Category: Photography

Copyright ©2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Last week-end I went camping with two girlfriends to do some nature photography.  We car camped each taking our own cars and caravanning up and down the northern part of the Eastern Sierras.

We were in Mono Basin when we heard this bird singing a song that was unfamiliar to me or my friends. I turned to follow the song and saw this bird. I had no idea what kind of bird it was, but I only got two quick shots before it disappeared into the sagebrush.

Once at home I was able to ID the bird as the Sage Thrasher- A Lifer for me!

They live in the Western Region of the USA, as well as Mexico and Baja California. They prefer sagebrush and arid planes. The east side of the Eastern Sierras is sagebrush and arid! I’m linking  Whataboutbird.com so you can read more about this bird and hear it’s lovely songs.  https://identify.whatbird.com/obj/591/overview/Sage_Thrasher.aspx

I’m also participating in Lisa’s of Our Eyes Open weekly bird challenge.  You know I don’t do many challenges, but birds. I couldn’t resist! 😀

I hope you’re all doing well, and have a lovely week-end!

Fuji X-T3| Fujinon XF100-400mm| PS CC 21.1.2

more to come…

Copyright © 2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

We don’t have squirrels with big bushy tails that live in trees here.  This breed is new to me, but thanks to Steve over athttps://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/ for sending a link to a PDF on squirrels in my part of NV I think this is a Belding’s Squirrel a type of Ground Squirrel.

Wikipedia says this about the Belding’s Squirrel

“Belding’s ground squirrel (Urocitellus beldingi), also called pot gut, sage rat or picket-pin,^[2] is a squirrel that lives on mountains in the western United States. “

I laughed out loud reading the nicknames or common names for this squirrel. Pot gut works for as much as they eat! 😂 Sage rat too for we do have a lot of that here!

This one wiped out an entire birdseed cake in less than 4 hours and got in a fistfight paw-fight with another squirrel for the birdseed! I wish I had my camera ready for that. It was hilarious. They were standing in between the slats of the fence on their back legs, and this one punching the other one. I thought that’s how kangaroos look boxing! The rival squirrel quickly conceded leaving this one to happily eat the whole thing!

We’ve been having high winds here so I’ve been indoors, but itching to get out. I hope to get out on Thursday for some birding.  I hope you’re all having a good week so far.

Happy Hump Day!

Fuji X-T3| Fujinon 100-400mm| SanDisk Digital Film| PS CC 21.1.2

more to come…

Copyright ©2020 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

April was a stellar month for birding, and I added 5 Life Birds! A Life or lifer is a bird you’ve seen for the 1st time.  I’ll share 4 of the 5 birds with images, but the 5th one… let’s save that story for a little bit.

Two of the new birds for me are Nuthatches. First up the Red-breasted Nuthatch.  The image isn’t upside down, the bird is! They spend a lot time upside down hunting for bugs.

The next Nuthatch was the Pygmy Nuthatch. They’re so little and quick. I confess I took a lot of images of them as long as they stayed within my sight hoping for a few decent images. I had better luck with the Red-breasted Nuthatch than the Pygmy, but hopefully, I’ll see them both again.

Next up keeping with the small bird theme was the Caliope Hummingbird. He is quite the character. 😀

Ensuite, the Black-headed Grosbeak Male. I was excited to make this ID! At first, I thought it was a Sparrow of some kind.

and lastly the Red-headed Woodpecker. I was so excited to see it and I got my camera up to my eye and he moved! Behind the trunk and never came up higher than this before he flew away. Woodpecker 1, Deborah 0!

I’ve been to this trail a couple of times since, but haven’t seen it or one again. 😭

But it’s a new month and I’ve already seen one new bird! Same story though, no picture. They’re fast and skittish! I’ll keep looking though.

All in all, April was a pretty great month of birding.

Oh, owl update, there are 2 Owlets! I’ve only seen one and I did post a pic on Instagram so, if you follow me there you’ve probably seen that already.  I’ll share that image here too so not to tease you.  Mama and Owlet. They blend into the tree so well don’t they? My neighbor went over on Tuesday to do some birding and told me the Owls are gone. That happened awfully fast!

The Goose had her goslings and is out of the nest, but I didn’t get a good image of her and her mate with them. There were only 2 goslings. I hope to see them again. They were swimming up the river which is running pretty high and fast right now. I worried that the goslings wouldn’t keep up, but Mom was in front and Dad behind so all seemed to be going well for them.

I hope all is going well for you too, and you have a lovely week-end!

Fujifilm X-T3| Fujinon 100-400mm| SanDisk Digital Film| PS CC 21.1.2

more to come…