Tag Archives: geese

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

Geese, Sunset Sky

December 17, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Geese, Sunset Sky Thousands of migratory geese fly into the sunset sky above the San Joaquin Valley

Thousands of migratory geese fly into the sunset sky above the San Joaquin Valley

My pattern when photographing migratory birds is generally to arrive early, photograph until I’m too tired or the light becomes less interesting, take a midday lunch break, and then return to make more photographs. Late in the day, as evening approached, I returned to this area to see what I could find. Geese were around — one large flock near the entrance to this refuge and another visible in the distance on the far side. I made my way slowly around the perimeter, eventually arriving at the spot where that more distant group had settled in.

For a while I photographed them settled in shallow water among plants, thinking that perhaps this was where they would spend the night, in which case I might just continue to photograph here until dusk. But before long I began to sense that familiar restless in the flock, and a few small groups of geese took to the air from moment to moment, leaving the rest of the noisy flock behind. Then, suddenly and for no apparent specific reason, the birds suddenly lifted off, with virtually the entire flock taking to the air at once and heading off to the southwest. I quickly photographed as they passed directly overhead, then continued to follow them as the group stretched out toward the western hills and sunset clouds.

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: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Ross’s Geese, Evening Sky

March 28, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A flock of Ross’s geese head west against the clouds of a winter evening sky

This may well end up being one of my final migratory bird photographs of the 2014-15 season. It seemed to wind down early this year, at least from what I saw. I suspect that this probably has something to do with the very unusual weather this winter in California. The temperatures were far above normal. In some places there averaged ten degrees higher than usual during the first three months of the year. Precipitation has also been way out of whack. There were some early indications of a possible wet year, then things seemed to be put on hold… until some serious rain (at my elevation) in December, which brought back memories of what winter used to be like in California. Then the tap seemed to be shut off with the new year, and where I live we went nearly 50 days with no rainfall whatsoever at what should be the wettest time of the year. It finally rained again, but not much. More troubling, the Sierra experience roughly 10% of typical precipitation levels, and this is the fourth year of below normal precipitation.

Despite the climate challenges, the season did produce some truly wonderful days of bird photography in the Central Valley. One thing that helped was a long period of tule fog in the Valley, which I find picturesque. Eventually the birds showed up, and we had a great stretch of geese and cranes and more up through the middle of February. At the end of the month we headed to the Sierra for an exhibit at the Yosemite Renaissance, stopping on the way to visit the birds. We didn’t see many at all, and when we stopped again on the way back things hadn’t changed much. Late in the day we did find a group of Ross’s geese on a pond, and I caught groups of them as they departed to the south and west.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Geese, Pasture, Dusk

March 14, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A small group of Ross’s geese feed in a San Joaquin Valley pasture as dusk arrives

As a winter afternoon begins to turn into evening in the San Joaquin Valley on a day of photographing migratory birds, a familiar ritual begins, with variations depending on various factors — the weather, the month, and which birds are about. Not long before it becomes too dark to photograph I begin to seek out a place to be at the end of the day. The ideal locations includes some combination of interesting birds, a compelling sky, and a location that lets me combine the two.

This was a rather quiet evening, and it had the feeling of being late in the winter season. The numbers of birds had diminished quite a bit, even compared to only a couple of weeks earlier. High clouds and haze filled the sky and began to take on the colors of evening. We went to one likely bird spot, found few birds, spotted a fly-in some distance away, and headed over to this spot where a group of Ross’s geese was on the ground, feeding in a pasture. As the last light angled across the birds, I made this photograph of mostly sky, one of the last of the day.

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

Ross’s Geese, Clouds

March 6, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A flock of Ross’s geese against a clearing winter sky above the San Joaquin Valley.

On a late-winter afternoon we visited one of the places where we frequently photograph migratory birds in the San Joaquin Valley of California. We had been in Yosemite for a few days, and we arranged our departure from there so that we would have time for this stop on the way home to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Perhaps it is due to the unusual winter we are having in the West this year, but the numbers of birds had declined considerably since our previous visit a few weeks earlier. We were surprised to see almost no sandhill cranes at all. There were Ross’s geese, but in smaller number. We found one decent sized group settled in on a pond, and shortly after we arrived they began to depart in small groups like this one, passing in front of the clouds from a dissipating storm as they headed toward the west.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: geese

Geese, Sunset Sky

Ross’s Geese, Evening Sky

Geese, Pasture, Dusk

Ross’s Geese, Clouds

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