Tag Archives: san joaquin

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

White-Faced Ibis

February 14, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A white-faced ibis feeds in a San Joaquin Valley winter pond

A few years ago I knew almost nothing about the migratory birds of California’s Central Valley. The first time I photographed them I was simply amazed by their sheer number and the variety of shapes, behaviors, and calls — but I could barely tell one from another. Birds flew over and I photographed them, often not knowing what I was capturing with my camera.

Sometimes, when I looked at the photographs later, I would discover some interesting feature of the birds that I hadn’t paid attention to or couldn’t see at the time. I realized later than my first encounter with the ibis was such a photograph – I had photographed a line of birds overhead, their shapes silhouetted against the sky, and when I looked at the photograph closely I was surprised to find the characteristic long, curved beaks. I was fascinated by the shapes, but I had no idea what they were. Obviously, they were white-faced ibises, like the bird in this photograph. The ibis seems perfectly adapted to hunting in the shallow waters of these wetlands, with their long legs and long, curved beaks. If you look closely you may be able to tell that this one has just picked up something from the water in its beak. The feathers of the ibis are a marvel. At first the bird can look dull and almost black, but put it in the right light and the back feathers turn out to contain a huge variety of colors, from pinks to yellows to greens an browns and black.

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: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Wildlife

Ross’s Geese, Evening

February 13, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Ross’s geese on a winter evening in the San Joaquin Valley

The first day of 2015, spent in the San Joaquin with friends and fellow photographers, began in tule fog. However, the fog cleared earlier than it sometimes does, and most of the day ended up sunny, though with the typical Central Valley haze in the air. We photographed through the morning, took a long break for lunch, and then returned to photograph here again in the afternoon.

A few weeks earlier there had been almost no geese around, but a big group of them showed up to join our New Year’s Day party, and in the evening we found them settling in on pasture land. Here the group stretches of into the distance, a row of big trees is on the horizon, a few birds in the air, and the day is almost over.

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

Sandhill Cranes, Blue Sky

February 12, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A trio of sandhill cranes against the blue winter sky over the San Joaquin Valley

Today’s photograph is a plain, straight-up bird photograph of three sandhill cranes flying above me against the blue winter sky in California’s San Joaquin Valley. It is another of my New Year’s Day photographs, for our trip to this area to greet the dawn of the new year and share the experience with a few photographer friends and a few thousand feathered friends!

The day began, as it usually does out here in the winter, in fog. We photographed the sun rising through the fog and then moved on to photograph the frosty landscape and other birds along the gravel road that we traveled. This was not a tremendously foggy day, and eventually the fog gave way to hazy sunlight and later on to beautiful blue skies. The cranes were plentiful on New Year’s Day, and we had several good opportunities to photograph them.

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

Ross’s Geese, Foggy Pasture

February 10, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Ross’s geese take off from a foggy San Joaquin Valley pasture

I’ve been out to the San Joaquin Valley quite a few times over the past few months, beginning in the last months of 2014, when there were not yet too many birds there, and as recently as a couple of weeks ago, when large numbers of geese and cranes had returned. (This was a bit of a relief, since many wondered where the birds had gone, especially after this string of drought years in California.)

Our visit to the valley on New Year’s Day was especially nice. Not only did a small group of us literally greet the dawn of the new year in the company of thousands of birds, but we were pleased to see the numbers of the birds had begun to increase again. Among them were the Ross’s geese, who appeared in rather large numbers. While the morning fog was still in the air, though thinning enough to let faint sun through, large groups of them had settled in on the pasture land. The birds were constantly coming and going, as new groups arrived and others left, and as they moved one spot to others nearby, often for reasons that I could not discern. In this photograph the large group still on the ground was in the process of leaving, with a new group taking to the sky every few moments.

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: san joaquin

White-Faced Ibis

Ross’s Geese, Evening

Sandhill Cranes, Blue Sky

Ross’s Geese, Foggy Pasture

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