Birds – Page 5 – Circadianreflections Blog

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…

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…

Lazuli Bunting Watercolor

July 8, 2016July 7, 2016Posted in #WaterColorMonth, Art, Birds, Birds of North America, Draw a Bird Day, Nature, Photography, Watercolor, Watercolor PaintingTagged #WaterColorMonth, Art, Birds, Create Art Everyday, Doodlewash.com, Draw a Bird Day, Learning to paint, Nature, Nikon, painting, Panasonic Lumix FZ200, Watercolor26 Comments

Here we are already on July 8th! Which means it’s Draw-a-Bird Day over on CreateArtEveryday, and it’s also #WorldWatercolorMonth created by Charlie O’Shields over at doodlewash.com.

Yesterday afternoon I felt inspired to paint a Lazuli Bunting I photographed back in May 2014. I used a Pentel Graphic Gear 0.7 to lightly sketch the beak, and snag it’s perched on, but kept the rest the painting loose. I’m pleasantly surprised how well it came out for not trying to sketch the whole bird.

The Lazuli Bunting is a Spring/Breeding visitor in my region of Northern California. I was very excited to see it him and add him to my “life list” back in the Spring of 2014.

Lazuli Bunting in Watercolor

The image I used as my reference is here. P52 18 of 52 Lazuli Bunting-1st yr Male

Paint, Paper, Brush:

Sennelier L’Aquarelle in Cinereous Blue, French Vermillion, Bright Red, Burnt Umber, Ivory Black, Naples Yellow Deep, Warm Sepia, Hooker’s green, Phthalo Green Light.

I painted this in my Strathmore Watercolor Art Journal 400 Series 8.5″ X 5.5″ 140lb paper.

Brush: Di Vinci Artissimo Rd #1

I’m posting this on both Creatarteveryday’s Draw a Bird Day, and #WorldWatercolormonth. If you have a moment please head over and check out the amazing work being done by artists all over the world.

More to come…

Killdeer v3.0

June 10, 2016June 10, 2016Posted in Bird Art, Birds, Birds of North America, Pen & Wash Watercolor, Photography, Watercolor, Watercolor PaintingTagged #NatureDoodlewash, Bird Art, Di Vinci Escoda Brush, Killdeer, Mimik Kolinsky Brush, Panasonic Lumix FZ200, Sennelier, Simmons Brush, Strathmore papers, Watercolor13 Comments

So, the other day when I posted my Draw-a-Bird Killdeer I meant to post it with my second painting, but had one glass of vin too many me thinks because, I actually posted the first Killdeer line and wash I tried. I’m so blond!

I wasn’t totally happy with version 2 though it was better than the first drawing and painting, so I quickly got started on a version 3 which I finished yesterday afternoon.

Killdeer in Watercolor

My notes in the right corner are about the tools I used to make this line and wash.

Micron 0.3 pen, Sennelier watercolor paints, Brushes: 0/0 rigger by Simmons, #6 rd Escoda Reserva, and #12 rd Mimik Kolinsky. Painted in a Strathmore 400 series 8.5″X 5.5″ Watercolor Journal.

It’s been fun and exciting seeing my progress with each drawing and wash. I am happy with the way version 3 came out.

version 2

Killdeer V2

and the first attempt.

Killdeer in Watercolor

With each drawing I got the shape, and markings a bit better, and the placement on the page better as well. My next step is to draw and paint it on a bigger sheet of Arches watercolor paper. I’m going to begin that today or tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Images taken with a Panasonic Lumix FZ200| Lexar Professional Digital Film| PS CC 2015

More to come…

Tribute Day May 14, 2016

May 14, 2016May 14, 2016Posted in Birds, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Global Big Day, Macro Photography, National Train Day, Nikon, Photography, TrainsTagged Amtrak Trains, Bird Photography, Birding, Butte County, Global Big Day, Macro photography, National Train Day, Nature, Nikon, Santa Clara County Birding, Toys, Train Spotting, Western Wood Peewee26 Comments

Today is National Train Day in the States, and it’s also Global Big Day 2016 in the Birding World. I thought I’d honor both here with a short post.

Back in 2012 myself and two friends Dali, and Phil were looking for a particular waterfall called Phantom Fall in Butte county. We hiked through a woodland forest, along railroad tracks, crossed creeks, and climbed grassy hills looking for it. While on a grassy hill taking a break I heard the rumble of a train, and the low train’s whistle and turned to find the train.

I waited for it to get around the curve hoping it was a long enough train to go around the whole curve. It was a wee bit short. 🙂 Still neat to see, and hear though.

We hiked, and drove a lot of miles that day looking for that elusive waterfall, but didn’t find it. Dali and I found it a year or so later, but I’m saving that story. Not enough time has passed yet. I need to be older and the tale a bit more aged before it comes out in public.

Amtrak train

Here’s a fun macro image I made of a toy Bachman’s Engine some of you may remember from a post I made last year. This is from a train set we used to set up around the Christmas tree when my kids were little.

Toy train

To honor Global Big Day and my love of birds here’s an image of a Western Wood Peewee.

I took this image while looking for the Gray Flycatcher posted here The Western Wood Peewee is a “lifer” for me! That was an exciting day of Birding with 2 “life” birds added to my list.

Western Wood Peewee

I hope you all have a wonderful week-end!

Nikon D700, & Nikon Df| Nikkor 70-300mm VR, 200-500mm VR, and LensBaby

More to come…

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