Photography – Circadianreflections Blog

Friday’s Feathered Friends- Greater Roadrunner

December 12, 2025Posted in Birding in Nevada, Friday's Feathered Friends, Nature, PhotographyTagged Birds, Birds in the Wild, Greater Roadrunner, Nevada, Nikon, Photography, Photography Challenges, Wildlife56 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

Last month about a week before Thanksgiving I went on a quick road trip to Las Vegas/Henderson with a girl-friend. She was wanting to see her parents who live in Vegas, and I was wanting to go to Henderson which is just 20 minutes south of downtown Vegas to do some birding. So we got a plan together and went. While she was hanging out with her parents I was birding at the Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve. I was hoping to see the Long-tailed Duck that is back this winter, alas, I did not see it, but I had a fantastic meeting with a Greater Roadrunner.

I was walking up a path and turned a corner and there it was standing in the middle of the path. I stopped. It jumped back and looked at me. There we stood eyeing each other up. When it was apparent it wasn’t going to flee and be flighty I started making photographs of it. After a minute it approached me! I backed up to keep it in my focal range. It was too close!!! Such a problem to have right? 😂 This profile is the best image I made showing its colorful skin behind its eye. The colors say Southwest to me.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//:circadianreflections.com
Greater Roadrunner

I didn’t back up enough because as you see I nearly cut off his feet!

Here it is showing me its lovely long tail.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//:circadianreflections.com
Greater Roadrunner- I backed up more for to make this image.

I can’t tell if it is a male or female. I do know it’s an adult though. It stayed on the path walking back and forth in front of me, and crossing the path from side to side for nearly 5 minutes! I have quite a few images of it. I think it must have had a nest nearby guarding it perhaps? Anyway, I figured I’d better get moving and let the Roadrunner get back to doing whatever it does. I thanked it for such a lovely encounter and as quietly as I could walked up the path then when the Roadrunner thought I was too close it darted into the bushes.

That was only the 3rd Roadrunner I’ve ever seen and by far the best encounter with one ever!

Fun Facts: Gleaned from AllAboutBirds.org

- For a generation of Americans, the familiar “beep, beep” of Warner Brothers’ cartoon Roadrunner was the background sound of Saturday mornings. Despite the cartoon character’s perennial victories over Wile E. Coyote, real-life coyotes present a real danger. The mammals can reach a top speed of 43 miles an hour—more than twice as fast as roadrunners.
- Roadrunners have evolved a range of adaptations to deal with the extremes of desert living. Like seabirds, they secrete a solution of highly concentrated salt through a gland just in front of each eye, which uses less water than excreting it via their kidneys and urinary tract. Moisture-rich prey including mammals and reptiles supply them otherwise-scarce water in their diet. Both chicks and adults flutter the unfeathered area beneath the chin (gular fluttering) to dissipate heat.
- Greater Roadrunners eat poisonous prey, including venomous lizards and scorpions, with no ill effect, although they’re careful to swallow horned lizards head-first with the horns pointed away from vital organs. Roadrunners can also kill and eat rattlesnakes, often in tandem with another roadrunner: as one distracts the snake by jumping and flapping, the other sneaks up and pins its head, then bashes the snake against a rock. If it’s is too long to swallow all at once, a roadrunner will walk around with a length of snake still protruding from its bill, swallowing it a little at a time as the snake digests.
- Based on banding records, the oldest roadrunner was at least 7 years old.
- Roadrunners hold a special place in Native American and Mexican legends and belief systems. The birds were revered for their courage, strength, speed, and endurance. The roadrunner’s distinctive X-shaped footprint—with two toes pointing forward and two backward—are used as sacred symbols by Pueblo tribes to ward off evil. The X shape disguises the direction the bird is heading, and is thought to prevent evil spirits from following.

Isn’t that folklore about its X shaped footprint interesting! I didn’t know that until I read the fun facts. 😊

I hope you all have a lovely week-end. Beep, beep!

more to come…

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 26, 2025November 25, 2025Posted in Holidays and Observances, Whatever WednesdayTagged Give Thanks, Grateful, Photography, Thanksgiving, Tom Turkey, Turkey39 Comments

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I wish all those in the USA a Happy Thanksgiving and those living elsewhere a wonderful week and week-end.

Copyright © 2019 Deborah M. Zajac
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

more to come…

Whatever Weds. Happy Birthday Nevada!

November 5, 2025November 4, 2025Posted in Holidays and Observances, Nevada, Photography, Whatever WednesdayTagged Carson City, Cloud Couture Crew, Hot Air Balloons, Nevada Days 2025, Nikon, Photography, Statehood Birthday, Travel and Tourism48 Comments

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October 31, 2025 was Nevada’s 161st year of Statehood. The celebrations started early in October with many events scheduled throughout the month leading up to the big Birthday Bash on November 1st.

November 1st started really early with Hot Air Balloonist rolling in at 6am to get their balloons ready for an 8AM lift-off. I was there.

I usually pick one balloon and stick with them until they lift off. This year I watched the crew that owns this balloon laying flat on the ground.

The crew pulled up to their spot on the street then they laid out a huge tarp, next they roll out the balloon. The crew is named Cloud Couture Crew. The Balloon’s name is Cloud Couture. It’s piloted by Eric Diamond.

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

Next they hook up the basket, and gas, check all the lines, then they turn on a huge fan. See it next to the basket on the left? They use the fan to fill the balloon with air. The best part is when they have enough air in the balloon to start heating it up and lifting the balloon! Whoosh! It was warm standing here once they had the flame going.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//:circadianreflections.com
That’s Officer Lorentzen from the Washoe County School Police department. He’s about to embark on his first hot air balloon ride.

By the way the balloon is piloted by his boss.

Now the balloon is just about ready to fly!

Officer Lorentzen is invited on board as well as one more passenger, the owner- Delores Martinez. It’s almost Go Time!

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//:circadianreflections.com
While they wait for 8AM and lift off the ground crew is holding onto the lines keeping the balloon from rising. Another crew member is on ground standing by to give the pilot directions with hand signals which way to maneuver the craft to miss trees, lamp posts and wires.

I turn my back on the crew a minute to see what’s happening behind me, and find Lift Off has begun!

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//:circadianreflections.com
This is looking north.

Let’s look back and see what’s happening behind the Cloud Couture Crew.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//:circadianreflections.com
Looking south.

Did Officer Lorentzen and crew get off the ground?

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//:circadianreflections.com
Cloud Couture is airborne!

I waved good-bye and quietly wished them a great flight, and soft landing.

All in all I counted 18 balloons in the air, but I may have missed a couple.

My girlfriend and I went to breakfast and shed some layers before the parade started at 10AM as it was getting warm out.

Cloud Couture Crew-

Pilot-Eric Diamond

Owner-Delores Martinez

Crew Chief- Stephen Moore

Crew- Anthony, J-Bird, Alex, and Emma.

You can find them on Instagram at CloudCoutureNV

Cloud Couture, thank you for letting me and my camera hang out with you to see all it takes to get your beautiful hot air balloon off the ground!

Happy Wednesday!

more to come…

Friday’s Feathered Friends- Rufous Hummingbird

August 15, 2025August 11, 2025Posted in Backyard Birding, Birding in Nevada, Friday's Feathered Friends, PhotographyTagged Friday's Feathered Friends, Nature, Nevada, Nikon, Photography, Rufous Humming Bird, Summer Birds47 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

A few weeks ago a pair of Rufous Hummingbirds returned to my backyard feeder. They’ve been chasing off the Black-chinned and having skirmishes all day everyday since their return.

I’m beginning to think I need to add another Shepard’s hook and feeder so the territorial squabbling gets better.

Here’s what I think is a female perched on top of the hook claiming possession. She lands here on and off all day long letting the other Hummingbirds know this is her feeder. You can see a little bit of her Gorget on her throat.

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

Here she is just after chasing off two other Hummingbirds. I love her tail!

I could be wrong about her sex as it could also be an immature female/ male. If you know which it is please let me know.

Fun Facts:

The Rufous Hummingbird is a common visitor to hummingbird feeders. It is extremely territorial at all times of year, attacking any visiting hummingbird, including much larger species. They’ve been seen chasing chipmunks away from their nests.
The Rufous Hummingbird makes one of the longest migratory journeys of any bird in the world, as measured by body size. At just over 3 inches long, its roughly 3,900-mile movement (one-way) from Alaska to Mexico is equivalent to 78,470,000 body lengths. In comparison, the 13-inch-long Arctic Tern’s one-way flight of about 11,185 mi is only 51,430,000 body lengths. (AAB)
During their long migrations, Rufous Hummingbirds make a clockwise circuit of western North America each year. They move up the Pacific Coast in late winter and spring, reaching Washington and British Columbia by May. As early as July they may start south again, traveling down the chain of the Rocky Mountains. People first realized this pattern after examining detailed field notes and specimens, noting the birds’ characteristic dates of arrival on each part of the circuit.
The Rufous Hummingbird has an excellent memory for location, no doubt helping it find flowers from day to day, or even year to year. Some birds have been seen returning from migration and investigating where a feeder had been the previous year, even though it had since been moved.
The Rufous Hummingbird breeds as far north as southeastern Alaska – the northernmost breeding range of any hummingbird in the world. Of the western hummingbirds that occasionally show up in the east, the Rufous Hummingbird is the most frequent.
Rufous Hummingbirds, like most other hummingbirds, beat their wings extremely fast to be able to hover in place. The wingbeat frequency of Rufous Hummingbirds has been recorded at 52–62 wingbeats per second.
The Rufous Hummingbird is not a colonially nesting species; however, there have been reports from Washington state that have 20 or more Rufous Hummingbird nests only a few yards apart in the same tree. (From the BNA)
Hummingbirds are hard to catch, but there are records of Rufous Hummingbirds being caught by a large flycatcher (Brown-crested Flycatcher) and by a frog.
The oldest recorded Rufous Hummingbird was a female, and at least 8 years, 11 months old when she was recaught and rereleased during banding operations in British Columbia in 2004.

I’ve been slower to your blogs this week as I’m visiting with family, and I will be for the next several days, but I’ll catch up!

Have a lovely week-end!!

Nikon D850| Nikkor 500mm| Fun Facts-https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Rufous_Hummingbird/overview

more to come…

Whatever Weds.-Alaska Cruise Pics

July 30, 2025July 31, 2025Posted in Photography, Travel and Tourism, Whatever WednesdayTagged Alaska Cruise, Cruise Ship, Photography, Quantum of the Seas, Royal Caribbean, Seattle Skyline, Stateroom, Whatever Wednesday45 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

Some of you may recall that He-Man and I took a Cruise to Alaska on board the Quantum of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean Ship earlier this month. I thought I’d start sharing our trip with photos of our stateroom .

We were sailing out of the Port of Seattle so we flew up a day before our cruise departed. We stayed in the north end of town in a Comfort Inn & Suites. The room and hotel were nice, the neighborhood…a little sketchy, but we felt safe enough to walk to the nearby stores and a restaurant for dinner. We just pulled our city street awareness spidy senses out of the archives and stayed alert while walking.

This was the view from our room of downtown Seattle, and Mt. Rainier way in the distance on the left just as the city lights were coming on for the evening.

That parking lot is car dealer spare lot we think.

We took an Uber to the port after checking out of the hotel. Getting through security and checking in with Royal Caribbean was a breeze. Our stateroom wasn’t quite ready so we headed up to the Windjammer Cafe for lunch. I haven’t got any photos of that sorry!

Then we headed to Deck 12 mid-ship to our stateroom hide-away for our departure. We had a stateroom with a balcony on the port side of the ship. The images in the gallery are our main stateroom and view of the balcony, one closet, we had two closets, the bathroom, the big bed…bigger than our Queen at home and there was storage in a cupboard above the bed, the vanity I used for applying my makeup, and over the course of the cruise our Stateroom Attendant left us 4 towel animals. My favorites were the bear, and elephant.

Views from our stateroom balcony-the busy port where people were being dropped off to get onboard, and the port crew loading the luggage, food, and all the things we’d need for the week, and the Seattle Skyline from our balcony on Deck 12 shortly after we left the port.

We’re off! North to Alaska, the rush is on!

This is the movie that made me want to go to Alaska when I was girl. I had this song in my head off and on the whole trip. 😊

more to come…

Friday’s Feathered Friends- Tundra Swan

February 7, 2025February 5, 2025Posted in birding, Birding in Nevada, Friday's Feathered Friends, NikonTagged Birding, Birds in Flight, Friday's Feathered Friends, Photography, Tundra Swan54 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

While out birding with the group last Friday morning we had the pleasure of a Tundra Swan fly-by. The single Swan flew by three times actually. Probably checking out the slough and ponds to see if that was the place to land or if his partner was there. We didn’t see a another swan and after three passes we didn’t see it again.

Here it was flying over my head.

Both images are cropped a bit. It was higher in the sky than these make it look.

Fun Facts:

Lewis and Clark provided the first written description of the Tundra Swan during their expedition to the West, where the birds’ whistle-like calls prompted Meriwether Lewis to dub them “whistling swans.”
The whistling swan, the American race of the Tundra Swan, currently is considered the same species as the Eurasian race, the Bewick’s swan. They were considered separate species in the past, distinguished by the large yellow patches on the face of the Bewick’s swan.
The Tundra Swan stays in flocks except when on a breeding territory. Although most swans spread out to breed, a large proportion of the population on the breeding grounds still can be found in flocks. These swans are not breeding, and may be young birds that have not yet bred, adult pairs whose breeding attempts failed, or adults that bred in the past but for some reason do not in that year.
During the breeding season the Tundra Swan sleeps almost entirely on land, but in the winter it sleeps more often on water.
Tundra Swans breed in the remote arctic of North America. Parents defend their nests and young against a host of predators including foxes, weasels, wolves, and bears, as well as birds such as Glaucous Gulls, Common Ravens, Parasitic Jaegers, Pomarine Jaegers, and Golden Eagles. If the parents are present, they are able to defend the nest and nestlings from these threats. Wolves, people, and bears, however, are too big to fight, and most incubating swans leave their nests while these large predators are far away. By leaving quickly when large predators approach, the parents may make the nest harder to find.
Tundra Swans wintering in Chesapeake Bay feed almost exclusively on clams that they dislodge from the mud. But it can be challenging to enjoy a peaceful meal: often the swan has to fend off a Ring-billed, Herring, or Greater Black-backed gull that swoops in to grab a clam from the swan’s bill – a successful tactic in about half of these “kleptoparasitic” encounters.
Swans have long been associated with ideals of romance. Added to their elegant outlines and all-white plumage is their tendency to form permanent pair bonds by the time they’re 2-3 years old. Once a pair forms, Tundra Swans feed and roost together year-round.
Based on banding records, the oldest known Tundra Swan was a female and at least 23 years, 7 months old when she was identified by her band in the wild, in Ohio. She was originally banded in the same state.

Fun Facts gleaned from allaboutbirds.org

If the rain holds off this morning I’ll be birding so I may be late getting to your blogs, and comments.

more to come…

Friday’s Feathered Friends- Hermit Thrush

January 31, 2025January 28, 2025Posted in birding, Friday's Feathered FriendsTagged Birds in the Wild, Hermit Thrush, Nature, Photography, Santa Barbara Botanical Garden, Travel and Tourism46 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

While we were visiting the Santa Barbara Botanical gardens recently He-Man stopped in a little garden rest area with a bench to retie his shoe and out popped a Hermit Thrush! I was so excited because I don’t see these shy birds too often.

We got several minutes of good looks at it while it was foraging around area.

Fun Facts-

Males usually gather food for the nest, while females feed the nestlings. The young birds start by eating bits of larvae, then grasshoppers, moths, and spiders. They sometimes eat small vertebrates such as salamanders.
Hermit Thrushes usually make their nests in and around trees and shrubs, but they can also get more creative. Nests have been found on a cemetery grave, on a golf course, and in a mine shaft.
Hermit Thrushes sometimes forage by “foot quivering,” where they shake bits of grass with their feet to get insects. They also typically begin to quiver their feet as they relax after seeing a flying predator.
East of the Rocky Mountains the Hermit Thrush usually nests on the ground. In the West, it is more likely to nest in trees.
Hermit Thrushes make several distinct calls around their nests. They will sometimes make a rising byob sound similar to a mewing kitten. Females frequently rearrange their eggs while making quit quit noises. In the morning, two adults meeting near the nest will greet each other with a pweet pweet call.
Hermit Thrushes are part of a genus (Catharus) that includes four other similar thrushes in North America: the Veery, Swainson’s Thrush, Gray-cheeked Thrush, and Bicknell’s Thrush. In the northeastern mountains, the Veery lives at the lowest elevations, Hermit Thrushes at middle elevations, and Swainson’s Thrushes at high elevations.
The oldest recorded Hermit Thrush was at least 10 years, 10 months old when it was recaptured and rereleased during banding operations in Maryland in 2009. It was originally banded there in 1999.

Fun facts gleaned as always from allaboutbirds.org

I’ll be a little late replying to your comments as I’m out birding this morning.

Nikon D850|Nikkor 500mm PF-e lens

more to come…

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