{"id":6981,"date":"2010-08-07T23:45:37","date_gmt":"2010-08-08T06:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thefreequark.com\/?p=6981"},"modified":"2020-03-03T06:32:02","modified_gmt":"2020-03-03T06:32:02","slug":"so-long-lake-merritt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ingridtaylar.com\/?p=6981","title":{"rendered":"So Long, Lake Merritt"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A series of farewell posts to my Bay Area home and haunts. We’re heading to Seattle for a year-plus . . . on to new photographic adventures.<\/i><\/p>\n

Lake Merritt<\/a> was the first place I touched soil — or rather, marine sediment<\/a> –after returning to the Bay Area from Los Angeles. We were perched above Oakland in a hotel room with just a sliver of a view, looking at the lake through what amounted to a castle loophole.<\/p>\n

My first morning, I strolled around the lake, shaking off six years of L.A. cement and urban grit. And there, I took my first-ever photo of a Great Egret<\/b> with a point-and-shoot — before I knew enough about birds, before I knew about photographing birds. I incorrectly identified this lovely as a “stork” — and then photographed from above, framing her dead center with ducks, geese and partial-ducks for background. This “before” photo should give hope to anyone who thinks they can’t learn photography.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

My \\”Just Learning Bird Photography\\” Shot of a Great Egret<\/p><\/div>\n

Below is my visual toast to Lake Merritt, the nation’s oldest wildlife refuge, and a suitable starting line (and even a fallback position) for anyone learning to photograph birds. The refuge is protected, with the exception of the morons who’ve hobbled birds by careening through the park at 50mph.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sign Posted at Lake Merritt – \u00a9ingridtaylar<\/p><\/div>\n

So, wicked drivers notwithstanding, the birds here aren’t impossibly skittish as they are in a hunted refuge. This is great for the photographer and observer — not to mention for the ducks, who huddle in rafts with their bills tucked into their backs, looking like Zisha teapots made of feathers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Scaup and Canvasback in Slumber – \u00a9ingridtaylar<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Raft<\/a>

Raft of Mixed Ducks & Grebes – \u00a9ingridtaylar<\/p><\/div>\n

I captured these heron images, still bleary from my night before — at an hour when the lake population is heavily skewed toward herons over humans. This Black-crowned Night Heron found my car a suitable perch, a perfect example of Lake Merritt’s wildlife-and-the-city juxtaposition.<\/p>\n

\"Black-crowned<\/a>

Heron on Car – \u00a9ingridtaylar<\/p><\/div>\n

A single beam of light (the photographer’s friend) lit this heron — framed by a tree trunk.<\/p>\n

\"Black-Crowned<\/a>

Black-Crowned Night Heron in Tree – \u00a9ingridtaylar<\/p><\/div>\n

I didn’t see the anomaly in this photo until I looked at the image on my Mac screen. This Canada Goose was adeptly swimming, taking off and landing with just one leg.<\/p>\n

\"Canada<\/a>

One-Legged Goose – \u00a9ingridtaylar<\/p><\/div>\n

Morning sheen on a still lake produces the pudding-smooth curves that frame this gull.<\/p>\n

\"Gull<\/a>

Gull and Morning Reflections – \u00a9ingridtaylar<\/p><\/div>\n

Scaup are, by far, the most numerous ducks at Lake Merritt in the winter. I learned quickly that a dawn arrival meant waiting a few hours for the ducks to arise and eat breakfast. Ducks at Lake Merritt sleep in.<\/p>\n

\"Scaup<\/a>

Scaup Duo – \u00a9ingridtaylar<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Scaup<\/a>

Ambitious Catch – \u00a9ingridtaylar<\/p><\/div>\n

What can I say about my pigeon people? They are dear to my heart, the domestic pij<\/a> and the wild among us.<\/p>\n

\"Lake<\/a>

Lake Pigeon Folk – \u00a9ingridtaylar<\/p><\/div>\n

This was another photo that revealed a surprise when magnified on my computer screen — good fortune for the fish.<\/p>\n

\"Brown<\/a>

The One That Got Away – \u00a9ingridtaylar<\/p><\/div>\n

I met a woman once at Lake Merritt who, like me, volunteered at a wildlife rehab center. She kept tabs on the disabled squirrels around the lake who managed to thrive in the wilds of Oakland. They do get a bit of human help.<\/p>\n

\"Lake<\/a>

Fox Squirrel with Good Samaritan Food Stash – \u00a9ingridtaylar<\/p><\/div>\n

For a long time after the Cosco Busan oil spill<\/a>, my heart would stop when I’d see a grebe break the water’s surface with its back slick from the dive. It took a minute for my mind to register that the grebe wasn’t oiled.<\/p>\n

\"Eared<\/a>

Eared Grebe – \u00a9ingridtaylar<\/p><\/div>\n

The floats on the lake are a popular drying and preening spot for Double-crested Cormorants<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Double-Crested<\/a>

Double-Crested Cormorants – \u00a9ingridtaylar<\/p><\/div>\n

Thank god for DSLRs and capturing the split-second symmetry in these fast dives.<\/p>\n

\"Bufflehead<\/a>

Bufflehead Symmetry – \u00a9ingridtaylar<\/p><\/div>\n

As often as I see herons and egrets perched in trees, I’m still enamored with the dramatic color and shape contrasts.<\/p>\n

\"Black-crowned<\/a>

Night Heron in Branches – \u00a9ingridtaylar<\/p><\/div>\n

Canvasbacks, along with Scaup and Ruddy Ducks, are part of the huge raft that makes Lake Merritt home for the winter.<\/p>\n

\"Canvasback<\/a>

Canvasback – \u00a9ingridtaylar<\/p><\/div>\n

Mottled blue and grey was the texture of the water the day I shot this Western Grebe, with sky reflected in the smooth divots. I brought the contrast up a bit on this image.<\/p>\n

\"Western<\/a>

Western Grebe & Water Textures – \u00a9ingridtaylar<\/p><\/div>\n

Ending up where my photographic endeavors began . . . with a Great Egret . . . framed and focused a bit better for the experience and the gear.<\/p>\n

\"Great<\/a>

Great Egret – \u00a9ingridtaylar<\/p><\/div>\n

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Lake Merritt was the first place I touched soil — or rather, marine sediment –after returning to the Bay Area from Los Angeles. We were perched above Oakland in a hotel room with just a sliver of a view, looking at the lake through what amounted to a castle loophole. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ingridtaylar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ingridtaylar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ingridtaylar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ingridtaylar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ingridtaylar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ingridtaylar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6981\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ingridtaylar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ingridtaylar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ingridtaylar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}