Cranes Before Dawn. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A flock of sandhill cranes reflected in a shallow pond before sunrise.

A few winters ago I mainly went to places like this to photograph the geese that arrive in flocks of thousands. Distracted by the geese, I paid less attention to other birds at first. Surprisingly, the sound of the cranes that brought them to my attention.(That, and a magical evening when thousands of them showed up unexpectedly after sunset.) When I arrived in these places before dawn after a long drive and got out of my car I was immediately taken by the call of cranes. Even though at first I did not recognize it, it is the first thing I look for now.

The behavioral patterns of the migratory birds evolve as the season progresses. The cranes seem to land in remote places early in the season, but later I can get closer to them. In early March many of them were in ponds where I could use a long lens to photograph groups. This group was part of a much larger flock in this wetland pond when I photographed them against the reflection of the pre-dawn pink sky.

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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Unruly Flock. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A somewhat disorganized flock of lesser sandhill cranes in flight.

Over the time that I’ve photographed birds I have gradually become more aware of the personalities of different species and even different subgroups. For example, the sound of one goose may be lower in pitch than another, one sort of egret is less tolerant of humans than another, the way cranes flock is quite different from geese, and so on. Learning about these differences — and I’m still far from being an expert! — is both fascinating and useful. For example, I can more accurately recognize types of birds based on how a flock behaves, an so on.

Sandhill cranes have idiomatic behaviors that differentiate them from other flocking birds such as geese and ibises. The group size is one element — I’ve never seen them airborne in numbers approaching those of big flocks of geese. The organization of flocks in flight is much “looser” than that of geese. There is usually no traditional “V” pattern, and they sometimes give the appearance of coming close to colliding with one another. They also look around a lot in flight — somewhere I have a photograph that includes one with it head twisted around to look straight up! They don’t like flying directly over photographers, and will usually divert to one side or the other.

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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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Goose Storm. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A giant flock of Ross’s and/or snow geese above a wetland pond on a foggy winter morning.

Three experiences most photographers have had: A morning, day, or evening of astonishing conditions and light when it almost seemed that you could point the camera anywhere and make a good photograph. A morning, day or evening when the conditions were unbelievably awful and photography seemed almost impossible. In-between days when there are things to photograph, but they aren’t always easy or obvious. The first condition is rare, the second is (fortunately!) equally rare, and the third is most common. (The more you are out there, the more this rings true… and the better you get at adjusting.)

This morning was one of the rare “first category” situations. It had virtually everything I look for in such places: abundant wildlife, thick fog at dawn that was shallow enough to allow the light of morning sky to color the scene, fog breaking up as the morning wore on, and good company! The geese had been settled in on the grassland and ponds when something provoked them to take flight into the softly lit foggy morning sky by the thousands, circling noisily for a bit before settling back down again.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.