Tag Archives: group

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.

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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.

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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

The Crane Dance, Morning

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The Crane Dance, Morning
Two sandhill cranes perform the ritual “crane dance” as others look on.

The Crane Dance, Morning. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two sandhill cranes perform the ritual “crane dance” as others look on.

For the most part, sandhill cranes pretty much… stand around a lot. They often seem to be doing nothing at all, though perhaps they are feeding. Groups will stand in one spot for long periods of time, or perhaps a few may decide to wander a short distance for some reason. (If their path takes them away from you, there is a good chance that you may be closer than you really should be.) They fly out in the morning, and big groups of them often return in the evening, in what I regard as the most dynamic time of day for them.

And then, every so often, they “dance.” A pair of them, or sometimes an individual or even more than two, perform this remarkable ritual. By some combination of hopping and wing flapping they rise abruptly into the air, typically getting no more than a couple of feet off the ground and then dropping back to the same spot. From what I read, this may be a part of their mating/courting ritual, though they do this at other times for what seems to be no discernible reason. Perhaps they just feel like dancing? (In this little scene, I’m intrigued by the interested voyeurs on the 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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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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: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Crane Congregation

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Crane Congregation
Sandhill cranes in a wetland pond as the first morning light arrives on a foggy morning.

Crane Congregation. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sandhill cranes in a wetland pond as the first morning light arrives on a foggy morning.

Things have changed a lot since I made this photograph back in early March, barely more than two months ago. At that time a trip to the Central Valley to photograph birds typically involved being completely self-contained, avoiding any unnecessary stops en route, and bringing along a mask and hand cleaner. Two months later and it is quite possible to envision time when things are back to pretty much normal.

Back when I made this trip I worked my way quickly through the images I brought back, but soon had to move on to other projects. Now I am finally finding the time to revisit this collection of many hundreds of raw files (that’s what I end up with when I photograph birds!) and take a closer look at them. I made this photograph very early on this slightly foggy morning, when the first eastern light was struggling to make it though the haze. The cranes were mostly standing quietly in shallow water as the sun arrived, though the tension of their incipient fly-out was already on my mind.

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.