Birds in Flight – Circadianreflections Blog

Friday’s Feathered Friends-Scaups

When it was snowing last week my neighbor and I took our cameras for a walk and had a lovely couple of hours birding our own neighborhood. We’ve been keeping 6 feet apart and she’s in my very small group of contacts that I am seeing as we get through this pandemic.

These are Lesser Scaups that migrate and winter here. There are currently several pairs staying in a couple of the ponds at the golf course that meander through our community.

They are in the dipping/diving duck family and are the most abundant diving duck in North America.

I have no idea how much longer they’re going to be here, but I’ve enjoyed seeing them here.

Lesser Scaup Male

This is a group of both males and females that got skittish as we got closer to their end of the pond.

Lesser Scaup Males in Flight

Going for walks when I can have been great for my mind and spirit. I hope you’re all finding ways to keep your spirits up during this self-distancing and quarantine time.

We’ll get through this! 🥰

Fuji X-T3| Fujinon XF100-400mm LM OIS| SanDisk Digital Film| PS CC 21.0.3

more to come…

Wild Wednesday 20/52 Deep Greens and Blues are the Colors I Choose

On Saturday I went birding locally in the morning hoping to see a Lazuli Bunting. They’re only here in the Spring and I heard they were spotted in a place I’d seen one four years ago. It was a stellar morning of birding! Not only did I get a brief look at the Lazuli Bunting, but I also saw lots of Violet-green Swallows. 🙂

Both birds have amazing colors.

Lazuli Bunting Male- He’s song bird.

Lazuli Bunting

Violet-green Swallow Male

Violet-green Swallow

…and I got the “look” from a White-tailed Kite while she was hunting. You know how much I like them. My favorite of the Birds of Prey. I like to think she was wishing me a Happy Birthday. 🙂

White-tailed Kite

I had a birdy long week-end that included some hiking/walking . Saturday I hiked just a smidge over a mile half of it was uphill and the beginning was steep. Monday I hiked a bit over 2 miles, and Tuesday afternoon I hiked just over 4 miles. He-Man and I hiked a trail we hadn’t hiked in a couple of years. It was good to get out and really stretch our legs. Mind you, I feel so out of shape since having the flu and not doing much hiking since. I’m glad I made the loop up and down! I had doubts about being able to make it up to the second trail-head to make the loop. A couple of spots are steep. On two of the hikes I had some elevation gain which I like. I like uphill for the first leg…more payoff for the exertion, and the reward is the downhill on the way back. However, what I find is that there is uphill on both ends! I’m usually tired by the time I reach the upper elevation, and it’s work to get up those uphills on the way back. I’m always so thankful I completed the hike, and if I carried my Garmin tracker seeing the stats always makes those uphills on the way back more rewarding. I was tired and needed some extra Yoga stretches to ward off being really sore Wednesday, but I kept thinking “maybe I’ll get my groove back, and hike a couple times a week again.”

One can hope! 🙂

I hope you all are having a good week!

Nikon D810| Nikkor 200-500mm| San Disk Digital Film| PS CC 2018

more to come…

Wordless Wednesday 39/52 American Kestrel

Nikon D810; Nikkor 200-500mm @500mm | hand-held| SanDisk Digital Film| PS CC 2017

more to come…

Wordless Wednesday 33/52 Anna’s Hummingbird

Anna's Hummingbird

Nikon D700| Nikkor 200-500mm| SanDisk Digital Film| PS CC 2017

more to come…

American Bald Eagle & Me

I was birding on Saturday June 3rd looking for an Indigo Bunting and upon my arrival to the location soaring over my head was an American Bald Eagle! That’s a big deal in Santa Clara County. Eagles have been making a comeback here for the last few years which is super exciting to birders, but there are still only a handful here.

Anyway, it flew across the pond to a grove of tall trees and perched there and looked like he/or she was settled in for a long rest. I watched it for sometime then moved to the grassy area to photograph Western Bluebirds which I’ll be sharing soon.

Then I followed some Red-winged Blackbirds a bit then turned around to check on the Eagle and OMG! It was flying right for me!

I brought my camera up to my face in lighting speed, and fired off a burst of images following its flight path. We made eye to camera lens contact, then it veered right and headed for the northern hills, and I lost it. I was doing my happy dance! Isn’t that wing span somethin’?

Click on the image to see it better. WP compression isn’t working for me again. 😦 I may have to mess around with image sizes again to find something that looks good without having to click on an image.

I received my 200-500mm back from Nikon Service on Thursday, but I haven’t felt good enough to get out with it. I hope tomorrow this bug is over being in my system so I can go out and play!

Hope you all are having a great start to your week-end!

Nikon D810| Nikkor 300mm f/4| Hoodman Digital Film| PS CC 2017

more to come…

Wordless Wednesday 13/52: The Majestic Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle Female Perched_DMZ6824

Bald Eagle Talons Female

Bald Eagle Female

Nikon D700| Nikkor 200-500mm| Lexar Digital Film| PSCC 2017

More to come…

Project 52: Wordless Wednesday 1/52

Snow Geese in Flight

Snow Geese in Flight

Snow Goose in Flight

Snow Geese in Flight

Nikon D700| Nikkor 200-500mm @500mm| Lexar Professional Digital Film| PS CC 2017

More to come…

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