Tag Archives: evening

Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

White Pelicans, Sunset Light

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White Pelicans, Sunset Light
A small flock of white pelicans clusters together, rellected in a wetland pond at sunset.

White Pelicans, Sunset Light. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small flock of white pelicans clusters together, rellected in a wetland pond at sunset.

One of the things I like about white pelicans is that they were always here, in the places I frequently visit, and I somehow managed to remain completely unaware of them for decades. I have long known about and photographed brown pelicans along the California coast, but I had no idea that they had cousins in California, too. My ignorance of them was so great that the first time I saw white pelicans, far off in the distance in thick fog, I speculated that they might be some kind of strange goose or perhaps swans. That sounds ridiculous, as I soon understood when I saw them more clearly. And once I saw the first flock they magically appeared in other locations I had long visited.

I’ve seen them everywhere from coastal areas to inland waterways and ponds. This group hangs out at an inland location, and I’ve seen them or their relatives off in the distance many times, usually just hanging around on small islands like this one. When I’m lucky I manage to be under their flight path as they take to the air. But this group had taken up residence on this little bar, close enough for me to photograph them very late in the day, only minutes before sunset, while I was on my way to another spot.

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: Nature

Wetlands, Winter Sunset Sky

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Wetlands, Winter Sunset Sky
Clouds from an approaching winter weather system above Central Valley wetlands at sunset.

Wetlands, Winter Sunset Sky. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Clouds from an approaching winter weather system above Central Valley wetlands at sunset.

Who can resist a winter sunset sky, a reflecting pond, a few bits of vegetation, and distant mountains? I know I cannot. Recently I have written about sunsets several times — once to describe one that surprised me at the end of a rather gray day and another that, well, stayed gray. On both of those occasions I had little idea about how the sunset would turn out, but I stuck around just to see what, if anything, might develop. This time the event was almost predictable. The front edges of a Pacific weather front was approaching, and the line of clouds had been visible for a couple of hours. I almost hate to admit it, but I showed up in this spot only above five minutes before sunset.

In addition to their colorful attractions, sunsets like this one speak to Californians in an additional way right now. It has been (again!) a very dry start to our wet season, and after too many recent drought years we are getting a bad feeling about this winter. So these clouds, signaling something other than more “perfect” blue sky weather, are exciting in their promise of the potential for rain.

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

The Cranes Return, Dusk

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The Cranes Return, Dusk
As the day ends, sandhill cranes return to the wetlands.

The Cranes Return, Dusk. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

As the day ends, sandhill cranes return to the wetlands.

Sandhill cranes are often the first birds I am aware of in the early morning and the last I look for in the evening before I put my camera away. In fact, the boundary between enough and too little light often comes during their evening return, so it isn’t unusual to end the day just watching them.

I’ve never quite figured out where they go during the day, though I suppose that some investigation would turn up the answer. (In a West Coast location I once found thousands of them in a dry, barren, out-of-the way place where I was virtually alone with them.) I’ll never forget the first time I experienced their evening return. At the end of a day of photography it was becoming dark — too dark, I thought, to continue. As I was about to pack up my gear I heard a remarkable sound coming from the southeast, a sound that I didn’t understand then but which I now recognize immediately as that of the returning flocks. A few moments later hundreds (more likely thousands) of them arrived, filling the sky, and then descending to nearby ponds.

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

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

Geese, Autumn Sky

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Geese, Autumn Sky
Geese return to Central Valley wetlands under dramatic autumn sky.

Geese, Autumn Sky. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Geese return to Central Valley wetlands under dramatic autumn sky.

This has been a strange autumn in California in a host of ways. The state has been contending with the effects of warmer and drier conditions and declining precipitation for at least a decade now, and late-autumn is now part of the wildfire season, a time that used to terminate with the first late-October rains. In my part of California, where the rains usually get going in November and December is one of the three core rainy months., we have had almost no precipitation at all. You’ll pardon us if we spend a lot of time watching the sky and hoping for real weather to arrive.

A week ago I spent some time in the Great Central Valley making photographs. I had been putting off my visits because I prefer “interesting weather,” and there really wasn’t any. I finally went there because there was the tiniest chance of a little bit of fog and because, well, it looked like that would be the best we’d see for a while. The morning was nice — the true fog did not materials, but there was a beautiful softness in the atmosphere anyway. But late in the day it just became… gray… as a cloud shield from a weather front came in from the west. I almost left, and I had actually mostly packed up, when I decided that I might as well stick around a bit longer since I was there. It turned out to be the right decision. One development was something familiar to me from past evenings — as the light moved to the west the hazy atmosphere became more transparent and, like a stage scene illuminated behind a scrim, the shapes of the western clouds became clearer as geese arrived to settle into a nearby pond.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

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

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