Slow Day

Spent part of today catching up on images from my trip last Friday to Clearlake, CA. Clearlake contains a pretty decent population of Pacific (Western) Pond Turtles (Actinemys marmorata) along with a mix of non native Red Eared Sliders(Trachemys scripta elegans). The sliders were probably introduced by well meaning people who let their pet turtles go when they got too big or they just didn't want to care for them anymore. The problem is that the sliders are more aggressive and push the shyer pond turtles off of sunning spots and food sources. At present the population of pond turtles is in decline. You rarely see baby pond turtles anymore. They are bite sized snacks for the introduced bull frogs and largemouth bass. See if you can spot the large slider in the following turtle images. I had a wonderful time stalking turtles. You have to approach them very slowly as they are quite fickle and can slide off into the water in the blink of an eye. I'm always amazed that sometimes you can easily approach them and the following day the same individual will drop off into the water when you are a hundred feet away. I do my best not to scare them and I consider it a success when I can photograph them and back away quietly without them leaping into the water. chris Camera Equipment Used- Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM Lens,Bogen 3055 Ballhead with a custom camera support. Camera Settings- AV mode, ISO 400,F stop and a shutter speed varied. All photography was done from a Ultimate 14.5 Native Watercraft Kayak