Tag Archives: ducks

Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature

Winter Wetland Trees

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Winter Wetland Trees
A copse of winter wetland trees along the Pacific Flyway, New Year’s Day 2022.

Winter Wetland Trees. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A copse of winter wetland trees along the Pacific Flyway, New Year’s Day 2022.

This photograph is another one from our New Year’s Day adventure with friends under the skies of the Pacific Skyway. We joined up for New Year’s Eve and then New Year’s Day morning to celebrate the arrival of the new year along with a few tens of thousands of our bird friends, something that has become a tradition among this group of friends and (mostly) photographers.

I think that most of us would agree that it is the combination of birds and fog that primarily attracts us to these places in the winter. The attraction of fog might seem strange to those who live in it and have to drive in it and sometimes tolerate weeks of damp and gray. But its presence lends mystery to this landscape and creates an unending variety of conditions of mystery and light. On the morning I made this photograph, the skies were mostly clear, though a combination of high clouds and very thin fog near the ground softened the light on this group of trees.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Fall, Photographs: Fall Color, Photographs: Nature

Wetland Trees, Late Autumn

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Wetland Trees, Late Autumn
A row of trees with fall color, Central Valley wetlands.

Wetland Trees, Late Autumn. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A row of trees with fall color, Central Valley wetlands.

If there is more beautiful light than muted late-autumn sun on colorful trees against a slightly darkened sky, I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen it. It was a foggy day in the Central Valley of California during this brief season between the heat of summer and early autumn and the cold and often gray winter. For a few weeks there is a surprising amount of autumn color out here, though it took me quite a long time to understand this.

Just when is autumn, anyway? I know that the calendar tells me it begins on the late-September autumnal equinox and that it ends on the December winter solstice, but that’s not quite what it feels like. I used to think that it was when the Eastern Sierra aspens change color, roughly during the first weeks of October. But years ago I began to tune in to subtle changes in the Sierra that clearly said “autumn is coming” as early as August. By September corn lilies, bilberry, and willows show color, but in the lowlands it is still effectively summer. In the Great Valley and in the coastal areas closer to where I live, real fall color doesn’t arrive until November, and it lasts well into December. I have even photographed “fall color” in January of the new year!

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

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

Birds, Fog, Dawn

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Birds, Fog, Dawn
Birds fly over foggy Central Valley wetlands at dawn on a winter day

Birds, Fog, Dawn. Central Valley, California. January 28, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Birds fly over foggy Central Valley wetlands at dawn on a winter day

It is only the last day of March… and I’m already missing these winter wetlands with fog and the sound of birds. These places are found up and down California’s Great Central Valley, and each has its own personality. I know I can find eagles at one, night herons at another, cranes at several of them, and huge flocks of Ross’s and snow geese and yet another.

In my view, the best days at these refuges begin before dawn. The air should be cold — at or just below freezing is about right — and there must be at least some fog in the air. I favor thick fog that gradually clears as the morning develops, though on this morning it was thinning even as the sunrise began. The raucous sounds of the birds — mostly geese and cranes — are everywhere, and here and there small groups take off and fly past. If a faint view of the High Sierra emerges, as in this photograph, it is even better.

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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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Marsh, Fog, Evening Light

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Marsh, Fog, Evening Light
Evening light on San Joaquin Valley marshland

Marsh, Fog, Evening Light. San Joaquin Valley, California. December 17, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Evening light on San Joaquin Valley marshland

This photograph represents the flip side of an observation I made in a separate post regarding another photograph that I made on this mid-December evening. The comment had to do with the contrast at the end of the day between events here that happen suddenly and those that unfold more slowly — a simulations slowing down and speeding up of events at the end of the day. The speeding up events include sudden departures and arrivals of large groups of birds. The slowing down part is exemplified by this photograph. (For the EXIF file data aficionados among you, the EXIF data shows an incorrect time of day for this photograph. Ah, well…)

As I photographed other subjects I had slow moments to look around and take in static elements of the scene. Late in the evening, as the light color warmed, I saw the effect this had on the brown reeds and the trees, many of which still had a few fall leaves left. While the near trees are quite clear, being lit by this beautiful side-light, the details of the further trees are muted just a bit by haze, and the more distant sky’s color is muted by this incipient fog. A few remaining geese along with some ducks sit almost completely still in the shallow water.

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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