Tag Archives: sky

Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Sandhill Cranes, Morning Light

Image March 6, 2021 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The sandhill cranes are still my favorites among the migratory birds that I photograph every winter. They aren’t quite as abundant, as noisy, or as active as the geese, but they have other attractions. Their characteristic cry is often the first one I hear when I arrive in the field, and their morning take-off often starts my days of photography… and their twilight return concludes it. Their flight patterns are a bit more sedate than those of geese and are characterized by a slower pace of wing motion.

Photographing a group like this can be a bit challenging, and a lot of pieces have to fall into place to make it work. In my experience, flying cranes often tend to divert from their trajectory rather than fly over a photographer, often breaking to one side or the other at the last minute. They also tend to not pay a whole lot of attention to photographic considerations such as orienting themselves ideally to the sun’s light. And when groups do fly overhead they often block one another from view. This little group, however, did everything just right! The flew almost into the early morning light, diverting just enough to put a bit more light on the side facing the camera, and they managed to do so while lining up so that all of their heads were visible!

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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

One of These Geese is Not Like The Others

Image February 21, 2021 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

A flock of airborne Aleutian cackling geese accompanied by a solitary interloper.

This post may (or may not…) be more about the birds than about the photography, but I’ll leave the final judgment to readers. Later in the migratory bird season (e.g. “winter”) in California the birds seem to become more active, and I see more of them in large, mixed groups. I’ve mentioned before that I once imagined that all the winter migrators were “geese,” only to eventually learn about others. Eventually it dawned on me that not all geese are just geese and that they come it a great variety. (Photographing with someone who know a lot about these critters helped me begin to learn these things.)

This is a flock of Aleutian cackling geese, a type that I identify by looking for their dark coloration, lack of a particular banding pattern on their chests (more on this in a moment), and the white areas under their “chins” and at the base of their black necks. There is a fascinating story about the recovery of this type of goose, whose total population was once down to a few hundred individuals but which now numbers in six figures. But look more closely and you may be able to spot one interloper here, a goose of a different sort. (Hint: one white-fronted goose has joined this aerial party.)

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

Yellow-Headed Blackbird

Image February 20, 2021 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

This bird was a bit of a surprise. Some large cottonwood trees packed full with a flock of tai-colored blackbirds caught my attention. I pulled over and got out the long lens and began to photograph dense groups of those birds. But as I looked through the telephoto I realized that not all of the birds were the same. Two in particular didn’t quite fit — this yellow-headed blackbird and a nearby European starling.

While the tri-colored blackbirds were clumped closely together in a wildly-singing flock, this bird perched just a bit to the side. It was close enough to initially look like part of the boisterous group, but just far enough away to make a case that “I’m not one of those loud birds!”

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Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

White-Fronted Geese

Image February 17, 2021 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Three white-fronted geese in flight at sunset, Central Valley, California.

There’s a story I often tell on myself regarding my introduction to bird photography. I was never really a “birder” type, and I had not paid a lot of attention to birds in my photography or otherwise. One day a friend happened to suggest to me that I go visit a location where she had heard there were winter migratory birds, so I went, more or less on a whim, having no idea what to expect. There were birds. Lots of them. In a place that I had driven past for decades, completely unaware of them. On that day, knowing almost nothing about the birds, I think I identified all of them generically as “geese.” (Looking over my photographs from that day later on, I discovered that many of them were very much NOT geese.)

I’m still far from being a birder and I’m no expert on bird identification. But my understanding has steadily increased and I now even know that… not only are not all birds geese, but not all geese are the same kind! Amazing, I know! As I was learning about the varieties that can be found around here I heard of something called the white-fronted goose. I imagined a goose that was, well, white in front. But I never saw such a thing. Until one day someone pointed them out to me and I realized that it is the front of the head that is white. This group of white-fronted geese flew overhead in the last direct sunlight of a winter day.