Kayaking Buddie

When you go to Utah lake you can expect to see a whole heck of a lot of Gulls and Ducks. More often than not they ignore you entirely unless of course you have food. In that case you're the star of the show. The day that I captured this photo, my girlfriend and I had gone out on the lake to Kayak. Nothing special, it's something we like to do on nice days to enjoy nature. We live about two minutes from Utah lake, so it's easy an easy and inexpensive outing.

I'm the avian stalker in the family, a term I often use to describe my bird watching hobby. I grew up taking long drives with my parents just so we could go watch birds. Despite the Pelicans that I saw and the noisiest group of grackles that I have ever had the pleasure of observing, this Tern really made my day.

After a slight hiccup in our plans, we finally got out on the lake some time around noon. There had been a small hole in one of the inflatable kayaks. Which I was able to patch after a small adventure to the store. With a slightly flustered edge we had finally made it out onto the water. This mood was easily dispersed by the surprisingly warm water and good company. Not long after that we noticed the Tern in the distance. It was skimming the water and then flying off to another part of the lake. Me being new to Utah I was immediately trying to figure out what kind of bird it was, going as far as to risk my phones safety to google it. The best I came up with was that it was a Caspian Tern.

I thought that maybe it would eventually fly away, especially once a few people on paddle boards joined us on the water. About a half hour passed and it came back, but this time it flew very close to my girlfriend. She kept the Kayak still to see if it would come back, sure enough it circled back, showing off some acrobatics as it passed. I found myself mesmerized by the agility of the bird's movements.

Several times it swooped in rather close. You could feel the air move as it passed. On occasion it would call out before circling back. I managed to snap this photo on one of the closer encounters. It was sheer luck that it came out so clearly. My other attempts were horrendously blurry. I'm not sure what about us may have been interesting or possibly offensive to him, but I can't say that I am overly upset by it.

It was amazing to watch this streamlined creature fly. Turning and moving with such grace and ease. I would upload another photo, but unfortunately the only discernable subject matter is the family that is fishing in the background. This bird was so quick it was hard to get a good look at him let alone do a photo shoot. I spent a lot of that time just trying to keep my eye on it, paddling here there and everywhere to get a goo look. My girlfriend had said jokingly that maybe he knew I was bird watcher and that he was just messing with me.

Maybe he was messing with me, or maybe it was just a good day to take a picture. Even days later I was still smiling about it. I'm used to watching birds at a distance, so when one comes in close like that it make my entire week, especially when there isn't a window separating you.