Tag Archives: refuge

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

Winter Geese, San Joaquin Valley Farm

January 9, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Flock of migratory winter geese circling above a San Joaquin Valley farm

Every winter California’s Great Central Valley becomes the home of astounding collections of migratory birds. (I’m still a bit surprised that folks from the state will travel great distances to other states to photograph some of the very same birds, when they are at their backdoor!) Historically the Central Valley (consisting of the Sacramento Valley to the north and the San Joaquin Valley to the south) supported even larger populations of birds, but as the area was developed for agriculture the majority of the wetlands were lost. However, places were set aside, and in many areas the agriculture areas become the homes of the birds in the winter.

We visited one of these protected areas late December, an area where I frequently photograph throughout the bird season. The photography in this area was good, but it still seemed like there were not as many (mostly) Ross’s geese as we would expect. We figured out why — huge numbers of them were settling in just outside the area where we usually find them, and across a nearby road on farmland. Here the flock of thousands of geese takes to the air above one of these Central Valley farms on this foggy morning.

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Four Sandhill Cranes

January 3, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Four sandhill cranes take flight above a dormant San Joaquin Valley field

At some point every fall my attention turns to (along with a few other seasonal things) the arrival of migratory birds in California’s Great Central Valley. In earlier times this was a landscape full of seasonal pools and marshlands, and it reportedly supported uncountable numbers of birds. Much of the wetland terrain has now been taken for farming and other purposes, but some has been preserved and the birds still come. By the time late fall and early winter roll around again, an impressive number of birds arrive: geese, sandhill cranes, swans, and more. I lived in California since I was a small child and I never knew about this, even though much of the action takes place within a day’s drive of where I grew up. Even today, it seems that few Californians are aware of the rich annual spectacle that takes place so close to them.

I made my first bird photography foray of the season a few weeks before this visit, but by this late December visit a lot more birds had shown up — including the geese who seemed strangely absent earlier. (The three years of very serious drought in California are doubtlessly part of the explanation.) There were a lot of sandhill cranes. I’m not sure if the numbers have increased, of it they just happened to be in places where I could find them more easily, but I sure saw a lot of them. When photographing these birds we always take steps to make ourselves less visible and threatening to the birds — we often photograph from inside our vehicles, and when we can and do get out to photograph we try to avoid disturbing the birds. However, this group was a surprise, showing up very close to us as we crept past slowing in a vehicle and taking to the air almost immediately. Fortunately I had my camera handy and I was able to stop immediately and track their flight as they took off and circled us.

(This photograph appeared here previously in a an article about a new lens that I used to make the photograph.)

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

Flooded Field, Winter

August 24, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

The stubble of last year’s crop in a flooded San Joaquin Valley winter field

This photograph comes from a season that seems quite remote today, during the warm late-summer days of mid-August. I made the photograph back on New Year’s Day 2014, when a group of us met in the San Joaquin Valley to welcome the dawn (literally — we arrived before sunrise) of the new year by spending a day photographic migratory birds and the flat and moody Central Valley landscape. Looking at photographs like this one now always reminds me of how quick and how regular the annual cycle is, since we are now considerably closer to New Year’s Day 2015 than the first day of 2014.

This photograph could also be a reminder to the stresses to wildlife from a third drought year and the conversion of the overwhelming majority of the important Central Valley wetlands to farm land. On the positive side, this location is an example of how agriculture and wildlife protection can coexist, since it is farmed in the dry season and then flooded for the birds in the winter. And does it ever attract birds! Here the patterns left by farm machinery are visible in the waters of the shallow ponds where birds were floating on this day.

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Wildlife

Elephant Seals and Blue Water

August 17, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Elephant seals resting on a Southern California beach at the edge of the water

This time of year, a lot of elephant seal photographs are likely to be “elephant seals napping/resting/sleeping on beach” photographs, since that seems to be how these critters spend the bulk of their time. If 100 of them are around the beach, perhaps two are out for a swim, and occasionally one or two might move around a bit or engage in some biting, butting battles with one another, but the rest pretty much must there, occasionally flipping some sand on their backs or scratching somewhere.

This large group was crowded together tightly right along the edge of the wave line. For the most part there was little or no action, though occasionally one would come or go, or one might jockey for a more favorable position in the pile. I realized that if I moved further away from their position that I could shoot back over them right along the beach, and once I got to this camera position I realized that the wet sand beautifully reflected the blue of the sky.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: refuge

Winter Geese, San Joaquin Valley Farm

Four Sandhill Cranes

Flooded Field, Winter

Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.