Tag Archives: flight

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

Above the Water

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Above the Water
A flock of small birds, reflected in the surface of a winter pond.

Above the Water. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A flock of small birds, reflected in the surface of a winter pond.

These birds move so quickly and follow such unpredictable patterns that they are a real challenge to photograph. The sometimes stay in one place a bit while feeding but then, without much warning that I can detect, the whole flock of them instantly takes to the air, flying closely together and abruptly turning as if they were a single organism. They move quickly enough that it is hard to track them, and when they appear they are often in and out of camera range in a few short seconds.

Quite often they appear against busy backgrounds of grasses and trees and more distant water, and they can easily get lost against these backdrops. (Here their speed can be helpful, as panning with the birds can blur those backgrounds a bit.) It was foggy on this morning, and I chose (very quickly and intuitively!) to photograph them over a patch of uninterrupted water that gradually faded into the fog.

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: Flight, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

December Moon, Bird-Filled Sky

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Full Moon, Bird-Filled Sky
The evening sky above the Great Central Valley fills with migratory birds as the late-autumn moon rises.

December Moon, Bird-Filled Sky. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The evening sky above the Great Central Valley fills with migratory birds as the late-autumn moon rises.

When photographing wildlife, virtually any time of day can present special, even miraculous events — but if forced to pick my favorite time of the day out in bird photography country, it might well be evening. The choice would be difficult, for sure, but some of the most memorable sights and sounds I’ve experienced while photographing autumn and winter birds have occurred late in the day: the evening fly-out of flocks of geese, the rising moon, the return of cranes, and more.

I made this photograph very late on a December day, at time time we might describe as very late afternoon or perhaps early evening. (Yes, technically the moon was not quite full.) It had been foggy for much of the day, but the sky had cleared and was now uniformly blue. It was the time when things are mostly slowing down and evening’s quiet is coming. And then the sky filled with birds for a few moments…

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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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

Follow the Leader(s)

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Follow the Leader(s)
A flock of sandhill cranes taking flight over Pacific Flyway wetlands on a winter morning.

Follow the Leader(s). © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A flock of sandhill cranes taking flight over Pacific Flyway wetlands on a winter morning.

Yeah, I know — MORE cranes! I can’t help it. They have become my favorite Pacific Flyway migratory birds, plus I had some excellent opportunities to photography them this past winter. (This topic came up in a recent online discussion in which the question of how I managed to find/corral a large number of them came up. I’m thinking of adopting a new moniker: “Crane Wrangler.”)

On this late-winter morning there was just a hint of fog in the air as the sun came up — just enough to mute the first light and some of the more distant colors. A large contingent of these birds, probably well over 1000 of them, was standing in shallow wetland ponds. As the light increased, they gradually began to depart in small groups, and I tracked them as they flew across the scene.

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.

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

Sandhill Cranes, Winter Wetlands

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Sandhill Cranes, Winter Wetlands
A large group of sandhill cranes assembles in Pacific Flyway wetlands on a winter morning.

Sandhill Cranes, Winter Wetlands. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A large group of sandhill cranes assembles in Pacific Flyway wetlands on a winter morning.

This was one of the larger assemblies of sandhill cranes I have seen in California’s Great Central Valley. (Though it still fall far short of the largest group I’ve seen, in an out-of-the way spot in the delta region east of San Francisco Bay.) There are quite a few visible in the photograph, but many more were outside the frame on both sides and extending well into the distance. It seems to me that they are more likely to be part of such groups late in their California season, or at least that the groups are less remote from observation points.

At the point I photographed them, most of the cranes were still relatively settled in on this pond, with only a few coming and going. A bit later they began to depart, typically in small groups of perhaps a half dozen or so. But at this moment, aside from the five who thoughtfully occupied the upper part of the frame, they were mostly stationary as the early morning sun came to the wetlands.

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.