Copyright ©2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4 @ f/8| ISO 800| Hoodman STEEL Digital Film| Hand-held
More to come…
Category: birding
Monochrome Madness 2/12: Clark Grebes Courtship Dance
Copyright © 2015 Deborah M. Zajac ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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
Copyright ©2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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
Copyright © 2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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
Copyright © 2015 Deborah M. Zajac ALL RIGHTS RESERVED!
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
Copyright © 2015 Deborah M. Zajac ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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
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
Copyright © 2014-2015 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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…
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