Last Flight at Blackwater NWR

Going through my older files from Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, I came across this series that I never worked on. Blackwater has great sunsets because of its proximity to the coast with the moisture in the air. This was shot in December, near the end of daylight. I like the sun’s rays coming down through the clouds, giving streaks of sunlight in the lower clouds. This one lone bird was flying through the sky under the dark higher cloud bank. The photo just made me think  “Last Flight of the Day.” Sometimes you can see large flocks of birds going through the evening sky, but late on this day there was just one lonely bird heading home, which I thought gave an interesting look. I usually do not like having the subject in the middle of the frame, but in this instance I chose this one because the bird is so small it was not as powerful off to either side and looked unbalanced. This was shot with a Canon 7D with a Canon 400mm DO f/4 telephoto lens. Exposure 1/1250 @ f/8, ISO 400.