Birds – Page 21 – Circadianreflections Blog

Sandhill Crane, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

To see the photo larger click anywhere in the photo.

We were headed back to town after spending a lovely afternoon with B who is a local resident of Chico and who very kindly offered to take us out on some back roads to look for Snow Geese and other birds when B who was driving the lead car slowed down then stopped.
Alex wondered what they saw and off to the left behind some tall bushes I saw two big blue birds. I asked, “Are those Herons?”
Alex said, “”Those aren’t Herons, they’re cranes!” I think we all realized it at the same time because no sooner had he finished that sentence I had my camera out, the car door open and so did everyone in B’s car with Alex quickly following me out of the car.

There were two Sandhill Cranes standing here, but I have cropped one out since it had its back to me with his face turned away.
What a thrill! Finally one that was sort of close to the road! You recall me telling you how I missed them last year and really hoped to see them this year so you know I was excited. I didn’t think my photo would turn out. I took three before they got skittish and flew off. Two were awful this is the best one of the 3 shots I took.
They flew to a back corner and there in the corner were several more!

In just a few weeks these wonderful birds will start leaving for more Northern climates. I would like to get out to the marshlands once more before they do.

Nelson Road; Butte County; Oroville, California; Sandisk Ultra II Digital Film; CS5

Snow Goose Festival 2011

I, and 3 girl-friends, and Alex went to Central California for the annual Snow Goose Festival.

The weather forecast called for gray skies, with low clouds, and rain in the forecast for Sunday.

It made for some rather dull backgrounds, but I saw several birds I’d never seen before.

The water birds were out in the ponds quite a distance from me. I had rented a Nikkor 300mm f4 for the week-end hoping to get some nice shots. I used my Tamron 1.4x extender for an hour, but wasn’t happy with what I was seeing in my LCD in playback so I just took it off. I did use my latest accessory the Wimberley Sidekick. I really like it. Moving my camera was so smooth, and panning was much easier. I wish I had thought to take a photo of it. I’ll do that this week.

We were all struggling with the distance, and getting the sharp, close up.

Our first tour Saturday morning was at Llanco Seco Wildlife Refuge where we saw several different types of ducks. I saw American Wigeon, Eurasian Wigeon, a Ruddy Duck, Coots, lots of Coots, a Sandhill Crane fly-by, Tundra Swan fly-by, and a Meadowlark.

After we finished our tour at Llano Seco we met a friend of R’s who is a local resident in Chico. She knew the back roads. She took us to a little known refuge where we saw a Night Heron tree. The trees had so many in them. I tried to get a good shot of one in flight, but they were too far away so it didn’t come out as well as I had hoped. From there we went out to another pond where we saw lots and lots of Snow Geese. We saw flocks of them coming in and landing in the pond which upset the Tundra Swan and sent some of them off.

Here is one of a little group of 3 that took off. They were pretty far away from me. I think I’d need an 800mm lens to get a close up! Still I’m happy to have got this shot, and to have seen them take off and hear them.

We had a great time with B. Thank you B for the gift of your time, and sharing your spots with us.

Sunday I woke up to rain, rain, rain… My 3 girl-friends weren’t able to get on the tour Alex and I signed up for so they were gone, and Alex who coming down with a cold wasn’t feeling it when he woke up to rain. I went out to the meeting spot for the Paskenta Tour but it was still rainy. I wasn’t feeling it so I headed for home. It rained the whole 3.5 hour drive home. On the bright side I beat the returning ski traffic.

Even though I didn’t get the money shot I hoped for this week-end it was a stellar birding week-end. Seeing the flocks of geese come in to land, the Sandhill Crane, and Swan fly-bys, and so many different ducks was thrilling. Hanging out with my friends was a joy. I am looking forward to next year’s Snow Goose Festival.

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 300mm f4| f5| 1/3200 sec| ISO 800| Manual Mode| On a Tripod|

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