Geese and Pond, Sunset

Geese and Pond, Sunset
Snow geese and Ross’s geese on a small island in a wetland pond

Geese and Pond, Sunset. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Snow geese and Ross’s geese on a small island in a wetland pond

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area we expect temperatures as high as 100 degrees in inland areas. Summer is here, and with a vengeance. I like summer — long daylight hours, little need to worry about that warm jacket, and more — but it is not my favorite season. I prefer the shortening days and golden colors of fall, the interesting weather and light of winter, and the reawakening of spring, to be honest. In other words, with this photograph I am engaging in a bit of nostalgia for the past winter and a bit of expectation of the seasons that follow the one in which we now find ourselves.

While we might think of winter as being a time of less life and growth — which is surely true in most places when it comes to vegetation — the annual migration of birds inclines in the opposite direction. At the time of year when days are short, weather is cold, and growing things are in decline… the birds show up again. I photographed these birds on a late-autumn evening in early December, when trees were still shedding fall leaves and the birds were just beginning to return along the Pacific flyway.


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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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2 thoughts on “Geese and Pond, Sunset”

  1. I totally agree. Your picture is beautiful and cooled us off here in Houston where unfortunately summer is almost unbearable at times. It also reminded me of this quote I read: “To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.” George Santayana

    In just a few weeks we will be able to detect the change in the light, and I am looking forward to viewing the sun’s journey south.

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