Category: birding

Clark’s Grebes

Posted in Bird Photography, birding, Birds of North America, California, Clark's Grebes, Clear Lake CA, Grebes, Nature Photography, Northern California, Northern California Birds, PhotographyTagged , , , , , , , , , 26 Comments

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I spent the week-end with old friends Theresa, Dali, and Alex birding up in Clear Lake. We went to see Grebes, we hoped dancing on the water.

We booked a boat with the same tour group we used last year Eyes of the Wild with Faith as our Captain. You can read that post here.

We booked early and Faith kept us abreast of the Grebe situation on the lake on and off up until our booking day. Last week she sent me a text message saying that courting had really slowed down, but she had a surprise. Babies were early and she’d found several pair of Grebes with babies! Did we still want to come up?

Did we still want to come up? OF COURSE WE DID!  We’d go to see the chicks alone! We had hoped to get up there again last summer to see Grebe chicks, but there was a huge fire, the drought, add to that predators, well, it all added up to a low number of Grebes and not too many babies so, we didn’t go back up last year. We went this time!

Here’s my favorite image today of the babies and their parents.

Grebe Family

Dad had brought the fish, made a perfect transfer of it to Mom, and the chicks were out and exposed from their Mom’s wings peeping their heads off to get that fish!  The morning light was lovely, and I managed to keep the shot in focus and made before the boat moved up or down with a swell!

This was such an exciting, wonderful,  beautiful sight to see!

We also saw a few dances. We saw Osprey pairs with chicks, and a really pretty sunset among the most notable things we saw this past week-end.

I came home with 1700 images to cull. I’ve made my first pass and deleted about 400 already.  I’ll try to break up the posts so I don’t bore you to death with images of Grebes all the time. 🙂

Nikon D700| Nikkor 200-500mm| SunDisk Digital Film|

More to come…

 

 

 

 

Gray Flycatcher

Posted in birding, Birds, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Flycatcher, Nature, Nature Photography, Photography, San Jose California Nature Photographer, Santa Clara County BirdingTagged , , , , , , , , , , , 22 Comments

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I went birding on both Saturday and Sunday this past week-end hoping to find two birds I’d never seen or photographed before. I got lucky with really good looks on the first bird on my list: The Gray Flycatcher.  A “lifer” for me!

Gray Flycatcher

There were other birders there looking for the same bird which made the experience more fun and exciting. It also helped to have several pairs of eyes, and ears on the lookout.

Gray flycatcher

It’s migrating south, and this one is further west than it’s regular migration route.

Gray Flycatcher

He was pretty far away from me, and in the shadows of the trees so I boosted my ISO to keep up my shutter speed to prevent blurring, and these images are cropped.

Sunday I went back to look for the second bird on my list, but I was not successful.  I’ll have another go this week-end if I hear it’s still in the area.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 200-500mm| Lexar Professional Digital Film| Tripod|

Note to self- take the bug spray! I got eaten alive by mosquitoes!

More to come…

 

Twitterpated

Posted in Bird Photogaphy, birding, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Common Goldeneye, Nature, Nature Photography, Photography, San Mateo CountyTagged , , , , , , , , , 17 Comments

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I had a most delightful morning a couple of months back watching  some Common Golden-eye males doing the their mating dance/display.

Common Goldeneye Male-Mating Ritual Dance-Photography

Common Goldeneye male- Mating Ritual Dance Photography

Common Goldeneye Male-Mating Ritual Dance-Photography

Common Goldeneye Male-Mating Ritual Dance-Photography

She likes me!

Common Goldeneye Male-Mating Ritual Dance-Photography

I think I nailed that.

Common Goldeneye Male-Mating Ritual Dance-Photography

The word Twitterpated was first used in the movie Bambi. It means to be overcome with romantic feelings; smitten.

UPDATE: I looked up the scene in the original Disney movie and found the dialog about Spring Twitterpation.  I think it’s delightful! Hope you do too.

Bambi 1942

Flower: [about two birds fluttering around] Well! What’s the matter with them?
Thumper: Why are they acting that way?
Friend Owl: Why, don’t you know? They’re twitterpated.
Flower, Thumper, Bambi: Twitterpated?
Friend Owl: Yes. Nearly everybody gets twitterpated in the springtime. For example: you’re walking along, minding your own business. You’re looking neither to the left, nor to the right, when all of a sudden, you run smack into a pretty face. Woo-woo! You begin to get weak in the knees. Your head’s in a whirl. And then you feel light as a feather; and before you know it, you’re walking on air. And then you know what? You’re knocked for a loop, and you completely lose your head!
Thumper: Gosh. That’s awful.
Flower: Gee whiz.
Bambi: Terrible!
Friend Owl: And that ain’t all. It can happen to anybody. So you’d better be careful.
[points at Bambi]
Friend Owl: It could happen to you…
[points at Thumper]
Friend Owl: …and you, and…
[Flower looks at Owl shyly]
Friend Owl: Yes, it could even happen to you!
Thumper: Well, it’s not gonna happen to me.
Bambi: Me neither.
Flower: Me neither.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 200-500mm| Lexar Professional Digital Film| PS CC 2015

More to come…

 

 

I’ve got a song, I’ve got a song…

Posted in Bird Photogaphy, birding, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Jim Croce, Photography, SparrowsTagged , , , , , , 16 Comments

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

 

“I’ve got a song, I’ve got a song
And I carry it with me and I sing it loud
If it gets me nowhere, I go there proud”

~Jim Croce

Song Sparrow- Bird Photography

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 200-500mm| Lexar Professional Digital Film| PS CC 2015

More to come…

Anna’s Hummingbird-Female

Posted in Anna's Hummingbird, Bird Photography, birding, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Hummingbirds, Nikon, Photography, Santa Cruz CaliforniaTagged , , , , , , , , , 37 Comments

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I went over to Santa Cruz on Saturday while we had a break between rain showers to photograph Allen’s, and Anna’s Hummingbirds. It was a lovely day in the Arboretum.

There were very few people there since the weather wasn’t ideal.  While I was waiting for a male Allen’s Hummingbird to return to a favored perch I looked behind me and saw a lovely female Anna’s darting around the Ericaceae plants which is a succulent plant.

Here’s a series of 3 images that shows her approach to the plant, feeding, then resting on a perch.

Anna's Hummingbird Female Approaching flowers

Anna's Hummingbird Female Feeding

Anna's Hummingbird Female perched on a branch

I love the fresh Spring color palette in this series, and this pretty little Hummingbird.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 200-500mm VR| Tripod w/ Wimberley SideKick| Lexar Professional Digial Film| PS CC 2015

More to come…

 

Great Egret Reflected

Posted in Bird Photography, birding, Birds, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Coastal Birds, Great Egret, Nikon, Photography, Santa Clara County BirdingTagged , , , , , , 38 Comments

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Great Egret Reflected

I made this image with the rental Nikon 200-500mm VR lens the morning after I rented it.

I saw this Great Egret out in the pond within the range of the lens so I walked out to the edge of the pond to photograph it. I initially set up in landscape orientation then I zoomed out to 500mm, and only had its head and half its neck in the frame! “Oh no, that won’t do!” I thought. I switched to portrait orientation, which fit the whole Egret in the frame, but only half the reflection, and I wanted to get the reflection because it was very clear, and the blue sky and water were gorgeous on this morning.  Next I started pulling my zoom in…400mm, nope, 300mm, nope, 200mm, not quite. I had to back up to get the whole reflection in, and stay at 200mm.  This image isn’t cropped at all.  So, began my learning curve with this lens.

After that week-end I liked the lens so well I bought one,  and have been using it a lot.  I’m on the down side of the learning curve now. 🙂

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 200-500mm VR hired unit| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital film| PS CC 2015

More to come…

Oh joy, oh bliss…

Posted in American Robin, Bird Photography, birding, Birds, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Photography, WinterTagged , , , , , , , , 21 Comments

Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

They’re mine! All mine!

Mine, Mine, Mine! They're all Mine!

It was a great morning for this American Robin, and for me too. It was a lot of fun

seeing him on this branch so full of berries.

American Robin-Male San Mateo County, CA

Nikon D700| Nikkor 200-500mm VR| Lexar Professional Digital Film| PS CC 2015

More to come…