Tag Archives: follow

Follow the Leader(s)

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.

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Two Gulls In a Row

Two Gulls in a Row
Two Gulls in a Row. Pacific Coast, California. March 1, 2008. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two gulls follow one another along the edge of a bluff along the California Pacific coast, flying past my position at eye-level.

I made a series of photographs of birds from this spot – the images that have been appearing recently included. To get these I followed a strategy that can work well in some places along the California coast: spend a few minutes figuring out the “line” that the birds follow along the end of the coastal cliffs, apparently looking for updrafts. Then set up close to or under one of these invisible paths, sit quietly, and photograph like mad as the birds fly by.

keywords: two, gulls, sea, seagulls, birds, in, row, follow, fly, flying, flight, pacific, ocean, coast, california, usa, bif, wings, sea, shore, shoreline, sky, nature, animals, wildlife, stock