“A good snapshot keeps a moment from running away.” ― Eudora Welty
Places only found in California
Yellow-billed Magpie, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.
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Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
I thought his iridescence was lovely in the light. I kind of wish I’d taken my 70-300 this time as there was more wildlife than I thought I’d see going up to Mission Peak.
Nikon D700| Nikkor 28-105@105mm| f6.3| 1/800s | ISO 320| Manual Priority| Hand-held
Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
All of us were feeling heavy and a bit groggy from the Thanksgiving Feast so we decided to hike up to Mission Peak to shake it off, and keep a tradition going. When my son comes home for the holidays we come up here at least once together. This time my husband came along too. The light was gorgeous at the top when we arrived.
It was a lovely afternoon, sunny, and warm, and it didn’t get chilly or windy until we were near the top. I didn’t outdo any records making it up here this time. The rich food of the day before and not hiking for a few weeks paid its toll.
Near the trail-head there were several Magpies hanging around. Here is one landing on a post along the trail. I think these birds are pretty, but they gross me out!
There are quite a few new calves up here now, and I saw a pretty big Red-Tail Hawk hanging around looking for something to eat near the top. There were also quite a few other people making this trek.
We stayed long enough to snap a photo, and head down. We wanted to get down before dark; we almost did.
Nikon D700| Nikkor 28-105@35mm| Manual Priority| Hand-held
Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
Several friends and I went out to Central CA to a National Wildlife Refuge to see if any Sandhill Cranes or Snow Geese had arrived and photograph them.
While on the auto-tour we spotted this Red-tailed Hawk on a post. We had a good vantage point to photograph it so we all started framing and firing our cameras which spooked him.
It was just what we hoped for. We all got some really nice shots of him taking off, and flying low in the marsh grass.
I needed help identifying this Red-tail. My National Geographic bird book isn’t very clear on the Light and Dark Morphs. Thanks to my friend Dali for I.D.ing it for me. Since then I’ve purchased a new bird guide-book: Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America. Between the two books I hope to be able to ID birds more easily.
Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-200@ 200mm + Tamron 1.4x Teleconverter| f7.1| 1/2000sec| ISO 640| Manual Priority| Hand-held
Moonrise Yosemite National Park, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.
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Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
I’ve switched to Birding photography mode of late and forgot about this photo shoot until Lori Hibbett asked me about my photo.
Last year several friends and I went up to Yosemite to try to capture the Moonrise behind Half Dome, but at the 11th hour the clouds moved in and obscured the top of Half Dome and dashed our hopes of making that shot.
A few of us tried it again this year with better weather. Thanks to the brilliant calculations of our friend Rico we knew when the Moon would be rising and where, unfortunately he wasn’t able to join us for this attempt. So here’s a big shout out to Rico: THANK YOU RICO for the brain work, and for sharing your findings. Also, a shout out to Dali for driving. Thank you for getting us there and back again safely!
Steven– as always your company and conversation is fun and interesting!
Single frame; Nikon D700: Nikkor 80-200mm @200mm| f10| 1/200 sec| ISO200| Manual Priority| Tripod w/cable release
Sunrise hues and Sandhill Cranes, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.
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Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
The Sandhill Cranes are making their winter migration from the North to the Pacific Fly-way in California’s Central Valley. Lodi,CA was having its annual Sandhill Crane festival over the week-end of Nov. 3-4, 2012. Several friends and I went. We had a great time and spotted some great birds in addition to the Cranes. I took this photo the morning of the 4th just after the sun rose. We got up early, and drove out to the country to see the “Fly-out”. The Cranes spent the night in the fields where we were, but they spend the day in other fields where they’ll graze on corn.
My ears were filled with the sounds of honking Cranes, and geese, quacking ducks, and periodically the sounds of hundreds of wings as flocks of birds lifted off. It was an amazing morning to be alive.
Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-200@80mm|f5.6| 1/3200| ISO 200| Manual Priority| Hand-held
American Kestrel- Female, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.
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Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
“Not on a wire, not on a pole, it’s a tree for me!” This is the little mantra I said today as I saw a Kestrel on a wire. Later in the morning while we were driving through an Auto-tour in San Luis National Wildlife Refuge I spotted this kestrel in a tree! I was so excited, and thrilled when I uploaded this photo. It’s the first Kestrel I’ve shot that wasn’t on a pole or wire, and the first I’ve posted I believe.
We (Rainy, Dali, Judi, and I) saw so many neat birds and photographed quite a few of them.
We saw, this Kestrel, Red-tailed Hawks, Northern Harriers, Black Phoebe’s, Sparrow’s a new one for me I need to ID, my first Merlin!, Ross Geese, Coots, Blue Herons, Egrets: mostly Great Egrets, a Kingfisher, an American Bluebird, a Burrowing Owl, Mallards, Northern Pintails, Shrike, Meadow Larks, Plovers, Ibis, Sandhill Cranes, White fronted Geese, Red-winged Blackbirds, Shovelers, and White-tail Kites. In addition we saw a Coyote, I saw a raccoon, and we saw a dear friend Judi. It was an amazing, fantastic, sunny, everything going our way, very good day!
Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-200 @200mm + Tamron 1.4TC|f7.1| 1/800 sec| ISO 640| Manual Priority| Hand-held
Catch of the Day, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.
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Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
This photograph of a female Wood Duck has been marinating in my archives for sometime. I find if I come back to photos months later I find more keepers.
I want to give a huge Shout Out to my friend Rainey for showing me this spot. THANK YOU Rainey!
It was a fun afternoon.
Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-200 @ 185mm| f5.6| 1/800 sec| ISO 500| Manual Priority| Hand-held
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