“A good snapshot keeps a moment from running away.” ― Eudora Welty
Hawk she/he is calling its mate., originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.
Via Flickr:
Copyright © 2011 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
I think this is a Red-Tailed Hawk He or she is part of a pair.
It was really exciting seeing this one and trying to get “in flight’ shots!
Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-200mm| f4| /2500 sec| ISO 500| Manual Mode| Hand-held
San Francisco, Cypress Tree, Red-Tailed Hawk, Nature, Wildlife
The Bistro 4 gallery has been updated with more great photographs by members of The Bistro. A Nikon users group in the flickr community.
Like this marvelous photograph titled “Eyes of a Predator” by Jesse Cox
To view all the 2011 Bistro Galleries go here: At the front page just scroll down the page to see the Galleries. I’m curating through July 10th. Come back again!
Copyright © Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
Descending Vista Point one morning I rounded a bend in the trail and stopped dead in my tracks. There 25ft away was this little fawn (see photo above). It’s mother was on the other side of the trail in the trees waiting for the fawn to cross the trail. Startled by hikers coming up the trail it had stopped then I happened along. It looked at me and headed in the opposite direction of its mother. Then timidly it crept up to this tree and watched me and its mother. It’s mother was not happy; she pranced and paced back and forth with worry. I wasn’t sure what I should do…wait and hope the mother crossed, or the fawn crossed, or just move on. I took a few quick photos. We hikers looked at each other wondering what would happen next then the Mother bounded up the hill the wrong way! Then the fawn sped down the hill into the bushes the wrong way! I continued down the mountain all the while hoping they’d reunite.
An anxious Doe!
I hiked a lot of miles in June. My elevation gained totals are incredible. The total floored me again when I added it up. I took a lot of neat wildlife and flower photographs while hiking in this park during the month of June, but these two photos are my favorites.
Just seven more weeks until the big hike to Yosemite’s Cloud’s Rest. I still am on track for successfully completing that hike.
JUNE Hiking Report
*6/2/2011- 8.15 miles, 2,170ft, 3h10m PG&E trail out & back
6/7/2011- 10 miles, 2,549 ft, 4h 33m Rhus Ridge to Black Mt Trail out & Back
6/10-12/2011- about 11 miles, at various parks and site around Sonoma Coastal area. Many parks were closed due to budget cuts so we had to drive to other locations to do any hiking.
6/16/2011- 8.15miles, 1,962ft, 3h 5m, PG&E out & back to Vista Point
**6/19/2011- 6.2miles, 2,197 ft, 3h, Mission Peak- Peak Trail the steep route
6/21/2011- 8.15miles, 1,962ft, 3h3m, PG&E trail out & back
6/25/2011-6.45 miles, 2,236 ft, 3h24m, Horse Heaven trail up, Peak Trail down- time to the top 2h4m
6/29/2011- 2.4m, 2,100ft, 1h20 mins. Horse Heaven Trail out & back
June Total Feet Climbed
15,676ft
June total Miles Hiked
60.5
*6/2/2011 total ft is average of 3 measurements
2123ft, 1962ft & 2427ft.
6/16/2011 time to Vista Point 1h34m! Fastest yet, even stopping to take photos!!!
** 6/19/2011 started ascent at 320Ft, Vineyard Drive
6/21/2011- start time 6:37a.m. Time @ Vista Point 8:13a.m. =1h40m
Nikon D300s| Nikkor 18-200mm VR| Induro CT213 Tripod
Copyright © 2011 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
These birds make me smile! They have such a friendly face, but their walk is awkward…. and….stilted. Probably because they’re trying not to disturb the water as they hunt for food.
“The Black-necked Stilt forages by probing and gleaning primarily in mudflats and lakeshores, but also in very shallow waters near shores; it seeks out a range of aquatic invertebrates – mainly crustaceans and other arthropods, and mollusks – and small fish, tadpoles and very rarely plant seeds. Its mainstay food varies according to availability; inland birds usually feed mainly on aquatic insects and their larvae, while coastal populations mostly eat other aquatic invertebrates. For feeding areas they prefer coastal estuaries, salt ponds, lakeshores, alkali flats and even flooded fields. For roosting and resting needs, this bird selects alkali flats (even flooded ones), lake shores, and islands surrounded by shallow water.” ~ Wikipedia
For this shoot I met photographer, and friend Marianne Bush out at Radio Road which is part of Redwood Shores Reserves. After we shot around the lagoon for a while we walked over to a channel that feeds the lagoon where Marianne had spied a Bufflehead while we were driving in. An aquatic bird in the Sea Duck family that has been on my list for sometime. The Bufflehead was no longer there, but we did see this little duck below. Both Marianne and I were very excited because neither one of us had seen this bird before. Marianne being the much more experienced birder had an idea of what breed it might be. When we left we were both anxious to get into our bird books to see if we could identify it.
Marianne was able to ID it faster than I did. She wrote to tell me we had seen a Blue Winged Teal! Very uncommon on the West Coast. You can image how thrilled we both were. A month later looking at this photo I can still feel that thrill of excitement one gets when seeing a new species for the first time.
Nikon D300s| Nikkor 300mm f4 @ f5.6| 1/800 sec| ISO 200| Manual Mode| On a Tripod
Photograph by:Copyright © 2010 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
…flowers, longer days, new beginnings, and baby birds.
A friend called me yesterday to tell me his mother had found a Hummingbird nest in her rose bush while pruning it. He invited me over to photograph the nest which has an egg, and perhaps get the mama bird in flight.
Of course I couldn’t resist. It was thrilling to see how tiny the nest and egg are. To get her landing in the nest was the cherry on top of an already pretty good day.
Here she is coming back to the nest! This was thrilling. I wasn’t even sure I got the shot until today when I uploaded them.
First I saw this…
Photograph by:Copyright © Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
Then she sat on her egg never taking her eye off me.
Photograph by:Copyright © Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
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