Tag Archives: wetland

Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature

Winter Fog, Water, Island

Leave a comment
Winter Fog, Water, Island
Winter fog obscures the view of a wetland island

Winter Fog, Water, Island. Central Valley, California. February 15, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Winter fog obscures the view of a wetland island

This is one of a pair of similar photographs I made in this spot on a lovely dense fog morning out in the winter Central Valley. (The other is simpler and doesn’t include the foreground plants.) We had arrived quite a bit earlier and had already done a circuit of the gravel road that encircles the location, and we were now on our second loop. Believe it or not, the fog had become a lot less thick by the time I made the photograph!

Imagine that everything is still, but that the sounds of birds are everywhere — a combination of visual stillness but audio tumult in every direction. As I watched this little island the fog continued to thin and thicken, and at times it almost became invisible. Shortly after I made the photograph the clearing began in earnest and the beaks began to develop in the shallow tule fog.

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 and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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

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

Two Geese, Reflection, Fog

Leave a comment
Two Geese, Reflection, Fog
Two geese float on a winter pond in morning fog, Great Central Valley

Two Geese, Reflection, Fog. February 5, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Two geese float on a winter pond in morning fog, Great Central Valley

As is typical, this morning in California’s Great Central Valley began in fog — for so think that it initially obscured almost all potential subjects, at least if they were more than a few yards off of the route. Many times we could hear large numbers of geese and cranes that were not visible in the fog, but eventually some would break off from the flock and fly over and past us.

The fog is among my favorite features of winter in this valley, especially in the lowland wet areas where it can be foggy on many winter days. The fog transforms the landscape in many compelling ways. By obscuring distant detail, subjects can sometimes be seen apart from their regular surroundings. It is possible to make photographs in locations that would have been far too busy in “good” light — the fog selecting obscures of mutes more distant subjects. Here I stopped in a spot where there were few geese at all, though those that were hanging out here we floating serenely on the surface of the pond.

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 and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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

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

Wetlands Tree, Fog

Leave a comment
Wetlands Tree, Fog
A tree and brush reflected in still water of a fog-shrouded wetland pond

Wetlands Tree, Fog. San Joaquin Valley, California. February 15, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A tree and brush reflected in still water of a fog-shrouded wetland pond

These are my favorite days in California’ Great Central Valley, the winter days when the tule fog forms and covers the landscape, making almost everything seem mysterious. On days when most sane people avoid driving in this fog, I head this direction hoping I’ll find it. In certain areas, even when it is clear almost everywhere else, the fog can form above the winter wetlands and quickly drop visibility to near zero. (One of the strangest but characteristic experiences is driving slowly through pre-dawn darkness and fog so thick that you can barely see more than feet in front of you, yet being able to look straight up through the shallow fog layer to see the moon and stars overhead.)

It was tremendously foggy on the February morning. Arriving at this refuge we could hear thousands of geese and cranes off in the invisible distance in almost all directions, but we could not see a single bird. Eventually, on a perimeter road circling the wetlands, I came across this spot were a few trees stand in the shallow, still water. The fog hides distant elements of the landscape or at least mutes them, giving prominence to closer features that might otherwise be lost in background detail. The central tree, visually muted even though it is barely fifty feet from my camera position, curves above the reflecting water and its skeletal form stands out from the nearly invisible background plants and water that are almost invisible in the fog.

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 and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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

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

Black Necked Stilt Feeding

2 Comments
Black Necked Stilt Feeding
Black Necked Stilt Feeding

Black Necked Stilt Feeding. San Joaquin Valley, California. February 27, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A black necked stilt feeds in a San Joaquin Valley wetland marsh

Something that quickly becomes apparent when you are around a variety of birds, especially those that live in and around water, is the tremendous range of specific adaptations they have made in order to be successful in rather narrow ecological niches. I first recall seeing this when I was much younger and someone, probably a middle school science teacher, pointed out that birds along the San Francisco Bay shoreline often were distributed in water of varying depths that suited the lengths of their beaks and legs. The same sort of thing is visible in these California Central Valley wetlands, where some birds are adapted to dry land, others to hunting in the brush, and others to success in varying depths of water.

The black-necked stilt is a very attractive bird, with its striking white and black plumage, its thin beak, and its tremendously long red legs. It is also a highly adapted bird — those long legs and back let it forage in slightly deeper water. Most often I see them in somewhat shallower water than seen here, where the bird’s legs are visible above the water line. But this one was making maximum good use of its long legs, which are just long enough to keep it out of the water as it feeds. A moment after I made this photograph the bird took off.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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.