birding – Page 13 – Circadianreflections Blog

Monochrome Madness 2/12: Clark Grebes Courtship Dance

May 26, 2015May 26, 2015Posted in birding, Birds in the Wild, Black and White Photography, Clark's Grebes, Courtship Dance, Mating Dance, Monochrome Madness2Tagged Birding, Birds in the Wild, Black and White Photography, Clark's Grebes, Clear Lake CA, Courtship Dance, Eyes of the Wild Boat Tours, Mating Dance, Monochrome Madness2, Nature1 Comment

Over the week-end several friends and I went up to Lakeport, CA to view Western and Clark’s Grebes doing their annual Mating Rituals. Part of the ritual is the Courtship Dance. It’s absolutely amazing to watch. We went out on the lake with Eyes of the Wild Pontoon Boat Tours at 5:45am. We followed several large groups of Grebes and watched, and photographed their mating behavior.

The males and females come together talking then they get really low in the water face to face, and their voices/tones change then in an instant they’re up; dancing together across the water’s surface!

Sometimes they come together low in the water, talk a bit then change their minds about dancing, other times one will get up to dance and find he or she is all alone in the dance. 🙂

It was a fascinating, and entertaining morning on the lake.

To see all the other entries to Leanne Cole’s week 12 of Monochrome Madness 2 click here.

Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 300mm + Tamron 1.4x TC| Hand-held| Hoodman STEEL High Speed Digital Film| CS6 & Silver Efex Pro 2

More to come…

Golden Crown Sparrow

May 15, 2015May 15, 2015Posted in birding, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, SparrowsTagged Bird Photography, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Golden Crown Sparrow, Northern California, Sparrows6 Comments

I made this image last week-end early in the morning. It was quite overcast and gray most the day, and this little Sparrow was inside the canopy making the shot a bit tricky. Since my extender is broken and I still haven’t sent it in I was using my old D300s for the crop factor and I don’t like to take my ISO up any higher than 500 on that camera, so the bird was a bit dark.

I opened up the shadows and exposure a bit on the bird using the adjustment brush in Adobe’s Camera Raw after going through my normal white balance, camera, and lens calibration, and noise reduction settings in ACR. Then I opened the image in CS6 for resizing, added my watermark, and web sharpening.

Using Actions in CS6 to add the final touches this image took me less than 5 minutes to develop.

I like that! 🙂

Nikon Df| AF-S Nikkor 300mm| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film| CS6| Tripod

More to come…

On the Fence

February 23, 2015Posted in "Castle Rock Recreation Park", Bird Photography, birding, Birds of North America, Dark-eyed Junco, Goldfinch, Santa Clara County BirdingTagged Bird Photography, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Dark-eyed Junco, Goldfinch, Santa Clara County18 Comments

Two images from Sunday morning. I was hoping to find Varied Thrushes, but didn’t find any this time.

A Goldfinch

A Dark-eyed Junco

Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4 + AF-S Nikkor 14eII teleconverter| Hand-held| Lexar Professional 600x Speed Digital Film

More to come…

The Stare Down

January 21, 2015January 21, 2015Posted in Bald Eagles, Bird Photography, birding, Birds of Northern America, Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, Snow Geese, WarblersTagged Bald Eagles, Bird Photography, Birding, Birds in the Wild, Eagles, Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, Shorebirds, Snow Geese, Warblers, waterbirds11 Comments

A group of photographers got together last week for our annual trek to Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge. It was dreary day with fog, and clouds all day. The light was flat, flat, flat. Thankfully there was a nice variety of birds on the ponds.

The first time around the auto-route there was Bald Eagle high up in it’s favorite tree. I call this tree the “Eagle Tree” because there’s been an Eagle perched in it the last 3 years I’ve been there. I wonder if this is the Juvenile Bald Eagle I’ve seen in years past grown up with an all white head now? Aren’t they majestic!

Later in the day high in the Eucalyptus trees there was a juvenile Bald Eagle surveying the land and ponds,

There was a spot of color on this dreary day…

…The Trio

These Snow Geese were the only ones we saw up on the bank. I think one had an injured wing and the other two were keeping it company.

Nikon D700| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4 w/AF-S 14eII TC| Hand-held| Lexar Professional High Speed Film| CS6

More to come…

A Good Day Birding PtII

January 11, 2015January 11, 2015Posted in American Robin, Bird Photography, birding, Birds in the Wild, Birds of Northern America, Brown Pelican, Great Egret, Mockingbirds, Sea Gull, Shorebirds, Snowy Egret, Thrush FamilyTagged American Robin, Bird Photography, Birding, Birds of North America, Brown Pelican, Great Egret, Mockingbird, Northern Mockingbird, Sea Gulls, Shorebirds, Snowy Egret, Thrush Family of Birds7 Comments

There were quite a few opportunities to capture birds in flight while I was out birding this week.
A couple of times there were feeding frenzies right in front of me which allowed me to capture a few neat “flight shots” and a whole lot of near misses.

Here’s the American Robin just as it took flight.

Snowy Egret

Brown Pelican hunting for fish

Sea Gull

Great Egret

Northern Mockingbird just after take off

Brown Pelican diving- two images; I wish I had timed it so I got the tip of his bill going in the water. Sigh. Timing is everything!

Nikon D700| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f4 + AF-S Nikkor 14eII TC =420mm| Hand-held| Lexar Professional Digital Film

More to come…

The Poser

January 4, 2015Posted in Bird Photography, birding, Birds in the Wild, Goldfinch Male, Santa Clara CountyTagged Bird Photography, Birding, Birds, Birds in the Wild, Goldfinch, Santa Clara County5 Comments

Last Friday, while sweeping the patio, and doing some general tidying up in the backyard I switched the seeds in the bird feeder because the mix I had in it wasn’t attracting any birds. I refilled the feeder with black sunflower seeds, and yesterday quite a few House Finches returned, and there was one Goldfinch Male that landed on the perch, but was quickly chased away by the male House Finches. I grabbed my camera hoping he’d make another appearance, but sadly he did not. That visit prompted me to revisit some images I took in early May 2014 of several Goldfinches.

This one pictured above looked at me then puffed himself all up, and gave me the best pose of the morning. I think he’s as handsome as he does. 🙂

I sure hope that Goldfinch comes back and brings some friends with him.

Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f4| AF-S Nikkor 14eII TC| Tripod

More to come…

A day in the Wild

November 10, 2014Posted in birding, Birds in the Wild, Birds of Northern America, Coyote, Merced National Wildlife Refuge, Nature, Photography, San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, WildlifeTagged Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Coyote, Greater Yellowlegs, Merced National Wildlife Refuge, San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, White-crowned Sparrow, White-faced Ibis, Wildlife10 Comments

I spent Saturday at two Wildlife Refuges: Merced National Wildlife Refuge, and San Luis National Wildlife Refuge.

It’s takes just about 2 hours to get there from my house even with a stop for coffee along the way. It’s a fairly easy drive, and the only worrisome part of the drive is crossing Pacheco Pass, and only in the two lane windy section. Fortunately traffic was light going, and not much worse on the way home.

I was hoping to see Sandhill Cranes which my friend Judi shared were starting to return for the Winter.

With the drought being pretty severe here the Refuges have had their water allotments cut way back so, there’s not much water there. I suspect that will influence the number of birds that winter there, and the numbers will be a lot fewer than in past years.

At Merced National Wildlife Refuge there are a couple of observation decks, and a large auto-route with quite a few pull-outs. I arrived not long after the gate opened, and only saw one other car ahead of me. For two hours we were the only people in the refuge. It was really nice not having cars pass me and frighten the birds.

Here are the only Sandhill Cranes I saw. They were in the last field, and as always very skittish. They started moving deeper into the field when I stopped. While I was imaging the group I had the good luck to see two more fly in.

There was a flock of White-faced Ibis here, and they were so hungry they didn’t worry about me at all. There were a few quite close to the road. This one just yawned when I crept up. I love the colors in their feathers.

The White Crowned Sparrows are returning everywhere, even here.

It was foggy when I left home, and there was haze around the countryside, and Refuge. I had hoped to meet my friend Judi here, but the air quality was really bad. There had been a report the night before that the air quality would be bad and people should not go out. I got Judi’s message about that too late; after I arrived at the Refuge. She’s on bottled air and didn’t dare leave the house. You can see the haze in several of the images, but especially in this image of a Great Egret I saw. He didn’t bat an eyelash at my presence! Their stillness and concentration are amazing. I liked the back lighting, and the haze gave the image a soft, dreamy look.

The Coots are back, as are the Shovelers, Mallards, and some Greater Yellowlegs. While photographing the Greater Yellowlegs I put down my camera to take in the pond. You can see how much the water has already receded/evaporated.

…a Greater Yellowlegs

I have a lot of images to go through and can’t share them all in this post. I haven’t even got to the second refuge images yet.

Nikon D700| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4| AF-S Nikkor 14eII Teleconverter| braced with this beanbag.

More to come…

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