Tag Archives: mnwr

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

Three Snow Geese

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Three Snow Geese
Three snow geese in flight over San Joaquin Valley wetlands

Three Snow Geese. San Joaquin Valley, California. December 3, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three snow geese in flight over San Joaquin Valley wetlands

There are many ways to photograph geese in these California Central Valley locations, where they spend the winter months after migrating down from points far to the north. Great flocks of them settle in on ponds in these areas, or sometimes gather in fields. At other times giant flocks fill the sky, especially when something spooks them and thousands will take to the air at once, producing a sound that is the combination of their excited cries and the rush of wind from their wings. Large groups of them come and go throughout the day. Occasionally smaller groups, like this trio, arrive and circle before finding a spot to land and join the flock.

I confess that part of the fun with these groups comes from the challenge of trying to track and photograph them as they move so quickly. With practice one can find a few hints about their trajectory — they will circle a few times and they always land facing into the breeze — but they move fast, the light on their feathers changes, and they spend most of their time facing in the wrong direction! I saw this group coming in from a good distance away, and I tracked them as they approached a spot to my right, banked into a turn, and passed in front of me as they crossed to my left, circled away, and then returned to face the wind and land.

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 and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Red-Tailed Hawk

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Red-Tailed Hawk
A red-tailed hawk perches on the top of a fence post.

Red-Tailed Hawk. San Joaquin Valley, California. December 3, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A red-tailed hawk perches on the top of a fence post.

Birds like this one are everyone in the west once you start looking for them, though they are not often easy to approach. In a place like this, where there are many thousands of other birds, these raptors are always there but in much smaller numbers. I frequently see them perched high in large trees or flying past, sometimes provoking reactions from the other birds.

This one teased me a bit. The first time I saw it, much earlier in the day, it was standing on this same fence post and watching a nearby field. Every so often it would take off and, I presume, hunt for something to eat before returning a few minutes later. I never was able to get close to it, so I stayed at a distance and watched. I returned much later in the day, when warm early sunset light was shining on the bird and starting to turn the sky pink. As I drove past on the gravel road it didn’t budge, so I stopped and rolled down a window and photographed it perching on “its” fence post.

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 and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Dancing Cranes, Fog

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Dancing Cranes, Fog
Two lesser sandhill cranes raise their wings to greet the dawn on a foggy morning

Dancing Cranes, Fog. San Joaquin Valley, California. December 3, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two lesser sandhill cranes raise their wings to greet the dawn on a foggy morning

I arrived here, a location familiar to me, before dawn and in thickening fog. Although the place is familiar, each return brings the sudden shock of getting out of my vehicle after a long drive and hearing the wild sounds of thousands of migratory birds spread out across the acreage of this place. It is a sound like no other, especially in pre-dawn fog when the birds are not yet visible, and it always brings a smile to my face.

I headed toward an area where I anticipate finding several familiar kinds of birds: stilts in ponds next to the levee road, a rugged individualist egret or two (or perhaps a small group of cattle egrets), a pond surrounded by brush with roosting night herons (the pond was dry this time), geese almost anywhere, and off in the distance perhaps some cranes or white pelicans. The latter two kinds of birds were barely visible through the fog, but this pair was a bit closer. As the first very faint sunlight began to arrive they spread their wings and stretched.

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 and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature

Black-Necked Stilts

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Black-Necked Stilts
A small group of black-necked stilts cavorting in Central California wetlands

Black-Necked Stilts. San Joaquin Valley, California. December 3, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small group of black-necked stilts cavorting in Central California wetlands

Black-necked stilts are, in my opinion, beautiful and photogenic birds. They have striking visual features — their very long legs, the stark black and white patterns of their feathers, their interesting head and bill shapes. They also will frequently spend time in shallow water — just the right depth for their long legs — and seem to tolerate my photographing them from a close-by vehicle. They often wander back and forth, turning towards and away from the light.

Most often I have seen them as isolated individuals or perhaps in the company of one other bird. But this time, in one pond, I found groups of them, a half-dozen or more, behaving as if they were part of small flocks rather than rugged individualists. This group alternated between walking or swimming left and right in front of my camera, and then wildly leaping into the air for short, low elevation flights. The former is easy to photograph, but the latter much less so.

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 and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.