Tag Archives: in flight

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

White-Fronted Geese

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White-Fronted Geese
“White-Fronted Geese” — A group of four white-fronted geese in flight above California’s Central Valley.

White-fronted geese, it sometimes seems, are among the “forgotten geese.” In a winter world featuring sometimes-huge flocks of white geese (snow, Ross’s) these darker colored birds can be visually underwhelming. But a closer look shows them to be quite interesting, from their white faces (which give them their name) to the fascinating patterns on their chests.

I have mentioned that my original interest in the California Central Valley migratory birds was almost exclusively about geese. It was through them that I began to discover other interesting birds — and there are lots of them! Back in those days I photographed geese in flight like a madman. But now I’m a bit more selective, looking for good light and birds in interesting and photogenic juxtapositions.

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: Wildlife

Brown Pelican in Flight, Blue Sky

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Brown Pelican in Flight, Blue Sky
Brown Pelican in flight above Moss Landing, California

Brown Pelican in Flight, Blue Sky. Moss Landing, California. July 28, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Brown Pelican in flight above Moss Landing, California

Here we have (yet) another in the continuing quest to get the exactly right pelican photograph. Actually, I’m joking — I don’t know what “the” right photograph would be, and I do know that there are almost infinite variations in these birds and the ways that they can be seen. Each individual looks at least a bit different, and they appear in all sorts of different surroundings: against the sky, against the water, close up or far away, overhead, at my level, below me when photographed from bluffs, midday or golden hour light, how the bird is orientated relative the light source, and on it goes.

This is another of the big group I photographed at Monterey Bay last summer, when the promise of whales surfacing near the shoreline took us there on short notice. Indeed, the whales were there and they were remarkably close to the shoreline. But nearly as remarkable was the absolutely huge number of birds that also showed up, including the pelicans.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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Brown Pelican in Flight

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Brown Pelican in Flight
Brown pelican flight above the shoreline of Monterey Bay, Moss Landing, California

Brown Pelican in Flight. Monterey Bay, California. July 28, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Brown pelican flight above the shoreline of Monterey Bay, Moss Landing, California

Rediscovering this photograph and a few of its buddies makes for a bit of an odd story. Earlier today I got a message telling me that one of the drives attached to my computer was nearly full. That seemed a bit surprising, but it also was clearly an issue I had to address, so I set about looking for unnecessary files on that volume. In doing so I “discovered” a folder full of raw files and a few Photoshop files that I had apparently transferred to the computer last year… and then forgot. Most of the files there turned out to be unneeded, and I reclaimed 5GB of disk space by deleting them. But among there were s small number of shorebird photographs that I had forgotten.

The photographs came from an amazing and surprising spur-of-the-moment visit to Monterey Bay last June. For weeks I had been hearing stories of whales coming very close to the shoreline, and I had even observed a few from the cliffs in the Big Sur area. A news story claimed that they were now inside Monterey Bay and even coming very close to the beaches an Moss Landing — and friends had photographs to prove it. So over the hill we went to go there ourselves. When we arrived we were, indeed, impressed by how close the whales came to the beach — I had no idea they did that. But as impressive was the huge collection of birds that was perhaps attracted to the same food sources that drew the whales. I had never seen such numbers of these birds along the coast. Among them were a large number of brown pelicans, so many that photographing them was almost too easy.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | 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: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Airborne Ross’s Geese

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Airborne Ross's Geese
Airborne Ross’s Geese

Airborne Ross’s Geese. San Joaquin Valley, California. January 16, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A huge flock of Ross’s geese takes to the air over the San Joaquin Valley

I saw a few geese the other day. And then I saw this mob scene. I spent a day out in the San Joaquin Valley, photographing foggy landscapes and migratory birds. I had spent the morning making a couple of laps of the area as the fog went from pea soup to a slightly thinner broth, and I finally took a long break for lunch after photographing (and video-recording!) a huge group of sandhill cranes that lifted off from very close to my position. After this break I took a long look around the area from a slightly higher point of view, and I noticed a very large flock of geese nearby, but in a place where I would have to make a long driving loop to reach.

So I set out on this loop, pausing to photograph a hawk. Then some egrets, including one that had hunted down a mouse that was too big for it to swallow — more on that later. Then some watery landscapes. Then some ibises. When I finally made it around the loop and returned to the spot where I had earlier spotted the huge flock of geese… they were gone. Again I looked around, this time including looking outside of the fence area where I was and across the road, and over there I spotted a very big flock, most likely the same group I had seen earlier. I headed over across the road, parked my car, and got out to walk along a stock fence and make some photographs. (I suppose this does answer the question, “Why did the photographer cross the road?”) Soon even more geese showed up until the feeding flock stretched off into the foggy landscape. When this many geese settle in together it is virtually inevitable that sooner or later something will set them on edge and suddenly the entire flock will lift off in a wild cloud of birds… so I waited. Then this happened.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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