“A good snapshot keeps a moment from running away.” ― Eudora Welty
Yellow-billed Magpie, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.
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Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
I thought his iridescence was lovely in the light. I kind of wish I’d taken my 70-300 this time as there was more wildlife than I thought I’d see going up to Mission Peak.
Nikon D700| Nikkor 28-105@105mm| f6.3| 1/800s | ISO 320| Manual Priority| Hand-held
Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
All of us were feeling heavy and a bit groggy from the Thanksgiving Feast so we decided to hike up to Mission Peak to shake it off, and keep a tradition going. When my son comes home for the holidays we come up here at least once together. This time my husband came along too. The light was gorgeous at the top when we arrived.
It was a lovely afternoon, sunny, and warm, and it didn’t get chilly or windy until we were near the top. I didn’t outdo any records making it up here this time. The rich food of the day before and not hiking for a few weeks paid its toll.
Near the trail-head there were several Magpies hanging around. Here is one landing on a post along the trail. I think these birds are pretty, but they gross me out!
There are quite a few new calves up here now, and I saw a pretty big Red-Tail Hawk hanging around looking for something to eat near the top. There were also quite a few other people making this trek.
We stayed long enough to snap a photo, and head down. We wanted to get down before dark; we almost did.
Nikon D700| Nikkor 28-105@35mm| Manual Priority| Hand-held
Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
Several friends and I went out to Central CA to a National Wildlife Refuge to see if any Sandhill Cranes or Snow Geese had arrived and photograph them.
While on the auto-tour we spotted this Red-tailed Hawk on a post. We had a good vantage point to photograph it so we all started framing and firing our cameras which spooked him.
It was just what we hoped for. We all got some really nice shots of him taking off, and flying low in the marsh grass.
I needed help identifying this Red-tail. My National Geographic bird book isn’t very clear on the Light and Dark Morphs. Thanks to my friend Dali for I.D.ing it for me. Since then I’ve purchased a new bird guide-book: Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America. Between the two books I hope to be able to ID birds more easily.
Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-200@ 200mm + Tamron 1.4x Teleconverter| f7.1| 1/2000sec| ISO 640| Manual Priority| Hand-held
American Kestrel- Female, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.
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Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
“Not on a wire, not on a pole, it’s a tree for me!” This is the little mantra I said today as I saw a Kestrel on a wire. Later in the morning while we were driving through an Auto-tour in San Luis National Wildlife Refuge I spotted this kestrel in a tree! I was so excited, and thrilled when I uploaded this photo. It’s the first Kestrel I’ve shot that wasn’t on a pole or wire, and the first I’ve posted I believe.
We (Rainy, Dali, Judi, and I) saw so many neat birds and photographed quite a few of them.
We saw, this Kestrel, Red-tailed Hawks, Northern Harriers, Black Phoebe’s, Sparrow’s a new one for me I need to ID, my first Merlin!, Ross Geese, Coots, Blue Herons, Egrets: mostly Great Egrets, a Kingfisher, an American Bluebird, a Burrowing Owl, Mallards, Northern Pintails, Shrike, Meadow Larks, Plovers, Ibis, Sandhill Cranes, White fronted Geese, Red-winged Blackbirds, Shovelers, and White-tail Kites. In addition we saw a Coyote, I saw a raccoon, and we saw a dear friend Judi. It was an amazing, fantastic, sunny, everything going our way, very good day!
Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-200 @200mm + Tamron 1.4TC|f7.1| 1/800 sec| ISO 640| Manual Priority| Hand-held
Catch of the Day, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.
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Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
This photograph of a female Wood Duck has been marinating in my archives for sometime. I find if I come back to photos months later I find more keepers.
I want to give a huge Shout Out to my friend Rainey for showing me this spot. THANK YOU Rainey!
It was a fun afternoon.
Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-200 @ 185mm| f5.6| 1/800 sec| ISO 500| Manual Priority| Hand-held
Get a Grip!, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.
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Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
Here’s another shot of the Peregrine landing after an unsuccessful sortie.
Nikon D300s| Nikkor80-200@200mm+ Tamron 1.4T f5.6| 1/1600sec| ISO 640| Manual Priority| Hand-held
Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
I’m not sure if this is a juvenile or not. Anyone know? It was thrilling to see him. I knew he was in the area and went out last week with my photography friend Dali, but it didn’t come around that afternoon, but we did see the White Tailed Kite then. This morning Dali emailed me early and asked if I wanted to go out to look for the Peregrine again and I said, “Yes!”. We spotted it perched straight-away. We had the pleasure of observing and photographing it for a couple of hours. This is only the second time I’ve seen and photographed a Peregrine Falcon.
Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-200@200 + Tamron 1.4x TC|f5.6| 1/600sec| ISO 640| Manual Priority|hand-held
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