Picking the Photo of the Week

I've mentioned before that selecting the photo of the week is sometimes difficult. This week was no exception. In part, it was due to a large variety of sites and interesting things to photograph. In reviewing the candidate photos, I realized that there were a couple of similarities in each image: 1) they were all capturing events that were transitory in nature, and 2) they required a fast shutter speed and good focus to capture. (Should that be 3 things?)

The first location was Alameda Crrek, a popular place for me to walk almost every day. As a riparian environment, there is often a wide variety of things to see.

For example, here we have a snowy egret landing at the edge of the creek. There's a nice partial reflection of the bird in the water and the shot shows the moment just prior to the egret landing.

Alternatively, I managed to catch a red-tailed hawk just after it had taken a bath in the creek. I took a number of photos, but one I really liked showed the hawk just as it was taking off:

Then there was my yearly trip to Glen Ellen, CA for the lavender harvest at the Herricks. This year's event was a subdued affair, as due to COVID-19, there were only four people doing the harvest. However, with lavender, there's the chance to photograph bees and butterflies, as well as the potential for local birds.

Sure enough, I got some great bee and butterfly photos, plus a shot of a white-breasted nuthatch, a difficult bird to photograph:

This is the best photo I've every gotten of this bird.

As for the bees, they are always a challenge to get into focus, but this shot was very satisfying:

I actually got about five or six really outstanding bee photos, but I really like this one,as not only is the bee in sharp focus, but so is the lavender. [Last week's Photo of the Week was a bee, but that is not a criteria.]

And then there were the butterflies:

This is a fiery skipper butterfly in sharp focus.

Here is a yellow sulphur butterfly; once again both the butterfly and the lavender are in sharp focus

This is a California buckeye butterfly:

I also went to Coyote Creek Regional Park and the Don Edwards National Shoreline this week, which provided a number of outstanding photo opportunities, including tree and barn swallows: I've found tree swallows extremely difficult to photograph in flight, but I actually got both the swallows together and in flight:

Similarly, barn swallows can be quite challenging:

I also saw a young northern harrier on this hike, and I saw it take off from a dead tree:

I was also able to get a really nice shot of a willet in flight:

Then, today, for something completely different, I was hiking in Quarry Lakes Recreational Park and captured this photo, which is of Lago los Oso. A chance look through the trees and there it was: