Tag Archives: san joaquin

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

White Pelicans in Flight

March 23, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A flock of white pelicans crosses the marsh before landing at a San Joaquin Valley wildlife refuge

I believe that I have written in the past about the first time I saw white pelicans in the Central Valley of California. The preface to that story is that I somehow managed to live in this part of California for my whole life without realizing that this valley is filled with an amazing diversity of migratory wildlife every winter, so I’m still “discovering” things that many other take for granted. In any case, I was out in the valley at one of the wildlife refuges on a very foggy morning when it was impossible to see more than a few dozen feet into the murk. I could hear birds, but certainly not see them. I stopped and opened the window of the car to listen, and almost immediately a flock of large birds coasted silently into and out of sight. I was somewhat taken aback and thought for a moment that they “looked like pelicans,” but since I had no idea that such birds would be found here I dismissed the thought. Later that day my friends began to talk about seeing “white pelicans,” and later they showed me where a flock was resting on a small island in a marsh.

This flock arrived late in the day and was again unexpected. We had travelled to the edge a marsh to watch a large flock of Ross’s geese. They were settled in for the afternoon, but we knew that they would begin to fly out as the end of the day approached. This time it was almost completely clear, so it was easy to see this large flock of birds as it silently floated over the edge of the marsh – with almost no flapping of wings, in great contrast to the geese! This time I more quickly figured out what I was seeing and I photographed them as the crossed into the center of the marsh and landed.

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: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Approaching Geese, Evening

February 13, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Ross’s geese approach their evening landing spot on a hazy late-autumn evening in California’s Central Valley.

This is yet another photograph of Ross’s geese from our December 2012 trek to the migratory bird areas of California’s Central Valley. We saw nearly all of the possible seasonal weather types on this day, save actual rain (that held off for another day) and clear, unfiltered sunlight. But other than that the day transitioned from so-thick-you-can-barely-drive tule fog, to clearing and drifting fog, to fog burning off, to brilliantly luminous winter haze, to dull and gray light as the first clouds of an incoming storm began to arrive, to the finale of a suddenly and unexpectedly colorful sunset.

After a mid-afternoon break to grab a bit to eat, we returned to this wildlife refuge in hopes of photographing the fly-in. Indeed, there were many thousands of Ross’s geese around, settled into pastures and occasionally lifting off to circle the area and then land again. But the light became increasingly dull as the first clouds of an approaching Pacific winter weather system arrived in the west. I made this photograph in what was, in many ways, rather gloomy light, though it is apparent that the sky is just beginning to pick up a hint of the pink that soon developed into a downright amazingly intense sunset. At this particular point in the evening I had positioned myself beyond the end of a large flock that stretched from nearly my position to the line of trees seen in the distance. It seemed that many of the geese were starting to move from the far end of the flock to closer to my position, so I was a in a good spot to photograph them straight on as they approached, and I had managed to position the slightly darker trees behind them, allowing their lighter bodies to stand out a bit. This group was just about to set down not far in front of me.

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

The Cranes Return, Evening

February 5, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The sandhill cranes return to the marshes of the San Joaquin Valley at dusk on a mid-winter evening.

For reasons I can’t quite put my finger on, the evening return of the sandhill cranes is one of the magical things among a host of magical things about central California’s winter migratory bird population. I think I was primed to regard these birds this way by reading about them many years ago, though I never quite new what sandhill cranes actually were and I presumed that they were only found in far-off places. Then when I first began to photograph birds seriously – which was only a few years ago – one of my first encounters with the winter bird popular involved finding sandhill cranes in fields south of Sacramento. Then, perhaps last winter, there was an evening at a wildlife refuge in the Central Valley when I was photographing geese with a small group of friends. There had been many, many Ross’s geese around that evening and as dusk approached the goose photography gradually came to an end as the geese departed. After the intense focus of shooting those birds, once they were gone we sort of looked up and realized that the sun was gone and that the world was quieting down. It seemed like the show was over. And then I heard a sound from over the trees to the southeast, a sound I now immediately recognize as the distinctive call of the cranes, and within moments huge flocks of these birds began to coast overhead and look for landing spots.

That is now how I expect to see them – at some point during the dusk period when most everything else has started to quiet down, the cranes appear. Their sound is a distinct contrast with the wild and raucous cackling of the geese, an altogether calmer and quieter call. And their mode of flight is also different. While the geese often launch loudly into the sky in huge, flapping clouds, the cranes coast in slowly and rather quietly, often in long lines, and their motion is slower and smoother. On this evening, at a point when there was barely enough light left to make photographs, they appeared to my left and crossed in front of me with the western dusk sky as a backdrop.

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

White Pelican Flock

February 2, 2013 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A flock of white pelicans settles on an island in the San Joaquin Valley, California

It probably should be a bit embarrassing to admit that there is a lot I don’t know about birds and other kinds of wildlife, but at least I continue to get the joy of learning new things because of that! I’ve been a fan of the coastal California pelicans for some time, often photographing them along the Pacific shoreline. I’ve learned a bit about their habits, to the point that I know some particular places and conditions in which I’m likely to find them, and I’ve built a bit of a collection of photographs of these birds. But I did not know that I would find pelicans at this Central Valley location, much less that they would yet a different sort of pelican than I have known about from the coast.

On this early December morning it was tremendously foggy when we arrived. We figured it would clear – eventually – but at first it was just about impossible to find birds to photograph since the distance that they wanted to keep between themselves and curious photographers seemed to be just about equal to the limits of visibility in the fog. We could hear birds, but were barely able to see them. At one point we stopped for a moment to roll down the windows and listen and I looked up to see a completely silent flock of large birds briefly though faintly overhead as they flew through the fog. I couldn’t figure out what they were, though I recall thinking that they were pelican-like. Some time later, perhaps hours, another member of our group asked if I had seen the pelicans, and it all came together. They had spotted “white pelicans” (which I didn’t know about) in very nearly the same spot where I had seen this flock fly past. So, on a later pass around the refuge perimeter road I was watching out for them, and they turned out to be easy to see in the clearer air and better light.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: san joaquin

White Pelicans in Flight

Like this:

Approaching Geese, Evening

Like this:

The Cranes Return, Evening

Like this:

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

Share this page:

Like this:

Share this page:

Like this:

Share this page:

Like this:

Share this page:

Like this:

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