“A good snapshot keeps a moment from running away.” ― Eudora Welty
Copyright ©2022 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Today is your day. Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way!” ~Dr. Seuss
Happy Hump Day! I hope your week is going well.
Fuji X-T3| Fujinon 100-400mm| PS CC 23.2.2
Copyright ©2022 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
At the end of February I met up with some friends one of them Gordon from https://undiscoverdimagesamongstus2.wordpress.com/ We met up in Oregon in the Klamath Basin region to do some birding. We were hoping to see American Bald Eagles and the other usual winter suspects.
What we didn’t expect was to see 17 American Bald Eagles around and on the first pond we went to!
You know we hit that pond several times while there mornings, and afternoons.
The first morning we were all together was Saturday we rose early and headed to the pond. It was a chilly 14 degrees Fahrenheit, but we saw Eagles. Later that afternoon we went back and saw an Eagle trying to retrieve its prey from the icy pond water.
It missed, but oh, it was so cool seeing it try.
It landed in the water then pulled up and swung around again for another pass.
This time it tried a different approach, and missed again!
Then it just flew away leaving us wondering if this was just retrieving practice?
It was quite exciting and entertaining to watch and one of the highlights of the week-end.
Fun Facts:
The American Bald Eagle has been the national emblem of the United States since 1782.
These magnificent birds aren’t really bald, but their white-feathered heads gleam in contrast to their chocolate brown bodies and wings.
Rather than do their own fishing, Bald Eagles often go after other creatures’ catches. A Bald Eagle will harass a hunting Osprey until the smaller raptor drops its prey in midair, where the eagle swoops it up. A Bald Eagle may even snatch a fish directly out of an Osprey’s talons. Fishing mammals (even people sometimes) can also lose prey to Bald Eagle piracy.
Had Benjamin Franklin prevailed, the U.S. emblem might have been the Wild Turkey. In 1784, Franklin disparaged the national bird’s thieving tendencies and its vulnerability to harassment by small birds. “For my own part,” he wrote, “I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. … Besides he is a rank Coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the District.”
Sometimes even the national bird has to cut loose. Bald Eagles have been known to play with plastic bottles and other objects pressed into service as toys. One observer witnessed six Bald Eagles passing sticks to each other in midair.
The largest Bald Eagle nest on record, in St. Petersburg, Florida, was 2.9 meters in diameter and 6.1 meters tall. Another famous nest—in Vermilion, Ohio—was shaped like a wine glass and weighed almost two metric tons. It was used for 34 years until the tree blew down.
Immature Bald Eagles spend the first four years of their lives in nomadic exploration of vast territories and can fly hundreds of miles per day. Some young birds from Florida have wandered north as far as Michigan, and birds from California have reached Alaska.
Bald Eagles occasionally hunt cooperatively, with one individual flushing prey towards another.
Bald Eagles can live a long time. The oldest recorded bird in the wild was at least 38 years old when it was hit and killed by a car in New York in 2015. It had been banded in the same state in 1977.
Once endangered by hunting and pesticides, Bald Eagles have flourished under protection.
Fun Facts gleaned from All About Birds
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Bald_Eagle/
I will be sharing more images from this trip in future posts. Until then I hope you cut loose a little and have a lovely week-end! 😀
Fuji X-T3| Fujinon 100-400mm| PS CC 23.2.1
more to come…
Copyright ©2022 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Last week I met up with some local Audubon club members for a bird walk. Here’s some of the exciting birds we saw.
This first bird was a neat sighting. It’s a Graylag x Swan hybrid we discovered. The ebird monitor for Washoe county wrote me after seeing my images of the goose this. “Your documentation shows this is a “Domestic goose with a mix of Graylag and Swan Goose (aka Chinese Goose) ancestry. The dark stripe from the top of the head down the back of the neck, and the bulging forehead are Swan Goose traits, while the orange bill and a few other features are Graylag traits. ” P.H. Isn’t that interesting! It’s a handsome goose and several people we ran into while admiring and photographing it told us they named him. One family called him Barney, and another one calls him Harry. He’s quite the celebrity there.
Another exciting sighting was a large group of White-fronted Geese. We don’t see those a lot here so, we watched and photographed them for awhile too.
Saving the best for last, and it was the last bird we saw on our way back to the parking before we finished up was the Immature Audubon’s Yellow-rump Warbler. This was a lifer for me! Isn’t it cute!
I’ll be birding with friends this week-end and hoping to see lots of birds. I hope you all have a great week-end!
Fuji X-T3| Fujinon 100-400mm @400mm| PS CC 23.2.0
more to come…
Copyright ©2022 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
One of the highlights we had while visiting Rocky Mountain National Park last October were the North American Elk herds. The surprising thing is just how BIG they are. They stand 5 feet tall at the shoulder, and weigh several hundred pounds. The females are half their size. Only the males have antlers which they shed each winter. Their antler can grow up to an inch a day!
One morning while in Estes Park I saw a Bull laying in the shade with his harem and made my over to get some images of them.
The bull …
He had about dozen females (called cows) in his harem. Here he is with some of them just chillin.
Here’s an image of a bull and some of his harem we saw the night before just after the sun went behind the mountains while in Rocky Mountain National Park.
The rutting season begins in October so the bulls were on high alert keeping a close eye on their harems and keeping them close by.
Fun Fact-
Free roaming elk have a lifespan of 10-13 years in the wild.
https://www.nps.gov/romo/learn/nature/elk.htm
We really enjoyed seeing these wonderful animals while we in the park. They really do enrich the visit.
Fuji X-T3| Fujinon 100-400mm| PS CC 23.1.1
more to come…
Copyright ©2022 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
I’ve been wanting to photograph this pumphouse for a year and finally did. It’s a cute structure I think and it only holds the well water pump and water softener unit.
Not too far below this pumphouse is a lovely creek that I hiked through the bush to get down to in order to photograph some of it. Here’s one image from that adventure.
I did a fairly good job of avoiding the wild blackberry thorns, and poison oak ones too, but still had to pick off some stickers when back up on the road. 😀
This is part of Thursday Doors which is run by Dan Antion over at No Facilities blog. Click on the link to head on over there to see all the other doors that have been shared this week.
Nikon D810| Nikkor 24-120mm| PS CC 23.0.0
more to come…
Copyright ©2022 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
In the Sierra foothill town of Sonora CA. there’s a beautiful little church called St James Episcopal. I’ve photographed it a couple of times but, as He-man and I were driving to Baby Girl’s house for Christmas I saw it lit up for Christmas for the first time and knew I had to go back and photograph it.
Here I’ll share 3 views from that photoshoot.
I did a little online search for the history and here’s what their website says,
“Saint James Episcopal Church was first established in 1859. The current building was completed in 1860. St. James was part of the Episcopal Church until 2007. A schism occurred over various theological issues and a number of the churches in the diocese dissolved their affiliation with The Episcopal Church. They accepted oversight by the Province of the Southern Cone, in South America. A number of Episcopalians wished to remain with the Church. These faithful, with the assistance of the governing bodies of The Episcopal Church, reorganized the diocese. On March 29, 2008, a Special Convention was held, led by the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori. The Rt. Rev. Jerry Lamb became our first provisional bishop.
On that day St. Mary in the Mountains, organized in January 2008 by The Rev. Martin Risard, and his wife Alice, was formally recognized. Our first home was in a small room in the Senior Center in Sonora. Fr. Martin retired in 2010 and the Rev. Stan Coppel became priest-in-charge of the congregation.
In July 2011, after several weeks of backbreaking labor to get the building ready, we moved to our next location in Jamestown. Our first service coincided with the first visit of our new provisional bishop, the Rt. Rev. Chester Talton, who consecrated the building for use as our church. After much time, litigation, and negotiation, St. James, popularly known as “The Red Church” returned to the Episcopal Church. The first service held upon the return of the church was on July 7, 2013.
Currently, St. James Sonora, is part of Diocese of San Joaquin.”~https://www.stjamessonora.org/the-red-church
The bell is casted in the late 1800’s. It is rung announcing each service. It is also rung to announce the beginning of Mother Lode Round-up Parade, and the Sonora Christmas Parade.~https://www.stjamessonora.org/the-red-church
The church has a Flentrop Pipe Organ made by Flentrop Orgelbouw in Holland. It was installed in 1973.
I really have to give a shout out to my grandkids, and Baby Girl who waited patiently with me for the lights to come on. We waited 30 minutes, I think it was worth it! Not sure they did, but there were ohh’s and ahhs when the lights finally came on. 😀
This post is part of Thursday Doors a weekly feature run by our host Dan Antion of No Facilities blog. Click here to be taken to his site to see all the other doors people are sharing from all over the world this week.
Nikon D810| Nikkor 24-120mm| PS CC 23.0.0
more to come…
Copyright©2022 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
As I mentioned in my last post we had a window of opportunity to get across the mountains to go to our daughter’s for Christmas so we took it. A couple of days later after it had stopped snowing I put on some boots and headed outside a couple of times to photograph some of the Oak trees on my daughter’s property while the snow was fresh.
We had a low of 11 degrees on Sunday but, it’s warming up my weather app says it’s going to be 50 degrees today…it said that about yesterday too but, the high was 49 which I was happy about! It was windy making it feel colder but, my walk to the mailbox was pleasant.
I hope you’re staying warm and your new year has started off well.
Nikon D810| Nikkor 24-120mm| PS CC 23.0.0
more to come…
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