Tag Archives: egret

Photographs: Central California

Dawn Fog, Central Valley

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Dawn Fog, Central Valley
Dawn fog rises from a drainage canal in California Central Valley agricultural country.

Dawn Fog, Central Valley. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Dawn fog rises from a drainage canal in California Central Valley agricultural country.

This area of California’s Central Valley, not far from Sacramento, is a somewhat special place for me despite its relatively mundane appearance. It isn’t a park, you won’t find it on any maps, it is at the terminus of a narrow dead-end road. But it is the place where I “discovered” the state’s migratory birds and began photographing them. I had not really been interested in the subject at all until one morning I had a chance encounter with a colleague in the coffee line at my college. She told me I should go look at this place — “There are lots of birds.” For some reason, a few days later I arose well before dawn and drove a couple of hours to take a look..

She was right. There were lots of birds. Clouds of them, flying in all directions. I more or less had no idea what any of them were — I think I simply figured they were all “geese” — but I was hooked. (In fact I saw cranes, tundra swans, ibises, egrets, and, yes, lots of geese.) On this later trip I paused out on the little road and photographed back toward the early morning sky as fog rose from the water in an irrigation channel.

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: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Great Egret, Morning Light

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Great Egret, Morning Light
A great egret in California’s Central Valley

Great Egret, Morning Light. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A great egret in California’s Central Valley.

Way back when I was a college student I first “discovered” egrets. I was in a general education science course that consisted of a sequence of short seminars on various subjects, and the professor teaching one on ecology was obviously an egret fanatic. I don’t recall many specifics from the course, but I recall his passion for “snowy egrets.” Later on, as a dedicated cyclist, I often rode past creeks and canals in the Bay Area where I spotted great egrets (not the same critter as the snowy egret), often simply resting but sometimes in flight. At that time I regarded them as exotic birds, since they were still new to me.

Of course, I eventually learned that they are all over California, wherever there are wetlands — from the Pacific shoreline to the Central Valley. As I learned more about other birds — cranes, geese, herons, ibises — I came to regard the egret as a much less exotic bird. Yet, there is nothing quite like the flight of a great egret, with that long neck, the pure white plumage, and the gigantic wingspan. This one managed to stay put on the ground long enough for me to take its picture on a recent, first-of-the-season bird photography foray into the Central Valley.

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: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Egret Among Clouds

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Egret Among Clouds
An egret flies into early morning winter sky with fog and clouds

Egret Among Clouds. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An egret flies into early morning winter sky with fog and clouds

In some ways the great white egrets seem less special than some of the birds that arrive and depart in huge flocks each season. The first sight of these birds in impressive — whether it is a solitary bird flying past with its characteristic slow wing motion, a bird hunting in grassland or shallow water, or perhaps a small group in a winter field. But eventually you figure out that they are far from rare, and you can find them in many areas that have the right combination of water and food.

However, in flight they have a remarkable degree of gracefulness. They almost always fly alone, and they tend toward slow-moving, steady flying, often coasting or moving wings slowly. There landings are momentarily very beautiful as wings flare just as they hit the ground. This bird took to the air nearby and then flew slowly into a cloudy golden hour sky.

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

Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Great Egret, Reflection

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Great Egret, Reflection
A great egret and its reflection in a wetland pond

Great Egret, Reflection. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A great egret and its reflection in a wetland pond

While I don’t know the full extent of their (likely huge) range, these birds are ubiquitous in California. I remember when I first noticed them, many years ago when I was a dedicated cyclist. In those days I commuted to work by bicycle, covering between 30 and 55 miles a day, and portions of my ride always passed creeks and drainage canals. You might miss them speeding past in a car, but on a bicycle I frequently looked into these waterways and spotted these impressively large and nearly pure white birds. As time went on I found them all over the place — they can be found in many agricultural areas, for example, and I have photographed them feeding in kelp beds along the Pacific Ocean shoreline.

In flight they alternate between ungainliness and beauty. They can seem a bit gangly and awkward at times — their take-off can be somewhat awkward, for example. On the other hand they flare their wings beautifully upon landing. I don’t usually go out specifically to photograph the egrets, but sometimes it seems unavoidable since they turn up in so many places. They seem to have somewhat clearly defined boundaries when it comes to human presence. They more or less ignore us until we get too close (though this boundary changes depending upon whether they are feeding or not), but get a bit too close and you can see them “tighten up” and prepare for a sudden take-off, at which point you most often have only the opportunity to photograph them from the back as they depart. This bird had been hunting and seemed a bit more willing than most to let me photograph.

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