I can't believe that I'm even telling you this. It's probably the dumbest thing I've done with a camera in my hand!
I went to Brick Pond on Sunday morning, hoping for some Wood Duck pics. I usually park up by the auto parts store on 17c and walk in the back way. Of course I put plenty of bug spray on and I was head to toe in camo. The mosquitos were having a contest amongst themselves, trying to see how big of a welt they could leave on my skin. I almost turned back, but eventually they seemed to taper off and I was in business.
I got to my spot undetected except for a hen Mallard who just quietly swam away. I think she probably had a nest nearby. Anyhow, I got myself set up with some good cover in front of me, my tripod with gimbal head and my 500mm ready to rock and roll! In front of me about 120 yards away I could see at least 3 Woodies, two males and a hen. I turned on the camera and began to check my settings... SS, Aperture, ISO, all good. And then out of the corner of my eye, I noticed in the bottom right hand corner of my viewfinder a little "E" symbol. In a split second I knew that I had committed the biggest, most lame-brained mistake a photographer can make: I left my memory cards at home!!!!! They were all sitting in a nice neat pile, right next to my computer! AHHHHHHH!!!!!!! So of course you frantically search your pack for just one little card. Normally I carry several hundred gigabytes of cards in my pack, but I was in the process of clearing them after our trip to Florida.
Well I figured I might as well make the best of it. I still had my binoculars so I sat down to watch the show. And I didn't have to wait long! In addition to the 3 woodies from earlier, another hen woodie came out with 5 or 6 little ones in tow! And then I noticed the Beaver. He was a bit farther away, and a bit hard to see even with the binos. So I watched him for a bit and I noticed he wasn't acting or swimming like a Beaver. He finally picked his head out of the water and began chewing on a fish he had caught. That's when I realized I was looking at an Otter!! That was the first wild Otter I had ever seen, and there I was with a camera with no memory card! I watched him for a while, swimming powerfully around the pool chasing fish, but I couldn't take it anymore, so I picked up my toys and went home...... So that's my tale of woe.
But I can't end a post without a pic. Here is one from Florida. It's not a great pic, but it really captures the feeling of the area we were shooting in. Big Cypress trees, alligators, this place had it all. This was just a nice, peaceful, moody kind of pic. Enjoy.....