Birds in the Wild – Page 9 – Circadianreflections Blog

Northern Mockingbird

November 29, 2016November 29, 2016Posted in Bird Photography, birding, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, National Wildlife Refuge, National Wildlife Refuges in California, Nikon, PhotographyTagged Lodi, Nikon, Northern Mockingbird, Winter Migration Birds17 Comments

Look at that eye! Really not liking me and my camera clicking away. They are characters Northern Mockingbirds.

They mimic other birds. There’s one in my neighborhood that mimics a car alarm. Really!

They’re fiercely territorial. I’ve witnessed a Northern Mockingbird dive-bombing a cat trying to nap in the sun more times than I care to count. The cat just flinched and went back to its nap. REALLY? Why didn’t the cat strike out and eat that bird? Cats eat birds! The Northern Mockingbird must have more power than a cat!

Northern Mockingbird

When this one grew tired of my clicking it flew away. Leaving me nothing to photograph. Sigh. It’s a cunning bird for sure!

Nikon D700| Nikkor 200-500mm| Lexar Professional Digital Film| PS CC 2017

More to come…

The Look

November 19, 2016November 19, 2016Posted in Bird Photography, Birds, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Birds of Prey, Nikon, PhotographyTagged Bird Photography, Birds, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, California, Hawks, Nikon, San Joaquin County33 Comments

I’m not sure if this is a Sharp-shinned Hawk, or a Cooper’s Hawk, or something else all together, but I’m leaning towards a Sharp-shinned because of its long legs, overall size, and notched tail feathers.

The Look

It wasn’t happy about getting its picture taken. He was on a post in an irrigation canal probably hoping for a fish dinner. 🙂

If you know what species it is I’d love to hear from you!

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

More to come…

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

November 14, 2016November 14, 2016Posted in Bird Photogaphy, birding, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Nikon, PhotographyTagged Bird Photography, Birds, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Nikon, Ruby-crowned Kinglet29 Comments

It was a busy week-end with little to no time spent on the computer. Of course Photography figured high on my list of things to do this past week-end.

The Super Moon was number 1 on my list and I made plans months ago to shoot it with friends in Central Valley Calif. We were a large group and while waiting for the group to assemble before heading to our chosen shooting location I was photographing little birds in a nearby bush.

A friend and I spied a little flighty bird hopping from one branch to the next all the while staying deep in the foliage. I thought it might be a Warbler of some sort, but couldn’t be sure until I got a better look. I watched and waited hoping it would come out just for one good look and image. A little patience paid off. It showed itself in the open less than a minute! I managed to get only 3 frames of it hoping with fingers crossed that just one of those frames would be good.

Imagine my delight at finding I liked all three well enough to keep and share!

Then late last night I was trying to catch up with blogs and emails and read Donna’s post about her latest birding adventure and there in her images was a bird that looked just like the little bird I photographed that very afternoon!

I pulled out my Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America to compare my bird, and Donna’s bird with the Field Guide to see if I had a match and positive identification. I believe so! If true then this bird is a new ” Lifer” for me! An exciting spotting indeed! Thank you Donna!

Without further ado I present a Ruby-crowned Kinglet with the 3 images I made:

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet

If you think this is different bird please let me know!

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

More to come…

Plan B is for the Birds

September 26, 2016September 26, 2016Posted in Birds, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Birds of Prey, Insects, National Wildlife Refuge, National Wildlife Refuges in California, Nature, Nature Photography, Nikon, Photography, Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, San Jose California Nature Photographer, WildlifeTagged Birds, Birds in the Wild, Deer, Doe, Dragonflies, Ducks, Fawn, Insects, Nature Photography, Night Heron, Nikon, Northern Pintails, Peregrine Falcon, Pied-billed Grebe21 Comments

My original Photography plans for last week-end fell apart mid-week when one of the friends I was going with fell ill. Rather than go anyway which didn’t sit well with me or my friend Theresa we two switched gears and decided to go birding in the Central Valley to see what birds if any had arrived early.

I had read a few reports of early migrants in the area; we hoped to find one or two, and spend some time catching up with each other.

I left for T’s house early (6:30am) so we’d get to the Refuge in the morning when the birds are more active.

We found the first pond completely sans water. Fish and Wildlife have just started filling the ponds we discovered. Many of the ponds we’re used to seeing full of water were bone dry, but it is early in the season!

Just as we were starting the auto-route we spied a Doe and her Fawn in the tall grass. I didn’t get an image of them together. Mom decided her male Fawn was too close to the road and moved to higher grass. Honestly, I think she looks young!

Doe Deer Female

The Fawn has two little adorable antler nubs. Fawn Male

Early arrivals: There were quite a few White-fronted Geese on the little islands in the ponds that had water.

White-fronted Goose

Northern Pintails, and Shovelers are showing up, but I didn’t make any images of the Shovelers they were too far out. You see a Northern Pintail in image above giving me a one wing salute. 🙂

Among the usual suspects here were thousands of Dragonflies,

Dragon Fly

Pied-billed Grebes

Pied-billed Grebe

Night Herons; most were deep in the foliage, but one was on Sentry duty,

Night Heron

We saw a female Harrier flying low in the distance hunting, a few Red-tail Hawks, and as we approached the tree the Bald Eagles hang out in there we saw there was a Peregrine Falcon perched on a snag surveying the land.

Once the Eagles return I doubt we’ll be seeing this Falcon in this tree. 🙂

Plan B turned out to be a great day, and it was lovely hanging out with Theresa. You can find her images on flickr here.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 200-500mm VR| Lexar Professional Digital Film| PS CC 2015.5

More to come…

What’s Blooming?

August 30, 2016September 1, 2016Posted in Birds, Birds in the Wild, CATS, Cultivated Flowers, Flowers, PhotographyTagged Birds, Birds in the Wild, Blue Jays, CATS, Cultivated Flowers, Dahlias, Drinks, Golden Gate Park, iPhonography, Nikon, Park Chow SF, Photography, San Francisco33 Comments

I met Gordon and several other photography friends Sunday in Golden Gate Park to photograph the Dahlia Garden next to the Conservatory.

We arrived a bit ahead of the others and found the garden mostly empty, the sky was overcast which lent itself to nice even lighting.

The company was amazing, the blossoms were at peak perfection, and the bees were busy humming along doin’ their thing.

Here are some images from the morning,

Target in Sight…

Target in Sight!

Nikon Df| 24-70mm f/2.8G ED| Delkin Digital Film| PS CC 2015.5

Red, and Yellow

Dahlia

Nikon Df| LensBaby Composer w/ Soft Focus Optic @ f/2.8

This is my best side… This Blue Jay posed nicely for me.

Blue Jay

Nikon Df| Nikkor 80-200mm f.2.8D @200mm| f/4

…and there was real live Tom & Jerry cat, and mouse games in the background. The cat caught and let the mouse go 4 times while I was paying attention. Later in the morning I noticed other people watching the cats movements, so I think it was still toying with the mouse. In this image which is really dark…it was overcast, and the cat was far down the path from me…the cat has the mouse in its mouth.

He dropped the mouse in this flowering bush and began the chase all over again. I sure hope they both liked the game!

Feral Cat with Mouse

Gordon, myself, and two other friends headed for Brunch at lunch time. I started with a Virgin Bloody Mary: It’s an iPhone pic and I’m not that good at those! It was spicy and really good! I want to learn how to make this drink.

iPhone5| Park Chow, San Francisco

I had a marvelous veggie omelette with goat cheese, zuccini, and cheddar cheese, home style potatoes on the side, and toast with homemade blackberry jam. I was too hungry to take a photo. I was so fat when I left the table!

We headed back to the park to see the Rose Garden and then we did a mini Doorscursion.

Those images will come in the future.

Images developed in PS CC 2015.5, and Nik Suite

More to come…

Clark’s Grebes

August 6, 2016August 6, 2016Posted in Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Clark's Grebes, Nature Photography, Nikon, PhotographyTagged Bird Photography, Birding, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Clark's Grebes, Grebe Behavior, Grebe Chicks, Nature, Nikon, Photography20 Comments

Today I thought I share some images from my Spring Grebe excursion. We met at 5:45am to get out on the water to see the sun rise over the mountains and get that great light.

We were so fortunate to have a lovely morning with a rosy glow, and the Grebes were up and feeding already as well.

The male Grebes impressed me by how hard they work to feed the family. I’ll try to convey that with some images.

The male making a fish transfer to his mate and a hungry chick poking its head out in anticipation;

Clark's Grebe Pair making fish transfer

…but that little fish was a slippery one and she dropped it, fortunately, she was able to retrieve it quickly!

Clark Grebe Pair

Here a Clark’s Grebe male is just about to make the transfer;

Clark's Grebe Male making Fish Transfer to Female

Here’s a Clark’s Grebe male feeding a fish directly to a chick. That fish looks too big for that tiny bill!

Clark's Grebe Male Transferring Fish to Grebe Chick

With several mouths to feed the male does a whole lot of fishing!

He helps with swimming lessons, and even gives the female a break by allowing the chicks to swim from Mom’s back to his. Western Grebes: Yes, it’s a butt shot. 🙂

Western Grebes

Seeing this was so exciting and so darn adorable!!

Nikon D700| Nikkor 200-500mm| Lexar Professional Digital Film| PS CC 2015.5

Have a wonderful week-end Everyone!

More to come…

Insects of Point Reyes National Seashore

July 15, 2016Posted in Beetles, Birds, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Butterflies, Insects, Photography, USA National ParksTagged Banded Birds, Beetles, Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Nikon, Photography, Point Reyes National Seashore, Skippers, US National Parks, White-crowned Sparrow29 Comments

I had pretty good luck spotting insects while hiking in Point Reyes National Seashore last week-end. I saw Butterflies, Beetles, and Grubs. Here’s a sampler. 🙂

I’m pretty sure this is a Skipper, but I can’t find anything that looks exactly like it in my books, or online so, don’t know what it is. I found it in Point Reyes National Seashore last week-end; July 9,2016. Anyone know what it is and what it is called?

Unknown Skipper or Butterfly?

Other insects I found while exploring different areas of the park were:

A ladybug, one of several I saw…

a green and black beetle called a Spotted Cucumber Beetle,

Spotted Cucumber Beetle

who was pretty hungry,

Spotted Cumcumber Bettle

…a Common Buckeye Butterfly

Common Buckeye Butterfly

…and a grub or grasshopper served a la carte to a White Crown Sparrow that is banded. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a banded sparrow.

Banded White Crown Sparrow

Nikon Df w/28-105mm lens and Delkin Digital Film, and Lumix FZ200 w/ Lexar Digital Film- Hand-held

More to come…

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