Tag Archives: bird

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

Red-Winged Blackbirds in Flight

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Red-Winged Blackbirds in Flight - A large flock of red-winged blackbirds flushes from the brush and takes flight over the San Joaquin Valley, California
A large flock of red-winged blackbirds flushes from the brush and takes flight over the San Joaquin Valley, California

Red-Winged Blackbirds in Flight. San Joaquin Valley, California. November 25, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

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.
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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: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Diablo Range, Winter Sunset

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Diablo Range, Winter Sunset
Diablo Range, Winter Sunset

Diablo Range, Winter Sunset. San Joaquin Valley, California. January 21, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Colorful winter sunset over the Diablo Range, seen from California’s San Joaquin Valley

It is rare for me to shoot a scene quite like this one, with the setting sun included in the frame. It was a sort of spontaneous thing. I had a very long lens on the camera since I was photographing geese and cranes in the evening light, and when I looked up and saw that the sun was setting right in the low point on the ridge of the Diablo Range I quickly grabbed my tripod and made a few exposures of this scene.

This time right around and just after sunset is what I think of as the magic hour here in this Valley between the Sierra and the Diablo Range. Much of the pre-sunset coming and going of the geese pauses and things seem to slow down. The wild color was only there for a brief moment, and only in this specific part of the sky right above the setting sun, where the low light reflected off the bottom of a high, thin cloud layer. A single bird (perhaps a hawk? is in the upper branches of the tree at far left, and some light reflects off of the surface of the ponds at this wildlife refuge.

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

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: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Great Blue Heron, Foggy Pasture

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Great Blue Heron, Foggy Pasture - A long great blue heron overlooks a pasture in clearing fog, Merced National Wildlife Refuge, California
A long great blue heron overlooks a pasture in clearing fog, Merced National Wildlife Refuge, California

Great Blue Heron, Foggy Pasture. San Joaquin Valley, California. November 25, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A lone great blue heron overlooks a pasture in clearing fog, San Joaquin Valley, California

I photographed this critter on my first bird photography trip of the season in the Central Valley of California, during which I visited several wildlife refuges in the Merced area. In typical Central Valley form, the day started out very foggy – tule fog hugged the valley floor and obscured the view in many places. By late morning most of the fog had dissipated, and hazy light came through the still-humid cool-season atmosphere.

When I first arrived at this refuge, the fog was so thick that it was more or less impossible to photograph the birds – though I tried! Eventually I reconsidered and did some landscape photography in the mysterious atmosphere of the thick fog. As it finally began to clear, I turned my attention back to the migratory birds. I found this solitary blue heron in a pasture at the far corner of the refuge, and I used my car as a “blind” to eventually pull almost parallel to it on the gravel access road, then stopping to make a series of telephoto shots with the foggy pasture as the backdrop.

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

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: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

White Pelican Flock

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White Pelican Flock
White Pelican Flock

White Pelican Flock. San Joaquin Valley, California. December 11, 2012. © Copyright 2012 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A flock of white pelicans settles on an island in the San Joaquin Valley, California

It probably should be a bit embarrassing to admit that there is a lot I don’t know about birds and other kinds of wildlife, but at least I continue to get the joy of learning new things because of that! I’ve been a fan of the coastal California pelicans for some time, often photographing them along the Pacific shoreline. I’ve learned a bit about their habits, to the point that I know some particular places and conditions in which I’m likely to find them, and I’ve built a bit of a collection of photographs of these birds. But I did not know that I would find pelicans at this Central Valley location, much less that they would yet a different sort of pelican than I have known about from the coast.

On this early December morning it was tremendously foggy when we arrived. We figured it would clear – eventually – but at first it was just about impossible to find birds to photograph since the distance that they wanted to keep between themselves and curious photographers seemed to be just about equal to the limits of visibility in the fog. We could hear birds, but were barely able to see them. At one point we stopped for a moment to roll down the windows and listen and I looked up to see a completely silent flock of large birds briefly though faintly overhead as they flew through the fog. I couldn’t figure out what they were, though I recall thinking that they were pelican-like. Some time later, perhaps hours, another member of our group asked if I had seen the pelicans, and it all came together. They had spotted “white pelicans” (which I didn’t know about) in very nearly the same spot where I had seen this flock fly past. So, on a later pass around the refuge perimeter road I was watching out for them, and they turned out to be easy to see in the clearer air and better 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

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.