Taking Flight, Sandhill Cranes. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A group of sandhill cranes takes to the morning sky above foggy marshland.

This photograph continues the theme for the next week or so, leading up to the opening on February 16 of “Birdscapes,” my joint show with David Hoffman at Stellar Gallery in Oakhurst. Today’s photograph comes from rather early in the Pacific Flyway season, way back in November. At this point the earliest winter birds are just arriving and others are still in transit from their summer breeding grounds. On this morning the main show was sandhill cranes, though a few other individual birds showed up, too — egrets, perhaps a few ibises, and lots of “little brown birds.”

The more I am around birds the more I realize that they spend a lot of time doing… not much, or at least not much that seems very active. But interjected into these mostly slow periods are some very active and dynamic moments. Among them are take-offs and landings. These birds are somewhat large, and getting airborne is no simple thing — there is a lot of initial jumping and flapping and perhaps even a bit of footwork to get things moving. This group was just taking flight from a shallow bond on a morning of thin and clearing fog.

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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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