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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Stretching The Wings

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Stretching The Wings
A Ross’s goose raises its wings in a San Joaquin Valley wetland pond

Stretching The Wings. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A Ross’s goose raises its wings in a San Joaquin Valley wetland pond

This weekend here in the San Francisco Bay Area it finally truly felt like the start of the summer season — even though the actual start of summer is still a few weeks away. It is hot! The sky is cloudless blue here, unless you head to the coast in the mornings. It is time to go outside in sunlight early in the morning. And by now these geese are somewhere above the Arctic Circle, collected in their remote breeding areas.

I photographed these last winter. I often don’t get this close, but I was already settled into a spot when the flock came to me! A large group landed very close. I remained quiet and still and they came even closer, where I was able to observe them as interacting individuals and not just as the totality of the flock.

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

On Alert

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On Alert
A flock of Ross’s geese raises their heads in response to a distraction

On Alert. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A flock of geese raises their heads in response to a distraction

We started 2018 with a New Year’s Day visit to wetlands to photograph migratory birds and engage in a few other fun activities. Among these were: arising hours before dawn, driving long distances in pre-dawn darkness, sharing a champagne toast to the New Year well before noon, and much more. To be honest, I’ve had been photography days out there at this time of year… but I haven’t had a better time.

This photograph shows a behavior that I’ve learned to watch for when photographing geese. Much of the time when they are settled in they are fairly passive, perhaps with their heads down to feed. But when anything worthy of attention happens — a raptor flies over, a plane passes by too low, someone gets too close or starts a vehicle engine — the flock’s sound changes and all of the heads rise with necks vertical. If the threat passes or is deemed unimportant the heads quickly drop. But if it is seen as serious, this might be an indication that the entire flock is about to dramatically take flight.

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.