A small flock of six Ross’s geese in flight against the sky in golden hour light, San Joaquin Valley, California
Late on this January afternoon – more like early evening perhaps – we were staking out a small flock of Ross’s geese that had parked themselves in a nearby pond. There were not that many of them – nothing like the flocks of many thousands that we have watched on some other evenings, when they gradually depart in small groups over a long period of time, or the very large group we saw earlier this year that mostly just moved around in a pasture near where we were shooting. Each time a small sub group departed on this evening, they created a noticeable decline in the number of birds left behind.
However, they somewhat compensated for their small numbers by means of their more “photographable” departure path, at least in some cases. Rather than flying away from us, some instead flew from left to right in front of our position and some of them even did a few laps overhead before actually leaving. This group of six was among those most obliging geese. They had departed to the right, looped back around to the left, and then flew across in front of us a second time, all the while taking a fairly low flight path. As this group passed by I watched carefully though the viewfinder to try to catch them in an instant when none of them obscured the others in the flock, and I caught such a moment here with the added bonus of a bit of slightly golden late afternoon light.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email
I made this in the last moments of an early March visit to the California Central Valley to photograph migratory birds. (As I write this in late March, I’m pretty certain that this was the final “goose chase” of this winter season.) I had come across a very large flock of snow geese in a field alongside a road south of Sacramento near the end of the day – somewhat to my surprise – so I pulled over on the barely adequate shoulder of the road and photographed over a fence and some roadside weeds as the birds began to fly off in small groups.
This little episode illustrates, for me, some of the unpredictability and luck involved in photographing such birds. I don’t mean to diminish the importance of having appropriate equipment and knowing how to use it, nor of having some idea of where to find the birds. But there is a lot about this that is not in the photographer’s control. I had started the day many miles south of here before dawn at a very different wildlife site. My plans were a bit vague beyond starting there, and when the opportunities seemed a bit less than idea after the morning shoot, I decided that I would use the “blah light” midday hours to travel up the valley a good distance to another area where I had not photographed since last season. (This added bit of driving also allowed me to investigate a few highways and side roads that I had been wanting to check out.) After a long drive of nearly two hours I arrived at this location in the Sacramento area and found… not at all what I had hoped for. I was hoping for more large flocks of birds, preferably geese and/or cranes, but at the first place I stopped it seemed that formerly flooded fields had now been drained and tilled. I moved to another area, but still couldn’t see what I had in mind to shoot. I drove around a bit trying to get the lay of the land and discover if perhaps the birds were somewhere other than where I expected to find them, but aside from a few small groups I didn’t find much. I took a nap. I started the usual contemplation about how not every shoot is successful and reminded myself that it was a good day even if nothing turned up here. As sunset approached I decided to make one last loop around the area, stopping to briefly photograph a few Canadian geese. As I watched the, I caught a glimpse of the tell-tale white birds off to the north and since I wasn’t finding anything all the compelling where I was I drove off in that direction. I soon was surprised to find a field filled with many thousands of geese – and a bit more surprised to find that they (or at least many of them) were snow geese rather than the Ross’s geese I often photograph. I stood along the road, separated from them by a low fence and tall weeds and watched. Before long small groups began to take of and fly low angle paths across the field toward the setting sun. The light was beautiful but often they were in front of farmland buildings, trees, and wires. I kept shooting and occasionally a group would rise high enough and quickly enough to appear against early evening sky. One of the important factors, or at least it seems to me, is to capture the group when the birds are in a pleasing and interesting configuration. Too often they overlap, or may not have wings raised or lowered, or there distances may vary enough to create focus problems – so it is no surprise that a good percentage of the shots aren’t keepers. (I have a sense of when this is more likely to work, but only a sense.) But this group managed to cooperate nicely, not only flying against background of clear sky, heading into the golden hour sunset light, but also managing to maintain enough separation that none of them overlap at all.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email
A large flock of red-winged blackbirds flushes from the brush and takes flight over the San Joaquin Valley, California
I first started traveling to and photographing these areas in the California Central Valley because I was looking for sandhill cranes. I quickly discovered the other large migratory birds, especially the geese. But as I go back more often I see more and more things that are worth photographing. On this visit I had a bit of midday time to kill so I decided to go look at a new (to me) wildlife area.
The area is not far from another wildlife area, where I have most often photographed in this part of the valley. My initial thinking was that it might be an alternative location in which to look for the same flocks of Ross’s geese that I find nearby, but the staff people at the visitor center suggested otherwise. They did mention one area further north in the reserve where people had reported good bird viewing, so I decided to take a look. I didn’t see any geese there during my short visit, but I did see a bunch of other interesting birds, including this large and active flock of red-winged blackbirds, who obligingly lined themselves up to display the bright red areas along the base of their wings.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email
A flock of white pelicans in flight above the San Joaquin Valley, California
To file in the “learn something new every day” file… this year I learned that the brown pelicans that I so often photograph along the California coastline are not the only pelicans in the state. I had no idea that pelicans could be found inland in the Central Valley, nor that there was another type found here, the white pelican. My first encounter was almost humorous in retrospect. On an extremely foggy morning out in the valley, when birds were audible but often not seen, at one point a small group of mysterious birds floated out of the fog silently, coasted past, and quickly disappeared into the murk. I had no idea what I had seen, but I remember thinking that they looked a lot like pelicans but that they must not be since – wrong! – pelicans aren’t in the Central Valley. Later that day one of my compatriots asked, “Did you see the white pelicans?” I guess I had!
In the area where I photographed this group the primary large birds are Ross’s geese, and there are many thousands of those. There seems to be pretty much a single group of white pelicans and more or less the whole group is visible in this photograph. Here they arrived from the south, again silently floated in over the ponds full of noisy geese, and then dropped down out in the middle of this area where they were too far away to be clearly seen. I was impressed to see so many of them flying together.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email
Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.
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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
