Tag Archives: flight

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

Morning Cranes, Pond

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Morning Cranes, Pond
A large flock of cranes, resting in a pond on a foggy morning, prepares to take flight

Morning Cranes, Pond. San Joaquin Valley, California. December 9, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A large flock of cranes, resting in a pond on a foggy morning, prepares to take flight

I made this photograph on a bit of a gray morning. As I drove toward this place the sky was clear, but just before sunrise the typical Central Vally tule fog began to develop. It did not completely sock the area in, but it turned the sky gray and obscured views of distant trees and other subjects before long.

As things come to life in the early morning hours in these wetlands areas, the cranes are often the first birds to take flight in large groups. (Though, unlike geese, whose groups may include thousands of birds, a group of cranes is often fewer than ten.) I was early enough to spot where the cranes were coming from before all of them were gone, and I arrived at this spot to see a large group of them standing in the shallow water, gradually taking off a few at a time. If you watch quietly, the birds seem to be very quiet — but almost without warning some of them will appear to stretch forward a bit, and soon they take to the air.

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, Photographs: Wildlife

Ground, Fog, Birds, Sky

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Ground, Fog, Birds, Sky
A flock of geese takes to the air above a fog bank at dawn

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

A flock of geese takes to the air above a fog bank at dawn

This might seem almost like a photograph of nothing, but I don’t see it quite that way. Arriving very early on a winter morning at one of my favorite bird areas in the Central Valley, I found it quite foggy. It wasn’t so foggy that I couldn’t see, but the atmosphere near the ground was opaque enough to limit my view to perhaps a few hundred feet, especially along the ground that was shrouded by this tule fog.

Before long a huge flock of geese lifted off from behind the low fog and streamed across by view from one side to the other, just about the fog cloud. Because of the distance to the birds their cries were muted and, oddly, everything seemed almost still and quiet even as what may have been thousands of birds were in the air. My idea for this photograph is to make it into a very large print, where the layers may have an imposing scale reminiscent of actually being there.

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: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Dawn Birdscape

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Dawn Birdscape
Flocks of Ross’s geese take to the foggy dawn sky above California’s Central Valley

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

Flocks of Ross’s geese take to the foggy dawn sky above California’s Central Valley

I arrived at one of my favorite migratory bird locations before dawn. It was foggy, but the tule fog was already beginning to thin even as the first light came to the sky. Often when I arrive I hear nearby flocks as soon as I get out of my car, but on this morning the birds all seemed to be a bit further off in the distance. In fact, my initial inclination was to photograph landscape, since it didn’t seem like there were all that many birds around..

I went ahead and got ready to make some landscape photographs in the fog as dawn came closer — it seemed like one of those mornings when the fog was shallow enough that the colors of sunrise sky might suffuse the scene. But the fog was thick enough that it was difficult to find subjects to anchor the landscape… until a large flock of geese began to take to the sky just beyond a few scattered bushes and small trees. I quickly swung the camera in that direction and photographed as the flock rose into the colorful, foggy sky.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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

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

Great Egret Takes Flight

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Great Egret Takes Flight
A great egret takes flight above San Joaquin Valley wetlands

Great Egret Takes Flight. Great Central Valley, California. December 16, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A great egret takes flight above San Joaquin Valley wetlands

Egrets are among the easiest birds to find — as long as you go where they are — and also among the most impressive. They are mostly individuals, rarely seen in groups, though occasionally they may collect in numbers of a few dozen in the winter. I typically find them around water, ranging from creeks and drainage canals through ponds and even the ocean shoreline. (There is one small pond not too far from where I live where I can almost always find a single egret in the area, and this has been the case for at least the last fifteen years.)

They don’t initially seem too distressed by human presence, especially if they are hunting and have found a target. However, they have clear boundaries and if you get too close they will suddenly take off, with little warning. They can be quite beautiful in flight, usually moving their wings slowly and even gliding, and they flare their wings impressively as they land. Unfortunately, most often they are flying away from my camera position — so it was special to be able to track this one as it flew past me from right to left.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

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