Birds in Flight – Circadianreflections Blog

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…

Super Moon Rising November 2016

I mentioned in yesterday’s blog post here that photographing November’s Super Moon was N° 1 on my photography list of things to do this past week-end.

Quite awhile back I made plans to shoot it with with friends, and a photography group we’re in in central California at a Sandhill Crane Refuge called Woodbridge Ecological Reserve aka Isenberg Crane Reserve. The Sandhill Cranes Winter here, and in November both Greater and Lesser Sandhill Cranes are on the Reserve.

The goal was to photograph the Sandhill Crane’s evening Fly-in and rising Super Moon.

Here is a series of images I made.

It was hazy and a little cloudy, but here is the Moon just rising above the mountains. You can barely see the mountains.

…some Sandhill Cranes making their way into the Marsh.

Two Sandhill Cranes flying in high in front of the Moon.

Once the sun went down it was pretty tough shooting. I really pushed the ISO to keep my shutter speed up so the Sandhill Cranes wouldn’t be too blurry, but I failed for the most part. I also focused on the Moon and not the Cranes which didn’t help keep the Cranes sharp. Still. I would do it all over again. It was an amazing evening hearing and seeing the Cranes coming in with this year’s special Super Moon, and the company was the best.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 200-500mm| Lexar Digital Film| PS CC 2017 & On1 Photo 10.5

More to come…

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