Tag Archives: wetland

Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Sandhill Cranes, Tule Fog

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Sandhill Cranes, Tule Fog
“Sandhill Cranes, Tule Fog” — A flock of lesser sandhill cranes in a wetland pond on a foggy winter morning.

Unlike most winter drivers in California, I was thrilled when I ran into serious fog about an hour before arriving at my intended photography location. I chose this day to visit the Great Central Valley specifically because I hoped to photograph in such fog. As I continued to drive, dropping down into the valley from surrounding hills, the fog only got thicker. By the time I arrived at my destination is was so thick that the roadway was. barely visible in the pre-dawn darkness. I turned off the main road and spent some time looking for birds, finally finding a flock of cranes standing in a shallow pond.

To read about nature photography and photographers, you might occasionally get the mistaken idea that it involves non-stop action and compelling scenes. You would be wrong. Those tend to the exceptions, and they are often separated by long periods of stillness and quiet. I don’t regard that as a problem and, in fact, this is part of the appeal of these places. The fog amplifies this effect, muting sounds and restricting visibility to a small radius. I stopped and slowly and patiently watched these birds, barely visible at times in the fog, making occasional photographs as they assembled themselves in interesting compositions.

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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: Fall, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Cranes, Pond, Autumn Morning

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Cranes, Pond, Autumn Morning
A small flock of sandhill cranes stands in a wetland pond in early morning autumn light.

Cranes, Pond, Autumn Morning. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small flock of sandhill cranes stands in a wetland pond in early morning autumn light.

I am a big fan of these flat landscapes of trees and grasses and ponds and birds, especially between the last month or so of autumn and the end of winter. All up and down California (and in many other places, too) migratory and native birds are everywhere, and while it might seem that there isn’t much happening here from the human perspective, the action is almost continuous in the lives of birds. The first thing I do when I arrive in such places before dawn is open the car window or door and listen — the sound may be that of a few far-off birds or it might be the raucous chorus of thousands of them nearby and overhead, but the striking sound of the cranes is almost always somewhere in the mix.

I began photographing before dawn on this morning as I usually do. I slowly worked my way along a levee, pausing to watch for and then photograph birds in the low light. The first big group I spotted was a large flock of snow geese, but they were not in a great spot for photography, so I kept moving. Soon I came upon a huge flock of hundreds of cranes in and around a pond. At first they were mostly standing still in the shallow water, but gradually they began to become restless and then, group by group, take to the air and fly away. I don’t recall now for sure, but judging by their attentive postures, there’s a good chance that this group left shortly after I made the photograph.

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

Central Valley Winter Sky

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Central Valley Winter Sky
Pre-sunrise winter sky and thin fog above Central Valley wetlands.

Central Valley Winter Sky. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pre-sunrise winter sky and thin fog above Central Valley wetlands.

These days it is hard to precisely put my finger on the character of California’s Great Central Valley, comprised of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys and the delta where they merge with the San Francisco Bay. Many years ago a drive though the valley was all about agricultural communities, but today things are less homogeneous. Some areas seem more like extensions of the urban San Francisco Bay Area — see towns along the busy I80 corridor and the “bedroom communities” from which long-distance drivers commute in each day. Other towns further into the Valley, including many along Highway 99, have become so large that their agricultural roots seem more distant. To be sure, agriculture remains pervasive in the Valley, as a drive though almost any portion of it will make clear.

Among the features that continue to define this valley for me are its flat geography and the vast expanse of uninterrupted sky. This photograph focuses on both. I chose to place the horizon very close to the bottom of the frame since that’s were it is when we look up at skies like the one in this photograph. It was very early on a late-winter morning, before the sun had come up. The light was blue and thin dawn tule fog was dissipating above these wetlands.

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

Crane Departure, Morning

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Crane Departure, Morning
Sandhill cranes take to the air in morning light above Central Valley wetlands.

Crane Departure, Morning. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Sandhill cranes take to the air in morning light above Central Valley wetlands.

In my experience, bird photography often involves a whole lot of sitting around, thinking about where the birds might be, stopping and watching and hoping that they will engage in some interesting behavior. The actual picture making can take up a small percentage of the total time on task, with vast slow times in between. (And that’s not even counting the long drives — usually in the dark — to get there and back.)

My photographs of sandhill cranes on this autumn morning might be illustrative. I drove two hours in darkness to get here a half hour before dawn. I followed a levee road out into agricultural and wetland country, not seeing all that many birds, at least not of the sort I was looking for. Eventually, in a place where I was not necessarily expecting to find them, I came upon a large flock of sandhill cranes in a pond. It was still before sunrise when I decided to stop and see what developed here. I made a few quick images in the low light, but then I mostly just sat there and… watched. Eventually some of the birds became more active and a bit later the first semi-directional sunrise light came weakly through the fog. And a few minutes after that happened small groups of the birds began to depart. Then they were gone and… not much else happened until I left a few hours later.

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.