Copyright ©2023 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.
Fuji X-T3|Fujinon 100-400mm@400mm| PS CC 24.4.1
more to come…
Wordless Weds. Great Horned Owlets!
Tag: Birds in the Wild
Friday’s Feathered Friends- April Sightings
Copyright ©2023 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.
I haven’t shared any of the birds I’ve been seeing lately so thought I’d share some of the birds I’ve seen in the last month or so .
The Yellow-headed, and Red-winged Blackbirds are back, and I’ve seen several Robins, and some water birds, but I’ll share those soon.
The weather has warmed up so we’re turning the sprinklers back on, and breaking out the outdoor cushions this week-end, and setting up my new birdbath!
I hope you all have a lovely week-end!
Fuji X-T3| Fujinon 100-400mm| Nikon D810| Nikkor 120mm| PS CC 24.4.1
more to come…
Whatever Weds. Birding with Friends
Copyright ©2023 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION!
After having to postpone a trip to California to do some birding with friends 2 times due to weather I was finally able to cross the mountains and make that meetup last weekend.
We had a lovely day weather wise. It was sunny, not windy, and thankfully not muddy from all the rain and flooding the area had had.
On my way to meet the group I stopped at a refuge along the way just after daybreak to see if there were birds on the pond. There were hardly any but, oh, it was pretty.
I wanted to drive the auto route to see what birds were in the other ponds but, every thing beyond the platform pond was closed due to flooding. I hung around for a bit hoping some more birds would fly in, but the birds that were flying overhead kept on flying…I wondered where they were headed since it wasn’t this lovely pond they were headed for? What was wrong with this pond?!!
I left to meet up with my friends at Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge just up the road about 20 miles.
I took just over 700 hundred images but, after my first culling I have a smidge over 200 keepers, and quite a few of those are duplicates that will require a second culling to really hone it down and free up much needed disk space. That second culling is so hard. Do you find it as hard as I do to let go of those? I feel like I need those as back up images! It’s nuts I know especially as I have a two fold backup system in place for my images and yet…it’s so hard to let some of those duplicates go!
I’ve only processed two of my images so far. The top image in this post and this Red-Shouldered Hawk. I had to work so hard for its image. I was driving around the auto-route and this bird was on the passenger side of the road way up high at the top of this dead snag. I couldn’t see it from my seat. I had to reposition my car kinda kaddy wompass, and hope no one else came up behind me while Gordon a fellow blogger from https://undiscoverdimagesamongstus.wordpress.com/who was in the back seat and I photographed this bird.
I have a console between bucket seats in the front so I wasn’t able to slide over to get my camera out the window. Lemme tell ya this wasn’t an easy shot. I wanted to be where Gordon was… in the back seat just then. 😀 It was worth the effort though. Isn’t it handsome! fyi- We’re not allowed outside of our cars while on the auto-route. There are a few spots where we are but this spot wasn’t one of those.
Red-Shouldered Hawk
I don’t see this bird very often so I was very happy to get a decent image of it.
It was good birding but, there were fewer birds than have been at this refuge in past years at this time of year. I’m guessing they know something we don’t and maybe winter will be ending sooner than we think and the birds have been heading home to the north already. I hope that’s it anyway.
It was even better hanging out with dear friends while birding. I hope it’s not too long before we can get together again. We’re hoping for a February trip. Fingers crossed that happens!
I’ll be working on more images from this trip to share too but, if you know me it may be awhile before more images from this trip make it to the blog.
Oh, we have a big event in our family this week. Littlest will be 4 years old this week! Time flies! He’s still really into Dinosaurs, but he’s moving into the Superhero phase, and #1 Grandson has him into Pirates and Colonial American characters as well, but his birthday party theme is Legos! #1 Grandson got him into those as well. Aren’t big brothers the best!! 💗
Baby Girl sent this image of him with a couple of his birthday party decorations. He LOVES that Lego head…so does #1 Grandson! 😜
What’s happening in your life this week, any plans, events, or something new going on?
Fuji X-T3| Fuji 100-400mm| PS CC 24.1.0
more to come…
Whatever Weds. Fog, Clouds, and a Hawk
Copyright ©2023 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION!
We’ve had fog, and storm clouds the last week through the week-end up until last night. We also got a whole lot of snow. Here are a couple of images of the scenery. Recently the mornings have been foggy.
Foggy morning-
Clouds-After the storm had passed I looked out the window and saw Job’s Peak just peeking out from the clouds, and this brilliant cloud on the left lit by the afternoon sun.
Last week I took advantage of a break in the storm to go run some errands, and on my way home I spied this beauty in a tree on my street.
Red-tail Hawk-
We have cloudy skies in the forecast for the rest of the week. Temperatures are forecasted to be lows in the teens, and highs in mid 30’s I hope that holds so I can get out to do some birding and meet up with some friends.
I hope your week is going well, and you have a lovely week-end too!
Fuji X-T3| Fuji 100-400mm Lens| PS CC 24.1.0
more to come…
Friday’s Feathered Friends- Cooper’s Hawk
Copyright ©2023 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
For several weeks we’ve had a Cooper’s Hawk perching on a neighbor’s tree out back. With all the White-crown Sparrows, and Quail about I’m sure it’s hoping for a meal.
I’ve been enjoying seeing it perched there.
Cooper’s Hawk
Fun Facts-
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- Dashing through vegetation to catch birds is a dangerous lifestyle. In a study of more than 300 Cooper’s Hawk skeletons, 23 percent showed old, healed-over fractures in the bones of the chest, especially of the furcula, or wishbone.
- A Cooper’s Hawk captures a bird with its feet and kills it by repeated squeezing. Falcons tend to kill their prey by biting it, but Cooper’s Hawks hold their catch away from the body until it dies. They’ve even been known to drown their prey, holding a bird underwater until it stopped moving.
- Once thought averse to towns and cities, Cooper’s Hawks are now fairly common urban and suburban birds. Some studies show their numbers are actually higher in towns than in their natural habitat, forests. Cities provide plenty of Rock Pigeon and Mourning Dove prey. Though one study in Arizona found a downside to the high-dove diet: Cooper’s Hawk nestlings suffered from a parasitic disease they acquired from eating dove meat.
- Life is tricky for male Cooper’s Hawks. As in most hawks, males are significantly smaller than their mates. The danger is that female Cooper’s Hawks specialize in eating medium-sized birds. Males tend to be submissive to females and to listen out for reassuring call notes the females make when they’re willing to be approached. Males build the nest, then provide nearly all the food to females and young over the next 90 days before the young fledge.
- The oldest recorded Cooper’s Hawk was a male and at least 20 years, 4 months old. He was banded in California in 1986, and found in Washington in 2006.
Fun Facts gleaned from allaboutbirds.org
Fuji X-T3| Fujinon 100-400mm| PS CC 24.1.0
more to come…
Wordless Wednesday- Your Voice is my Favorite Song
Copyright ©2022 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION!
Fuji X-T3| Fujinon 100-400mm| Photoshop CC 23.5
more to come…
Friday’s Feathered Friends-Northern Cardinal Male
Copyright ©2022 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION!
Hello! I’m back from taking a short blogging break. I have a few exciting things to share but, I haven’t been able to turn my mind to writing about them or processing my images yet. When I got home from my latest trip I came home to find #1 Grandson here for a summer visit!! He’s staying until next week then we’ll take him home. His school resumes in late August! It seems like summer is going by too fast. Already it’s dark here by 8:30 P.M.!
I’m so far behind processing and sharing images I fear I’ll never catch up, but let’s go back to my trip to Illinois which was in July this year. The day after my son’s wedding I went birding and He-Man came along for the walk, while we were at The Little Red Schoolhouse Nature Center I ran into a birder and we got to chatting about birds we’d each seen so far that morning, and I asked him if he’d seen any Northern Cardinals in the area and he said he had just up the trail!! We were off on the hunt. It wasn’t long too long after that I saw a red streak fly by in the trees ahead. I raced forward, He-Man raced forward as now he too was excited and on the hunt!! I saw it dive into the bushes but, couldn’t see it then suddenly it flew up to a dead tree snag and perched!!!
I’ve been dreaming of seeing this bird for what seems my whole life…more so since I started birding more seriously in 2010. Can you see me doing my happy dance? 💃💃 I still am so excited to have finally see this beautiful bird! One day I hope to see the Female so that’s still on my list.
I saw one other “Lifer” here at this Nature Center that I’ll be sharing soon, and I’ll be telling you all about my trip to Wyoming where I met up with Janet from This, That, and the Other Thing!!
I hope this finds you all well, you have a wonderful week-end!
Fuji X-T3| Fujinon 100-400mm @ 400mm| PS CC 23.4.2
more to come…
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