Tag Archives: migratory

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.

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

Cranes and Geese, Winter Fog

February 27, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A foggy San Joaquin Valley winter landscape filled with geese and cranes

This photograph comes for exactly two weeks ago, when we took a detour through a favorite migratory bird area on our way to Yosemite for the opening reception of a show. Driving into the San Joaquin from the west it looked like most of the fog was gone — and I wanted fog! — but we took a chance and headed out into this area, which seems to be one of the most consistently foggy around. And luck was with us — we drove into the tule fog just before out goal. And when we arrived we found stupendous conditions of fog and birds.

A very large bunch of birds had settled in on a recently cleared field this is very close to the access road. Among there were a few egrets, more white-fronted geese, yet more sandhill cranes (as many as I’ve seen here at one time), and then thousands and thousands of Ross’s geese. Within minutes the fog began to thin and areas of light began to move among the birds. The birds were in constant motion, with one or another group taking of at every moment. At times something would cause them to go on alert (note the heads held straight up) and then, quite often, to suddenly take to the air in wild, flapping clouds of birds.

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

Cranes and Geese, Fog

February 24, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sandhill cranes and Ross’s geese on the ground and in the air on a foggy winter morning.

This visit to the San Joaquin Valley birds was almost a sort of accident. We were on our way to Yosemite for a couple of days for the opening reception for an exhibit in Oakhurst, and as we headed west from the Bay Area we thought we might just make a detour to one of our favorite spots. Initially it didn’t look too promising — we got on the road later than usual, once in the Valley it looked like it was going to be a “blah” fair weather day. But I had a hunch that there might still be some interesting fog out in this area, so we left the main road on our detour. Sure enough, before long we encountered tule fog, and the refuge we visited was still pretty socked in when we arrived.

We didn’t know what we might find, so we were very excited to find very large and active flocks of Ross’s geese and sandhill cranes in an area close to observations locations. We quickly grabbed camera gear and headed to a spot where we could see them… and we got one of the best bird and light shows of the year so far. The white geese and the darker cranes were mixing together, almost as a single flock. There was action everywhere as birds left, other birds arrived, and still more wheeled overhead. The noise was incredible, and there were periodic excited lift-offs. Shortly after we got there the fog began to thin, and the light went from uniform gray to bands of softly glowing sunlight. Here the birds on the ground stretch off into the fog to the point where they are no longer visible, and overhead hundreds more birds were in flight, and they also disappeared into the thick fog.

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

Geese in Blue Sky

February 20, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Thousands of Ross’s Geese in the San Joaquin Valley winter sky

And, yes, another photograph of thousands of geese wheeling overhead in the San Joaquin Valley sky. They tend to do that this time of year. The cause of this eruption of geese was a bit different from the usual. Typically, when they are flocking in pastures and similar areas, something sets them off — a predator, a low flying plane, who knows what else — and an entire flock will suddenly take to the air en masse, in a maelstrom of flapping wings and noise. We had stopped near a large group in a field, from which smaller groups were constantly coming and going, when another vehicle pulled up behind us. Out hopped a half-dozen young girls who proceed to run down the road, setting of the geese. (For the record, you aren’t supposed to do this. They are young. They will learn. :-)

Because the flock was so close, the first photographs I made mostly featured close up walls of geese. But eventually they widened the circle of their flight, looping round beyond this little brushy grove out in the flatlands. I zoomed out to see if I could get a larger view, and although I was shooting a 100-400mm lens, 100mm was “wide” enough to take in thousands of geese, the landscape, and the gradient of color in the sky as it transitioned from the lighter colors of the foggy atmosphere near the ground to the deeper blue of winter sky far above.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: migratory

Ross’s Geese, Clouds

Cranes and Geese, Winter Fog

Cranes and Geese, Fog

Geese in Blue Sky

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