Nature – Page 8 – Circadianreflections Blog

A day in the Wild

November 10, 2014Posted in birding, Birds in the Wild, Birds of Northern America, Coyote, Merced National Wildlife Refuge, Nature, Photography, San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, WildlifeTagged Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Coyote, Greater Yellowlegs, Merced National Wildlife Refuge, San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, White-crowned Sparrow, White-faced Ibis, Wildlife10 Comments

I spent Saturday at two Wildlife Refuges: Merced National Wildlife Refuge, and San Luis National Wildlife Refuge.

It’s takes just about 2 hours to get there from my house even with a stop for coffee along the way. It’s a fairly easy drive, and the only worrisome part of the drive is crossing Pacheco Pass, and only in the two lane windy section. Fortunately traffic was light going, and not much worse on the way home.

I was hoping to see Sandhill Cranes which my friend Judi shared were starting to return for the Winter.

With the drought being pretty severe here the Refuges have had their water allotments cut way back so, there’s not much water there. I suspect that will influence the number of birds that winter there, and the numbers will be a lot fewer than in past years.

At Merced National Wildlife Refuge there are a couple of observation decks, and a large auto-route with quite a few pull-outs. I arrived not long after the gate opened, and only saw one other car ahead of me. For two hours we were the only people in the refuge. It was really nice not having cars pass me and frighten the birds.

Here are the only Sandhill Cranes I saw. They were in the last field, and as always very skittish. They started moving deeper into the field when I stopped. While I was imaging the group I had the good luck to see two more fly in.

There was a flock of White-faced Ibis here, and they were so hungry they didn’t worry about me at all. There were a few quite close to the road. This one just yawned when I crept up. I love the colors in their feathers.

The White Crowned Sparrows are returning everywhere, even here.

It was foggy when I left home, and there was haze around the countryside, and Refuge. I had hoped to meet my friend Judi here, but the air quality was really bad. There had been a report the night before that the air quality would be bad and people should not go out. I got Judi’s message about that too late; after I arrived at the Refuge. She’s on bottled air and didn’t dare leave the house. You can see the haze in several of the images, but especially in this image of a Great Egret I saw. He didn’t bat an eyelash at my presence! Their stillness and concentration are amazing. I liked the back lighting, and the haze gave the image a soft, dreamy look.

The Coots are back, as are the Shovelers, Mallards, and some Greater Yellowlegs. While photographing the Greater Yellowlegs I put down my camera to take in the pond. You can see how much the water has already receded/evaporated.

…a Greater Yellowlegs

I have a lot of images to go through and can’t share them all in this post. I haven’t even got to the second refuge images yet.

Nikon D700| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4| AF-S Nikkor 14eII Teleconverter| braced with this beanbag.

More to come…

P52 36/52 Guarding his Territory!

September 2, 2014Posted in Birds, California, Fine Art, Nature, Project 52-2014, WildlifeTagged Anna's Hummingbirds, Backyard Birding, Birds, Humminbirds, Nature, Project 52, San Jose California Nature Photographer4 Comments

I set up a little blind in my backyard hoping I’d be able to make a decent image of the Hummingbirds that come to the feeder. I used the cover of the sandbox as a blind by bracing it against my Camilla bush, then I set up my tripod, camera, and comfy seat behind it then waited.

It took about a half hour and a few over my head buzzes before the Hummingbirds felt safe enough to stop at the Feeder for a drink.
After lunch I moved the sandbox cover to the edge of the lawn for a different angle bracing the cover on the Patio Cover’s post. I heard the Hummingbird chitting away in the Flowering Plum beside me so turned to see if I could see him and there he was sitting on a branch watching the feeder.
There’s been another male coming by and this one chases him off whenever he comes around. He sat there for long enough for me to photograph him for several minutes.
He was in the shade of many branches overhead so, while the image is sharp there is more noise than I’d like. I tried Auto ISO during this shoot to see how it would do, mainly to see if I would be able to concentrate more on shooting than having to change my ISO setting frequently to adjust for the light changes. I was also shooting a Butterfly that would occasionally come by to sip on the Lantana Bush which was in much better light than the feeder, and the tree. Auto ISO worked very well for me in these conditions.

I used Adobe’s Camera Raw noise reduction a little bit to help remove some of the noise.

Here’s another image of an Anna’s Hummingbird at the Feeder. He’s just about to take off after drinking some nectar.

That sandbox cover worked a treat as a blind.

Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f4 + Nikon 14eII Teleconverter

More to come

Ring-necked Pheasant

July 16, 2014Posted in Birds, California, Nature, Photography, WildlifeTagged Bird Photography, Birding, Birds in the Wild, Nature, Ring-necked Pheasant, San Jose California Nature Photographer, Wildlife3 Comments

This one is from my Archives. I made this image in late May this year. This was a really neat and thrilling experience seeing this male Pheasant. I see them so rarely, and most the time they’re on the run the instant they spot me. This male was so busy eating, and I think used to people being around so, he didn’t pay much attention to my presence or the sound of my clicking shutter button.

I really liked the light on his back and face.

Nikon D3oos| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f4| Hand-held

P52 28/52 To make a prairie…

July 8, 2014July 8, 2014Posted in DEDPXL, Flowers, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, WildflowersTagged #dedpxl04, Bees, Get Low, Insects, Macro photography, Nature, Perspective, Project 52, San Jose California Nature Photographer, White Clover, Wildflowers4 Comments

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee.
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.
~Emilly Dickinson

Image taken laying on my belly in my front yard at the beginning of evening Golden Hour. The clover is popping up in patches here and there…I sometimes think we should let it take over. Though most consider it a weed, and blight on the lawn (He-Man included) I like it!

Addendum: Woo-whoo! I’ve passed the halfway mark of my Project 52! It’s actually gone by pretty fast.

Nikon D300s| AF-D Nikkor 105mm @f9 + Kenko 20mm extension tube| Hand-held

Dahlias from the garden

July 6, 2014July 6, 2014Posted in Fine Art, Flowers, Macro Photography, NatureTagged Bokeh, Dahlias, Flowers, From the Garden, Macro photography, San Jose California Nature PhotographerLeave a comment

Here are few macros I’ve made of the Dahlias growing in my backyard. This one is a Pom-pom Dahlia.

Nikon D700| AF-D Nikkor 105mm micro| Hand-held

This one I used my 20mm Kenko extension tube, and a Hoya Soft Filter on my Macro lens

This yellow Dahlia I photographed using my AF-S 50mm f1.8g lens

…and one more Pom-pom Dahlia. I’ve had a lot of fun photographing these this Spring/Summer. Unfortunately, the blossoms are getting smaller, and smaller on this plant.

I think I’m ready to try growing Plate size Dahlias and Peony’s next year.

Nikon D700, D300s, Nikkor AF-D 105mm micro lens, Kenko Extension Tubes, Hoya Soft Filter (B)

Brewer’s Blackbird-Male

June 7, 2014June 7, 2014Posted in Birds, California, Nature, PhotographyTagged Birds, Birds in the Wild, Brewer's Blackbird, San Jose California Nature Photographer1 Comment

Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4 + Nikkor 14eII 1.4x Teleconverter| Hand-Held

If I had a Song…

June 4, 2014June 4, 2014Posted in Birds, California, Nature, Photography, WildlifeTagged Annas Hummingbird, Birds, Birds in the Wild, Black-necked Stilts, Bumble Bee, Cessna 180, Cliff Swallows, Crested Pekin Mallard, Mockingbird, Ring-necked Pheasant, San Jose California Nature Photographer, Song SparrowsLeave a comment

I’d sing it in the morning!

Last Saturday morning I spent a lovely morning out birding with friends Dali, and Rainey. The weather was great, cool, with a blue sky with a few big, puffy white clouds for just the right amount of diffusion, and not too many intruding city-life sounds.

We went out with the hopes of finding Stilts, and Avocets with chicks or on nests, but we found few Stilts, and only saw two or three Avocets. Overall there were very few shorebirds at all in either of the places we birded yesterday.

We did see quite a few other birds so the morning wasn’t a total bust. Here are some of the images I took Saturday morning.

Black-necked Stilts

Mallard and chick. This was the only chick we saw with her sadly. Actually it was the only chick we saw all morning.

A Mockingbird imitating several birds. I like this pose and setting.

The Cliff Swallows were very busy making sorties to and from their nests.

Hummingbirds are very entertaining and didn’t disappoint this morning either. I saw a territorial spat, but with my 300mm lens wasn’t able to get both birds in the frame. Here’s the offended Hummingbird who thought he had territorial rights to the whole tree.

…after a little of this posturing this Hummer decided he wasn’t having another Hummingbird on the tree, so he went on the attack. I didn’t get them both in the frame, but here’s the intruding Hummer on the defense. They squabbled a bit then they both flew away, and neither returned for sometime, so we moved on.

The Bumble bees were busy with the only blooms I could see.

…and there were other kinds of birds practicing their landing skills at a nearby airport.

Another little Anna’s Hummingbird posed for me.

The most colorful bird of the morning was the Ring-necked Pheasant.

Saturday morning was also a great opportunity to really give my 300mm f4 lens a workout. I hadn’t really since getting it back from Nikon. I’m so happy to report it works really well. It is quieter than before the fix, and AF (auto-focus) seems quite snappy, and responsive even with my 1.4x Teleconverter on it.

It was a good morning despite there being only few shorebirds.

Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f4| Hand-held

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