Tag Archives: wildlife

Photographs: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Red-Shouldered Hawk

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Red-Shouldered Hawk
A red-shouldered hawk perched in a wetland thicket.

Red-Shouldered Hawk. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

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I had several opportunities to photograph what I believe was this same red-shouldered hawk on several days in early 2022. While visiting a location in the Central Valley on New Year’s Day I (and several friends) saw a hawk just like this one in almost this exact same spot. I made this photograph a few days later on a return visit. Is it the exact same bird? I can’t say. But it was perched very close to where the previous bird was and it was equally willing to allow me to be close enough to photograph it. (For those who wonder… I was photographing from the “mobile blind” of my vehicle and using a very long lens, both of which allow me to minimize any disruption to the bird.)

If you look closely at trees in places like this you’ll almost always spot some sort of predatory bird — hawk, owl, or similar — hanging out in the branches. In fact, there are a few trees I’ve gotten to know rather well over the years where I can pretty predict the specific branches on which such birds will be perched. Most of the leaves had fallen from this tree, making the bird easier to spot, and the filtered sunlight illuminated its features.

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

Cranes in Fog

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Cranes in Fog
A group of lesser sandhill cranes in thick morning fog, California Central Valley.

Cranes in Fog. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A group of lesser sandhill cranes in thick morning fog, California Central Valley.

Awake almost three hours before sunrise, I headed to the kitchen to make coffee — enough to wake me up and enough to fill a thermos for later. I had mostly packed the car the previous night, so I just had to grab a small bag and head out the door to begin a two-hour pre-dawn drive to a place where I expected to find migratory birds and plenty of tule fog, two subjects that I chase during the winter months. The fog began a half hour before I arrived at my destination, and when I arrived as the first light came to the sky I heard thousands of birds in the distance.

At first it was too dark and the atmosphere too opaque for photography, so I headed out to find the source of the sounds. Soon I encountered a large flock of snow geese which departed a moment later. Moving on I got to a spot where I could hear the easily recognized sound of cranes nearby. I could just barely see them though the thick fog, but I stopped and waited, and as the fog drifted a bit I was able to spot them and make a few photographs of a group standing in shallow 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: Birds, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Wildlife

Night Heron in Brush

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Night Heron in Brush
A black-crowned night heron perched in brush in morning light.

Night Heron in Brush. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A black-crowned night heron perched in brush in morning light.

In locations where there are many birds (in my cases, mostly big groups of geese and cranes) the night herons tend to lurk quietly in the background, and it would very easy to completely overlook them. They are much smaller than the lonely but attention-grabbing great blue herons. They are quiet. They tend to sit still among the plants for long periods of time. They keep their distance. I wasn’t even aware of them the first few times I went out to see the winter birds of California’s section of the Pacific Flyway.

But once I realized where to look, they were easy to spot. In good light their white breasts stand out against the darker vegetation in which they hide themselves. While I regard them as mostly stationary birds — at least where I run into them — occasionally I have seen them become more active, including on New Year’s Day when groups of them began to fly to and fro above the brush in the morning sun.

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.

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

Above the Water

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Above the Water
A flock of small birds, reflected in the surface of a winter pond.

Above the Water. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A flock of small birds, reflected in the surface of a winter pond.

These birds move so quickly and follow such unpredictable patterns that they are a real challenge to photograph. The sometimes stay in one place a bit while feeding but then, without much warning that I can detect, the whole flock of them instantly takes to the air, flying closely together and abruptly turning as if they were a single organism. They move quickly enough that it is hard to track them, and when they appear they are often in and out of camera range in a few short seconds.

Quite often they appear against busy backgrounds of grasses and trees and more distant water, and they can easily get lost against these backdrops. (Here their speed can be helpful, as panning with the birds can blur those backgrounds a bit.) It was foggy on this morning, and I chose (very quickly and intuitively!) to photograph them over a patch of uninterrupted water that gradually faded into 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, 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.

Scroll down to leave a comment or question.

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