Nevada – Page 3 – Circadianreflections Blog

Whatever Weds.-This & That

October 16, 2024October 16, 2024Posted in PhotographyTagged Birding, Comet C/2023 A3(Tsuchinshan-ATLAS), Daybreak, Emerald Bay, Fall Colors, Halloween, Lake Tahoe, Nevada, Pope Beach, Red-tailed Hawk, Sunrise, This & That, Whatever Wednesday57 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

What a week it’s been! It all started on October 10th, 2024.

My neighbor and I rose early to head up to Emerald Bay for sunrise.

The color was earlier than we hoped so, we made a quick stop at Pope Beach to shoot the color and daybreak.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com Image

Then we made our way up to a lookout over Emerald Bay to photograph the lake.

Then we took our time making stops along the way home to photograph some Autumn Color.

We saw a beautiful Red-tailed Hawk hunting for breakfast. She caught a Vole but, I won’t gross you out with those images.

Later that evening I saw the Northern Lights for the first time ever. That post is here. It was glorious.

Friday morning I birded with my usual birding group and we had a great morning seeing 40 species of birds. Along with the birds I noticed some spooky Zombie Pirates lurking by the pond. Here’s one.

Saturday morning I was up early and met up with two girl friends to do my first Big Day. It’s a 24 hour global birding marathon put on by Cornell Lab of Ornithology. We didn’t sign up as team or register our day but we, birded from 8AM until after 4PM. I saw 45 species. It was pretty fun day. We posted our sightings on ebird.org so they’ll have our record for their counts and information. Unfortunately, the next afternoon I got sick, and shortly afterwards I was hearing from my companions from the day before that they where also sick. We think the deli we stopped at to have lunch is where we picked up food poisoning. I brought home half my sandwich which I shared with He-Man and yep, he got it too. UGH.

Monday still weak, and very tired I was determined to locate and see Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) but, I wasn’t in shape to drive anywhere so I just stepped out on my back patio and photographed it there. It’s so cool and it has a great long tail!

What a week! What a month it’s been so far! The Aurora, and the Comet really made my month. Everything else has been icing on the cake.

My tummy is still sketchy, but I’m on the mend and so are He-Man and my friends. I plan to be out photographing Halloween things, birding, and maybe the Comet with a better composition soon. I hope your week is going well. Oh, and watch out for the Zombies and Ghoulies! 👻

Nikon D850| Nikkor 500mm, &35mm| PS CC

more to come…

Something for Sunday-The Cosmos from Rural Nevada

September 1, 2024Posted in Astro Photography, Milky Way, Nikon, Photography, Wide Field Astro-photographyTagged After Dark, Composite images, Cosmos, Long Exposure Photographs, Low Light Photography, Milky Way, Nevada, Siloes, Something for Sunday, stacked images28 Comments

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11 frames stacked. Nikon D850| Nikkor 20mm f/1.8g@f2

more to come…

Whatever Weds. Owls

April 24, 2024April 23, 2024Posted in Birding in Nevada, Nature Photography, Owls and Owlets, PhotographyTagged Birds in the Wild, Breeding Season, D850, Great Horned Owls, Nest, Nevada, Nikkor 500mm Pf-E, Nikon61 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

The first week of March I started hiking out to see if a Great Horned Owl had returned to a nest she has used many times in the past. She wasn’t there. March 9th I returned and she was there!

It was time to start looking for the Owlets. I returned on the 19th, 25th, and 26th of March and saw no owlets but, hoped Mama was sitting on eggs.

I returned on April 4th, 14th, and on April 20th a birding girlfriend sent me an email telling me she went by and there were two Owlets! I went the following day, the 21st. When I arrived I only saw Mama no Owlets. So I birded the area and waited and waited. After an hour or so I saw a little white fuzzy head stirring behind Mama then not too long after that the cutest 2 Owlets you’ve ever seen popped up to see what was happening in their new world. They must have just hatched days before by the looks of them.

*Great Horned Owl Female with her Owlets in the nest.*

They barely could keep their eyes open. They were so tired. Mama had one eye on me the whole time though.

I’ll be making regular trips over to watch them grow, and hopefully this year will be the year I see them branching. I’ve never seen the previous year’s owlets do that here, and I’ve also never seen the Male GH Owl who I know has to be nearby.

Spring is here so I put out the outdoor cushions Monday morning and wouldn’t you know it Tuesday morning it rained. 🤣

I hope your week is going well.

Nikon D850| Nikkor 500mm PF-e| PS CC

more to come…

Thursday Doors- For Rent

April 18, 2024April 18, 2024Posted in Birding in Nevada, Photography, Thursday DoorsTagged Birdhouses, D850, Douglas Co, Fun and Whimsical, Nevada, Nikkor 500mm Pf-E, Nikon, Portals33 Comments

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Available at Sparrow Pole Bungalows! Cute one room birdhouse with plenty of floor space and a tall ceiling for that perfect cozy nest. You’re sure to be the Early Bird in the neighborhood as the front door faces east so your day will start with the sun shining into your cozy nest.

You’ll love your neighbors, and there are bird feeders nearby.

This post is part of the Thursday Doors- a weekly challenge group hosted by Dan Antion over at No Facilities. Click on the link to see other doors from around the world-https://nofacilities.com/2024/04/18/still-in-oakland/

more to come…

Thursday Doors- Sparrow Pole Bungalows

April 11, 2024Posted in Thursday DoorsTagged Birdhouses, Birds, Blue Sky, Douglas County, Male Birds, Nevada, pole, Portals, Sparrows, Thursday Doors, vine44 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

This post is part of the Thursday Doors group hosted by Dan Antion over at No Facilities which you can click on to see other doors from around the world-https://nofacilities.com/2024/04/11/alumni-doors/

Nikon D850| Nikkor 500mm PF-e| PS CC 25.5.1

more to come…

Friday’s Feathered Friends-White-throated Sparrow

March 22, 2024March 21, 2024Posted in Bird Photography, Birding in Nevada, SparrowsTagged Birding Nevada, Birds in the Wild, Carson City, Friday's Feathered Friends, Nature, Nevada, Nikkor 500mm Pf-E, Nikon D850, Rare bird sightings, White-throated Sparrow62 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

Back in late January or early February I heard there was a White-throated Sparrow up in Carson City. This is a rare bird for Nevada. The map doesn’t show it ever being here rare.

I’d never seen one before so I began the hunt for it. I only had a general location of where it was so I was covering a very large area and staying for hours photographing every sparrow and bird I saw.

I was unsuccessful 6 times over the course of about 6 weeks.

All the while this bird was being seen and reported by one guy almost every day while myself, and my neighbor were not seeing it! I can tell you it was frustrating! During this period there was another one seen, photographed, and reported on the birding site ebird.org up in Reno!

So, my neighbor and I went up and spent hours looking for it but, no joy there either. Sigh.

Then on a tip from a fellow birder who had seen it a week before in Carson City told me the which area I should try looking. I went back last week and hung around the area he suggested and got lucky! 💃💃😀The 7th times the charm!

Fun Facts:

The White-throated Sparrow comes in two color forms: white-crowned and tan-crowned. The two forms are genetically determined, and they persist because individuals almost always mate with a bird of the opposite morph. Males of both color types prefer females with white stripes, but both kinds of females prefer tan-striped males. White-striped birds are more aggressive than tan-striped ones, and white-striped females may be able to outcompete their tan-striped sisters for tan-striped males.
Although they look nothing alike and aren’t particularly closely related, the White-throated Sparrow and the Dark-eyed Junco occasionally mate and produce hybrids. The resulting offspring look like grayish, dully marked White-throated Sparrows with white outer tail feathers.
White-throated Sparrows typically nest on or near the ground. Occasional nests are built up to 15 feet off the ground in conifers. Usually, these nests are second attempts after a pair has had a ground nest robbed by a predator.
The oldest recorded White-throated Sparrow was at least 14 years, 11 months old, when it was recaptured and rereleased during banding operations in Alberta.

I have been birding a lot so have lots of birds to share in the coming weeks.

I hope you all have a lovely week-end.

Nikon D850| Nikkor 500mm PF-e| PS CC 25.5.0

Fun Facts gleaned from allaboutbirds.org

more to come…

Thursday Doors: Fog, Timber, and Stone

March 14, 2024March 14, 2024Posted in Architecture, Thursday DoorsTagged Cottonwood tree, Doors, Light fog, Nevada, Old Tractor, Rabbitbush, Ranch, Rural Decay, Rural Photography, Rust, stone buildings, Windows37 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

The fog was starting to lift when I pulled over to photograph this little stone building.

This post is part of the Thursday Doors group hosted by Dan Antion over at No Facilities which you can click on to see other doors from around the world-here

Nikon D810| Nikkor 24-120mm @ 105mm| PS CC 25.5.1

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