Category Archives: Photographs: Wildlife

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Airborne Ross’s Geese

January 18, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A huge flock of Ross’s geese takes to the air over the San Joaquin Valley

I saw a few geese the other day. And then I saw this mob scene. I spent a day out in the San Joaquin Valley, photographing foggy landscapes and migratory birds. I had spent the morning making a couple of laps of the area as the fog went from pea soup to a slightly thinner broth, and I finally took a long break for lunch after photographing (and video-recording!) a huge group of sandhill cranes that lifted off from very close to my position. After this break I took a long look around the area from a slightly higher point of view, and I noticed a very large flock of geese nearby, but in a place where I would have to make a long driving loop to reach.

So I set out on this loop, pausing to photograph a hawk. Then some egrets, including one that had hunted down a mouse that was too big for it to swallow — more on that later. Then some watery landscapes. Then some ibises. When I finally made it around the loop and returned to the spot where I had earlier spotted the huge flock of geese… they were gone. Again I looked around, this time including looking outside of the fence area where I was and across the road, and over there I spotted a very big flock, most likely the same group I had seen earlier. I headed over across the road, parked my car, and got out to walk along a stock fence and make some photographs. (I suppose this does answer the question, “Why did the photographer cross the road?”) Soon even more geese showed up until the feeding flock stretched off into the foggy landscape. When this many geese settle in together it is virtually inevitable that sooner or later something will set them on edge and suddenly the entire flock will lift off in a wild cloud of birds… so I waited. Then this happened.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Egret on the Hunt

January 18, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

An egret hunts in marshland grasses, San Joaquin Valley, California

On this foggy late-December morning I was in this spot mostly looking to photograph sandhill cranes. It seems that the cranes are often a bit shy in the early morning and I often am not able to get too close to them — I try, but they tend to be a bit off in the distance except when they are in flight, and then they typically diverge a bit when they see me. There were lots of cranes on this morning, but they were by the ponds near the more distant trees in this photograph. (If you look closely you can probably spot a few of them.)

Egrets, on the other hand, are often not that far from my route. Out here they tend to be found along creeks and ditches or out in grassy areas where they can hunt, which is what this one was doing. While the egrets are spectacular in flight — with their slow, swooping trajectories and huge wingspans — they may actually be more interesting to watch when they are hunting. They seem to be very careful and very patient hunters, often sneaking up on their prey slowly. Along the way they may stop in some awkward pose, perhaps standing almost still aside from a bit of neck “rocking” or the slow movement of a foot. Then the neck stretches a bit and suddenly the bird stabs its small prey. This bird was hunting in grasses very close to a gravel road, so I remained in my vehicle to photograph it as it looked for its breakfast.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Geesescape, Evening

January 13, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Large flock of geese, airborne and on the ground, during the evening fly-in

On New Year’s Day, a small group of photographers and friends met at a San Joaquin Valley wetlands location, to welcome the first dawn of the new year and to spend a day photographing birds and the misty Central Valley winter landscape. If nothing else, the necessity of getting up at 4:00 AM on New Year’s morning tends to ensure that we keep the partying to a minimum the night before!

The day began with photography in tule fog, which soon cleared enough to allow the sunshine in. We shot all morning and then took a break for lunch in a nearby town before returning for the late-afternoon and evening light. You never know for sure what the geese will do. They might not show up, they might be there in small numbers, they might land in an inaccessible area… or you might be treated to the sights and sounds of many thousands of them in close proximity. We weren’t sure how this evening would turn out — earlier the geese had played a bit of a game of hide and seek with us. But as the evening wore on it became more apparent that there were a lot of geese about and that they were flying in to a large pasture area that was quite accessible. The time of the evening fly-in is a time of a lot of action. Small flocks join those already on the ground, and there is an almost constant coming and going of birds. A huge flock may be on the ground, only to be spooked by something and suddenly and noisily take to the air. Or them might begin to move, a few at a time, from one location to another, often flying very low. At the time of this photograph, many geese decided to land very close to our location, and at times it was hard to pick out a

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Winter Geese, San Joaquin Valley Farm

January 9, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Flock of migratory winter geese circling above a San Joaquin Valley farm

Every winter California’s Great Central Valley becomes the home of astounding collections of migratory birds. (I’m still a bit surprised that folks from the state will travel great distances to other states to photograph some of the very same birds, when they are at their backdoor!) Historically the Central Valley (consisting of the Sacramento Valley to the north and the San Joaquin Valley to the south) supported even larger populations of birds, but as the area was developed for agriculture the majority of the wetlands were lost. However, places were set aside, and in many areas the agriculture areas become the homes of the birds in the winter.

We visited one of these protected areas late December, an area where I frequently photograph throughout the bird season. The photography in this area was good, but it still seemed like there were not as many (mostly) Ross’s geese as we would expect. We figured out why — huge numbers of them were settling in just outside the area where we usually find them, and across a nearby road on farmland. Here the flock of thousands of geese takes to the air above one of these Central Valley farms on this foggy morning.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Category Archives: Photographs: Wildlife

Airborne Ross’s Geese

Egret on the Hunt

Geesescape, Evening

Winter Geese, San Joaquin Valley Farm

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.