Tag Archives: rookery

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

Monterey Cypress, Cormorant Rookery, Fog

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Monterey Cypress, Cormorant Rookery, Fog
Fog obscures a cormorant rookery behind a Monterey cypress tree growing on a rocky promontory.

Monterey Cypress, Cormorant Rookery, Fog. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Fog obscures a cormorant rookery behind a Monterey cypress tree growing on a rocky promontory.

You might think that I would be done with photographs of this tree and its surroundings by now. But you would be wrong. And, yes, there is at least one more to come. Variations include portrait versus landscape mode, wider near-panoramic aspect ratios, the inclusion of more or less of the surrounding terrain, and in this case some wildlife.

The main feature and primary focus in all of the variations is this gnarled tree growing on a rocky promontory. In this rendition the wide aspect ration allows me to include more of the background. The most interesting part of that to me is the white (guano-covered) rocky knoll barely visible in the fog over the left shoulder of the Monterey cypress tree. This rock is the site of a cormorant rookery, and the young birds (almost as large as their parents!) stand and wait for mom and dad to bring them more food.

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

Rocky Peninsula, Fog

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Rocky Peninsula, Fog
A rocky peninsula, the home of a cormorant rookery, exends into the fog and surf, Point Lobos State Reserve.

Rocky Peninsula, Fog. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A rocky peninsula, the home of a cormorant rookery, exends into the fog and surf, Point Lobos State Reserve.

This rocky peninsula is a kind of “land’s end” feature at Point Lobos. It extends out into the ocean where the west and north shores meet, and it is often a place to observe big surf. Even on this relatively quiet day the waves were washing over the lower slopes of the feature. If you look closely you can spot scores of cormorants on the center and right sides — this is a cormorant rookery, and most of the birds are juveniles waiting for the next feeding from their parents.

Conditions on this morning were my favorite at this location — drifting fog thick enough to obscure distant subjects but shallow enough to sometimes produce some translucent and slightly directional light. I paused at this spot and remained for some time as the fog increased and decreased. Ironically, after all of that waiting, the first photograph I made turned out to have the most interesting light!

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

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

A Seal’s Life, Part III

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A Seal's Life, Part III
A solitary elephant seal nappping on a Southern California beach.

A Seal’s Life, Part III. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A solitary elephant seal nappping on a Southern California beach.

Here is one more — and probably the last for now — in the little “Seal’s Life” series. (I resisted the temptation to call it “lounging seals” or “lazy seals” or similar.) The photographs in the set all came from a very brief visit to an easily accessible location along the shoreline below the Big Sur coast. We took that longer route on a drive to Southern California, and we decided to stop as we passed this spot, despite having stopped there many times before and despite the somewhat uninspiring lighting conditions. It is hard to resist visiting these critters!

In the other posts I mentioned the contrast between the appearance of these creatures on land, where they are somewhere in the lazy to lumbering zone, and their purported speed and grace in the water. I’m not a diver, so I’ve never seen the latter — I just get to see (and hear and smell…) them on the beach. On the day we visited, almost all of them were engaging in pretty much the same activity as this one, namely not much activity at all. The head lifted from time to time, a flipper of sand was sent onto the back, a seal rolled over… but the whole scene was mostly one of apparent sloth.

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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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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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: Ocean & Coast, Photographs: Wildlife

A Seal’s Life, Part II

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A Seal's Life, Part II
A group of elephant seals lounging on a Southern California beach.

A Seal’s Life, Part II. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A group of elephant seals lounging on a Southern California beach.

If you thought that the earlier photograph on a young elephant seal was the only one in the series… you were wrong! I have several more to share before I’m done. To be honest, photographing this group was almost an after-thought. We were passing though the area on our way to another destination and, well, why not stop? Even though we’ve been there many times before. So we pulled out for a break and walked the fancy trail along the edge of the bluff to a point where I could overall a big group of these big critters on the beach.

Elephant seal are, of course, impressive — mostly, but not entirely, in good ways. (About that not entirely part, their manners, uh, don’t exactly conform to what we were likely taught as children. There are a lot of gross noises, some random fighting, and more. Oh, and have you heard about the smell?) For animals that are reportedly skillful hunters and quite graceful swimmers, on land they look awkward and, to be honest, like large, lazy lumps of seal flesh. But the view we get of them is hardly the whole story, since we generally only can watch them where they haul out onto beaches… where they nap, lie about, make noises, flip sand on their backs, occasionally claim their bit of beach territory, and generally don’t do much at all — saving up their energy, I imagine, for the important work of hunting once they get back in the water.

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.

Blog | About | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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