Whatever Weds. Spring!

Copyright ©2021 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

On our way to see Baby Girl, The Handsome Surveyor and the boys last week we saw a hillside covered in California Poppies, and I had to stop to make some images.

The hillside was steep, mostly on private property so I was unable to climb the hill to get a better composition. There were power lines going through the scene so after I uploaded the images I took to my digital darkroom aka- Photoshop CC to make some additional improvements in addition to my normal tweaks to white balance, whites, and blacks, and camera/lens corrections. I took out the power line using the spot healing brush, then I cropped the image to remove a big bush and some partially showing trees, and lastly I removed a tree top at the top of the image. So the image went from this…

To this…

For some reason the finished image looks a bit washed out here, but not in Photoshop. Hum?

Baby Girl asked for a print of the final image and I wanted one too so, I’m having it printed up. I hope it looks good when they arrive.

Which one do you prefer?

Nikon D810| Nikkor 24-120mm| PS CC 22.3.0

more to come…

Friday’s Feathered Friends- Red-breasted Merganser Male

Copyright ©2021 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Late in January, I heard there was a Red-necked Grebe in Lake Tahoe and it’s a bird I’ve never seen so wanting to get out of the house between storms He-Man and I drove over there for a walk-about and see what we could see. No grebe anywhere, but I did see a small group of Common Mergansers, and one that didn’t look quite like the others, but looked like a Merganser. I made some images and when I got home uploaded the images and discovered to my delight the one in the group that was a little different was a Red-breasted Merganser Male. A new bird for me, and Lifer number one for 2021!

They weren’t doing much of anything when I saw the group. I think it was a bit early and they were still waking up. 😀

Male Red-breasted Merganser Lake Tahoe 2021

Fun facts about them gleaned from my favorite source allaboutbirds.org

  • The Red-breasted Merganser breeds farther north and winters farther south than the other American mergansers.
  • Red-breasted Mergansers don’t acquire breeding plumage until they are 2 years old.
  • Red-breasted Mergansers need to eat 15 to 20 fish per day, which researchers suggest means they need to dive underwater 250–300 times per day or forage for 4–5 hours to meet their energy needs.
  • The oldest recorded Red-breasted Merganser was a female, and at least 9 years, 6 months old when she was shot in Alaska, the same state where she had been banded.

That’s a lot of diving and foraging isn’t it!

I hope you all a lovely week-end!

Panasonic Lumix FZ200| PS CC 22.3.0

more to come…

Wordless Weds. Lake Tahoe between storms

Copyright ©2021 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Lumix FZ200| PS CC 22.2.0 Lake Tahoe at Sand Harbor State Park 2021

more to come…

Wordless Weds. The Morning After

Copyright ©2021 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Nikon D810| Nikkor 24-120mm @75mm| PS CC 22.2.0

more to come…

Friday’s Feathered Friends-Northern Harrier

Copyright ©2021 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Several weeks ago He-Man was up for exploring so I took him to some of my birding spots that he hasn’t been to yet. While driving into one area I spotted a Northern Harrier on the ground in an irrigation ditch and as soon as we parked I took off to try to get a photo of it. It remained still and let me take a series of images of it. I wondered if it had a meal in that pile of weeds/grass?

Sitting Northern Harrier Male;

Afterwards I caught up with He-Man and while we were picking our way through a field avoiding the muddiest spots he spotted another one sitting in the field. WOOT!

Later on I spied her flying and on the lookout for a meal.

Look at this wing span! She’s ready to pounce! She came up empty and flew out of my range and view onto a new hunting ground no doubt across the pond.

Cool facts:

Male Northern Harriers can have up to 5 mates at once though most only have two. The males provides the food, and the females take care of incubating the eggs and brood the chicks.

Northern Harriers are the most owl like of the hawks, but they are not related to owls. They rely on their hearing and vision to find prey. They have a disk shaped face the looks and functions like an owls with stiff facial feathers that direct sound to their ears.

Juvenile males have pale greenish-yellow eyes, while juvenile females have dark chocolate brown eyes. The eye color of both sexes changes gradually to lemon yellow by adulthood. I didn’t know that!

They eat small mammals and small birds but have been known to take down ducks and rabbits.

The oldest known Northern Harrier on record was a Female at least 15 years, 4 months old when she was captured and released in 2001 by a bird bander in Quebec. She had been banded in New Jersey in 1986.

Cool facts gleaned from allaboutbirds.org

The Harriers were the most exciting sighting at this location soon we were on our way to find a meal ourselves then call it day and head home.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, keep safe and warm!

Fuji X-T3| Fuji 100-400mm| PS CC 22.2

more to come…

Friday’s Feathered Friends- Bald Eagle

Copyright ©2021 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

A few weeks ago while He-Man was riding his bike I was birding and while driving out in the ranches I spied two Adult Bald Eagles just hanging out next to each other on telephone poles. I hung around for quite awhile hoping they’d fly, but they were content to continue surveying the land so I moved on. Here’s the first one I saw.

Looking not much different is the second one. I think they’re a pair though they were pretty close in size so I’m not positive about that.

Fun Facts:

Bald Eagles have a reputation of being bandits. They will steal fish from Osprey’s talons in mid air!

The largest Bald Eagle nest on record is in St. Petersburg, FL, which was 2.9 meters in diameter, and 6.1 meters tall. (114.17 X 240.15 inches) HUGE!

Bald Eagles live a long time. The oldest recorded bird in the wild was at least 38 years old when it was hit by a car and killed in New York in 2015. It had been banded in 1977. 

Fun facts gleaned from allaboutbirds.org

I hope you all have a wonderful week-end!

Fuji X-T3| Fuji 100-400mm| PS CC 22.2

more to come…