“A good snapshot keeps a moment from running away.” ― Eudora Welty
Copyright ©2018 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
This is one of the first Poppies I saw in bloom this season. I spied it all alone while on a “stretching my legs” hike a few weeks ago.
It’s Easter on Sunday and I’ll be spending the day with family. I hope you all have a lovely week-end, and a wonderful Easter if you celebrate it.
Nikon 810| Nikkor 105mm @f/5.6| San Disk Digital Film| Handheld
more to come…
Copyright ©2018 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
A couple of weeks ago when I shared the Snow Leopard images here
I mentioned that my friend and I went birding before we visited Sacramento Zoo. We went to Sacramento, CA to find special ducks, and geese. The Ducks were some of the most colorful ducks here in the States. Wood Ducks, and a Mandarin Duck which I’ll save for another post, and a new Goose for me the African Goose.
There were a couple pairs of Woods Ducks, and quite a few African Geese making the day very successful.
Wood Ducks can be found here all year long, but we see them mostly in Spring. They have sharp, strong claws that allow them to climb branches. They will nest in boxes if they’re provided, but if not they’ll nest in holes in trees. The Wood Duck is the only North American duck that regularly produces two broods in one year. The Wood Duck is considered one of the prettiest of all waterfowl.
Wood Duck Male
Wood Duck Female- She’s looking up at a nesting box that the Wood Ducks kept taking turns flying up to. They’re paired up now so brooding is on their minds no doubt. 🙂
Wood Duck pair- I was focused on the male, and shooting at f/8, but the female isn’t as sharp as I would have liked her to be. What do you think he’s talking about? Traffic on the pond? Or how beautiful she is? Or how wonderful he is at nesting, and fathering chicks? 🙂
The African Goose- Isn’t really from Africa they think it’s really from China and related to the Swan Goose from China. It’s most distinguishing feature is its knob on its bill/face front.
I’d never seen this Goose before. We don’t have many knobbed fronted birds here, but it’s a beauty. It’s not listed in either of my Bird books for North America so, I turned to Wikipedia for information about it. See below the images.
This one might be a mix of white and brown because of the orange in its knob, or maybe it’s breeding colors? IDK? 🙂
Several came out of the pond to forage on the lawn. I liked the way this one stopped foraging to give me “the look”. I didn’t get any closer. 🙂
Here’s an image of what I think is a male African Goose. It was HUGE, and you can see the Dewlap (the hanging bit under the chin) that is mentioned below as a distinguishing feature.
” The African Goose is a breed of goose. The African goose breed most likely originated in China, despite the name. They may possibly be related to the wild swan goose a smaller species of goose, just like their close cousin the Chinese goose. Though they share some similar characteristics (such as colour variations), the two can be distinguished by the African’s larger dewlap and different knob shape. African geese are also quite a bit heavier than Chinese, and are better known for their docile temperaments. Also, they are known to lay far fewer eggs than Chinese geese, 25-40 eggs per year for the African goose vs. 40-65, or, in extreme cases, up to 200 eggs per year for Chinese geese.
Two origin theories persist for the fowl: the first purporting that Africans are the result of crosses of swan geese and Chinese, while the other asserts that they are pure derivations of the swan goose, and their unique traits are simply the result of selective breeding. Whichever the case, it has existed as a distinct breed since at least the middle of the nineteenth century, and was admitted to the American Poultry Association‘s Standard of Perfectionin 1874.
Ganders often have a higher pitched call than the geese, and are taller, while the females are shorter and stockier, with larger keels or lobes.
African geese appear in three color varieties: Brown, Buff and White. Browns have black bills and knobs, and plumage with irregular shades, from a very light to dark brown. Whites have all-white plumage and orange bills and knobs.” ~https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_goose
It was an outstanding morning at the pond seeing these and several other species.
I hope your week is going well, and it’s easy going til Friday!
Nikon D810| Nikkor 200-500mm| San Disk Digital Film| PS CC 2018
more to come…
Copyright © Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
I went hiking both Saturday and Sunday hoping to find something interesting in nature as well as stretch my legs, but I hoped to see wildflowers. Saturday I saw flowering trees looking lush and pink in their full bloom and not much else in the way of flowers. I did see a pair of Does resting in the grass near the creek at the bottom of the trail. I really do think Deer are my Spirit Animal. He-Man and I stuck to the wooded area trails and did the steep switchbacks to gain some elevation. We hiked over 2 miles and gained approx. 500ft in elevation. I also rode the Fit Desk for 4 miles on Saturday which did not burn off nearly enough calories! 😦
On Sunday I proposed a different route that would take us along meadow and grassy trails, but still be hiking uphill, and if I didn’t run out of steam I’d even go up the wall. Our mileage wouldn’t much over two miles, but the elevation gain would be close to 600 ft having to go uphill to the top of the mountain/hill then down to the valley and back up the steep hill, and WALL then down the back hill to the car.
I saw several wildflowers in bloom, there were fiddle necks, Hounds Tooth, Pacific Pea; Lupine; and a few others, but the best came when hiking up the hill leading to the WALL.
He-Man was well ahead of me because I kept stopping to photograph flowers, new pine-cone buds, a lizard in camouflage or so it thought, so I was making tracks trying to catch up before he hit the WALL- which is the last section of this hill, but it’s nearly vertical. I’m not kidding it’s really steep. The grade must be 9 or 10%. Everyone calls it the Wall. Thankfully it’s fairly short from there to the top.
Anyway, I was looking high, low, and sideways for flowers, birds, insects, etc, and in a thicket of dry and dead thistle or teasel I spied something like leaves, and kept going up the hill a few steps then my brain said, ” uh, no there shouldn’t be leaves like that on those, back up!” So, I did and look what I saw when I really looked at it! A pair of Silvery Blue Butterflies en Media Res!
I have never seen this type of Butterfly before and never in this position! I was so thrilled and excited; doing my happy dance!
The Silvery Blue is in the Gossamer-Wing Family. Its habitat is varied but, not in deserts, but there is an exception as they are found in the Mohave Desert. They are found where there are Lupine, Pea family, and Vetches. All of which were present when I saw these two. Their season here is Feb- Aug.
He-Man missed it completely. 😦 I was tired and running out of gas so took the cutoff right before the wall so, gained a little more mileage, but a wee bit less elevation. Next week I’ll take my hiking poles and claim the Wall again! 🙂
I was so grateful to have seen this. I’m still Wowed by it!
I’ll share some of the wildflowers in future posts.
Happy Hump Day!
Nikon D810| Nikkor 105mm @f/5.6| ISO 400| 1/1250s| Handheld
more to come…
©2018 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
I had a pretty busy week-end as you saw if you follow me on Instagram. I birded Saturday morning near Sacramento, CA with a friend and had great success there with the ducks and geese we were hoping to see. I’ll share some of those images in another post.
After lunch we visited Sacramento Zoo; which was a first for me.
I have lots of images I want to share, but I’ll spare you loads of images and just post a couple of the beautiful Snow Leopard they have there. It was my favorite animal there.
Sunday a friend and I went to Yosemite National Park to see the snow and do a little Winter landscape photography. It was beautiful! I’ll share an image or two in the future.
Added to that I got behind reading the blogs posted over the past week. I had #1 Grandson all week and I had no backup. Both Baby Girl and He-Man had business trips that took them to the East Coast; different states though. I didn’t have a lot of free time for working on images, or staying on the computer long; #1 Grandson kept me pretty busy playing with Legos, board games, reading, and trying to fit in a little exercise in between the rain.
I’ll catch up this week…I hope! Happy Hum Day!
Nikon D810| Nikkor 200-500mm| SanDisk Digital Film| PS CC 2018
more to come…
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