east almost every morning there is usually some excellent flight photography. And the pelicans are almost always doing something interesting: preening, scratching, bill pouch cleaning, or squabbling. And then there are those crazy head throws that are thought to be a form of intra-flock communication.
Did I mention that there are wealth of great birds and natural history subjects in San Diego in winter?
Though the pelicans will be the stars of the show on this IPT there will be many other handsome and captivating subjects in wonderful settings. |
The San Diego Details
This IPT will include five 3 1/2 hour morning photo sessions, four 2 1/2 hour afternoon photo sessions, four lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility.
A $599 non-refundable deposit is required to hold your slot for this IPT. You can send a check (made out to “Arthur Morris) to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Or call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906. Your balance, payable only by check, will be due on 9/11//2016. If we do not receive your check for the balance on or before the due date we will try to fill your spot from the waiting list. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your deposit check. If you register by phone, please print, complete and sign the form as noted above and either mail it to us or e-mail the scan. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.
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Typos
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Hi, Artie. Well, that’s a big responsibility you’ve given me. 🙂 This January has been tough at Bosque, perhaps because of weird weather all over the country and perhaps because the corn farmers there didn’t get their acts together this year. I will go one more time next week and send you an email report. But as you told your mother long ago, you always want more photos of pelicans. 🙂 Although I haven’t been on your San Diego IPT, I think it will be wonderful based on my experiences of other IPTs I have been on and on your wonderful photos from there. And I think I can guarantee that it won’t be as cold as Bosque in January before sunrise!
(By the way, the option of being notified of answers to this blog no longer appears; is it my computer, or have you removed that option?)