Tag Archives: flight

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Wildlife

Pelicans Skimming the Waves

June 29, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A flock of pelicans skims inches above the surface of the Pacific Ocean off of Waddell Creek Beach, Big Basin State Park, California.

Low flying pelicans skim just inches above the surface of the water near the shoreline at Waddell Creek Beach in Big Basin State Park along the California coastline. Having spent some time staring at these birds as they fly along the coast, I’m more and more amazed by their ability to closely track contours of beach and waves as they fly so low – they flow over this moving “terrain” like water over rocks. In this photograph the water picks up subtle light reflected by the slightly foggy evening sky beyond.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Wildlife

Pelicans and Surf

June 26, 2010 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Black and white photograph of a flock of pelicans in flight just above Pacific Ocean surf at Waddell Creek Beach, Big Basin State Park, California.

Every five or ten minutes another flock of northbound pelicans descended to the water just offshore at Waddell Creek Beach at Big Basin State Park along the California coast just north of the town of Davenport. It was late and the light was diffused and subdued by high clouds and the incoming fog bank a this flock skimmed just above the surf.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Wildlife

Pelicans Turn Toward the Horizon

June 25, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A flock of low flying pelicans above the Pacific Ocean turns toward the horizon at Waddell Creek Beach, Big Basin State Park, California.

As I spend more time along this section of the California coast I have started to understand the “pelican highway” that these birds follow as they fly along the coastline. Just south of Waddell Creek Beach they fly along the edge of coastal bluffs (or sometimes skim along the water’s surface not far from the shoreline) before they pull in for a rest stop at this beach. Sometimes they seem to come down along the freshwater creek that arrives here from the Santa Cruz Mountains and Big Basin Redwoods State Park. On this June evening they seemed to be making only a quick stop. Several flocks came north along the waterline and when they arrived at my position they briefly stopped in the water just offshore before taking off once again and continuing north along the coast.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Wildlife

Seagull in Flight with Starfish

June 21, 2010 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A seagull in flight carrying a starfish in its beak.

This is an odd little photograph that I’ve been holding on to for some time, waiting to finally post it. When you photograph the natural word, every so often something unexpected happens, and sometimes you don’t even realize what happened until later. (I once made a photograph of a fog shrouded Pacific Coast scene, and it wasn’t until months later while working on the photograph in post that I realized that a small but energetic waterfall was in the scene!)

In mid-May I spent some time photographing shore birds skimming along the cliff edge above the Pacific coast not far from Davenport California. The basic approach is to find a location where the birds come close to the cliff edge and where there is a suitable background (if the birds follow the “right” path) and to then wait and quickly track the birds as they cross my field of view, often shooting in burst mode when they are in their best positions. After a while the actions begin (fortunately!) to become somewhat automatic: spot bird or group of birds, find bird(s) in viewfinder, get birds into the right part of the frame, begin panning with the anticipated path of the bird(s), keep bird(s) in the good part of the frame and under AF points, track and shoot, watch bird(s) disappear, lather, rinse, repeat.

As this bird went past I recall thinking something like, “What the heck was in its mouth?” No time to actually see while shooting, but later I found that it was carrying a medium size starfish, fully intact and with legs extending from its mouth!

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Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.