Tag Archives: bif

Commentary, Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Brown Pelican in Flight

June 1, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Brown pelican flight above the shoreline of Monterey Bay, Moss Landing, California

Rediscovering this photograph and a few of its buddies makes for a bit of an odd story. Earlier today I got a message telling me that one of the drives attached to my computer was nearly full. That seemed a bit surprising, but it also was clearly an issue I had to address, so I set about looking for unnecessary files on that volume. In doing so I “discovered” a folder full of raw files and a few Photoshop files that I had apparently transferred to the computer last year… and then forgot. Most of the files there turned out to be unneeded, and I reclaimed 5GB of disk space by deleting them. But among there were s small number of shorebird photographs that I had forgotten.

The photographs came from an amazing and surprising spur-of-the-moment visit to Monterey Bay last June. For weeks I had been hearing stories of whales coming very close to the shoreline, and I had even observed a few from the cliffs in the Big Sur area. A news story claimed that they were now inside Monterey Bay and even coming very close to the beaches an Moss Landing — and friends had photographs to prove it. So over the hill we went to go there ourselves. When we arrived we were, indeed, impressed by how close the whales came to the beach — I had no idea they did that. But as impressive was the huge collection of birds that was perhaps attracted to the same food sources that drew the whales. I had never seen such numbers of these birds along the coast. Among them were a large number of brown pelicans, so many that photographing them was almost too easy.

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

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

White-Fronted Geese

January 25, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A flock of white-fronted geese in flight about the San Joaquin Valley

I have probably mentioned previously that I am not by nature a “birder” type. In fact, my infatuation with photographing birds is a relatively new thing — I’ve photographed landscapes for years, but only became so interested in birds a few years ago. Because of this I’m having the wonderful experience of learning about a completely new world even though I’ve been photographing for decades! When I first went to California’s Central Valley to find and photograph birds, I didn’t quite know what I would see, but my attention was understandably attracted to the big groups of sandhill cranes and white (most Ross’s) geese.

Eventually, as I returned to these places and got to know them better, I have begun to pay more attention to critters that I either didn’t notice before or that I dismissed as not being special. The white-fronted geese (which, oddly, are mostly dark in color) fit into this group. When I was entirely focused on the white Ross’s geese, I regarded these darker birds as a sort of unwelcome intrusion — nothing special about them! Then I began to notice them more, settled in on the ground in fields, or providing a dark contrast to the white masses of Ross’s geese — and eventually I stopped ignoring them and began to include them in my photography.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Egret and Heron

January 19, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A great egret and a blue heron in low-level flight

Recently I’ve been thinking about how to make my wildlife photography more efficient. Sometimes I return from a day of photographing birds and other fast-moving critters to find that I have many hundreds or even more than a thousand photographs to sort through. There is a limited supply of pixels in the world, and don’t want to be the one responsible of using them all up. Today it occurred to me that it is wasteful to photograph only a single species in each frame, so I’ve decided to double my efficiency as a photographer and strive to capture two in each shot.

Extracting tongue from cheek… on this trip to photograph San Joaquin Valley migratory birds and other subjects I encountered several of these odd pairings of a single egret and a single heron hanging out together. This was the first pair, and it was quite a surprise. We were creeping along a dirt levee road very slowly in our vehicle, keeping an eye out for interesting birds, and I half expected to see the egret. I had my camera sitting across my lap as I drove, and I probably would have stopped for a(nother) close who of an egret in flight. But right on the heels (tail feathers?) of the egret, a beautiful blue heron followed it across he road — and almost without thinking I quickly grabbed my camera and tracked the two of them as they flew to the left of the vehicle, managing to make a short string of exposures including the two of them together.

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.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: bif

Brown Pelican in Flight

White-Fronted Geese

Egret and Heron

Airborne Ross’s Geese

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