“A good snapshot keeps a moment from running away.” ― Eudora Welty
Copyright © Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
I’m not really sure what type of Bee this is. Is it a Bumble Bee, or Bee Fly, or something else? He/she got an early start to the day along with the Honey Bees, and me on this particular morning.
Taken in May 2014.
Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f4 lens w/Nikkor 14eII 1.4x Teleconverter| Hand-held
Copyright © 2014 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
Nikon D700| AF-D Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 micro lens| Hand-held
Copyright © 2014 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
I’d sing it in the morning!
Last Saturday morning I spent a lovely morning out birding with friends Dali, and Rainey. The weather was great, cool, with a blue sky with a few big, puffy white clouds for just the right amount of diffusion, and not too many intruding city-life sounds.
We went out with the hopes of finding Stilts, and Avocets with chicks or on nests, but we found few Stilts, and only saw two or three Avocets. Overall there were very few shorebirds at all in either of the places we birded yesterday.
We did see quite a few other birds so the morning wasn’t a total bust. Here are some of the images I took Saturday morning.
Black-necked Stilts
Mallard and chick. This was the only chick we saw with her sadly. Actually it was the only chick we saw all morning.
A Mockingbird imitating several birds. I like this pose and setting.
The Cliff Swallows were very busy making sorties to and from their nests.
Hummingbirds are very entertaining and didn’t disappoint this morning either. I saw a territorial spat, but with my 300mm lens wasn’t able to get both birds in the frame. Here’s the offended Hummingbird who thought he had territorial rights to the whole tree.
…after a little of this posturing this Hummer decided he wasn’t having another Hummingbird on the tree, so he went on the attack. I didn’t get them both in the frame, but here’s the intruding Hummer on the defense. They squabbled a bit then they both flew away, and neither returned for sometime, so we moved on.
The Bumble bees were busy with the only blooms I could see.
…and there were other kinds of birds practicing their landing skills at a nearby airport.
Another little Anna’s Hummingbird posed for me.
The most colorful bird of the morning was the Ring-necked Pheasant.
Saturday morning was also a great opportunity to really give my 300mm f4 lens a workout. I hadn’t really since getting it back from Nikon. I’m so happy to report it works really well. It is quieter than before the fix, and AF (auto-focus) seems quite snappy, and responsive even with my 1.4x Teleconverter on it.
It was a good morning despite there being only few shorebirds.
Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f4| Hand-held
Copyright © 2014 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
Tomatoes!
It’s not quite Summer here yet, but my local market had some good looking Heirloom tomatoes in so I bought several for salad, and a Tarte à la Tomate.
The Tarte was so warm and gooey that the cheese and tomatoes are sliding off the crust in this image. It may not look pretty, but it was tasty!
The recipe is from Kristin Ingham Espinasse an American ex-pat living in France with her wine maker husband and their two children. She writes the blog French Word a Day which is where I found her.
I can’t find the blog post that Kristin shared the recipe for the Tarte à la Tomate…it was years ago. I hope she doesn’t mind if I share it.
Tarte à la Tomate
1 store bought pie crust to fit your desired pie pan
2 or 3 Tablespoons of Dijon mustard
1 cup of shredded Emmental cheese (or Gruyère)
2 or 3 Large tomatoes, sliced
Olive Oil- enough to drizzle
Herbes de Provence- to taste
salt and pepper
Instructions:
Roll out the store-bought pie crust ( if rollable). Slather mustard* across its surface. Sprinkle cheese over the mustard and set the tomatoes across the top. Add salt, pepper, herbes de Provence, and a filet or swirl of olive oil to taste.
Cook the tomato pie in 425º oven for 20 minutes. Serves 4, salivates eight.
* variation: try tapenade (crushed olive spread) in place of the mustard.
Nikon D700| AF-D Nikkor 105mm f2.8 micro lens| SB910 camera left, and SB600 camera right triggered via Commander Mode in camera
Copyright © Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
I found a swarm of busy bees early one morning last week busy at work Pollen Gathering.
I thought they must have just begun their day’s labors as they didn’t have any pollen on their bodies yet.
I like the faint motion of the wings in this image.
Hope you’re having a great week-end!
Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4| Hand-held
Copyright © 2014 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
I took this image earlier this month with the rented Nikon Df camera. It’s by far my favorite image that I took of the Violet-green male swallow.
Nikon Df| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f4 @ f9| 1/160s| ISO 400| Manual Priority| Matrix Metering| Tripod w/Wimberley Sidekick
Copyright © 2014 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
We hiked to Mission Peak this morning. It’s a tradition of sorts to hike up here when Big Baby Boy is home. We had a 3 day week-end in the States, so my son and girl-friend came up from Southern CA to hang out with us and #1 Grandson. His girl-friend had never hiked up here before. She’s amazing she ran the last steepest 500ft to get to the top. She was excited to get there.
It was exciting for me too. I have a new Personal Best time for the hike up 1h 31m!
Instead of taking my photo on the pole…which I’ve done before a few times I took a photo of my toy mascot Travelerette on the Survey Mark. Someone stole the little plate, but the nails spelling out Mission Peak, and elevation are still there. Mission Peak is in the Diablo Range in Northern California. It is 2,517 ft high, and nearly every step of the 3.4miles we hiked is steep, steep, steep! We hiked the Less Steep Route which is 3.4 miles to the top with an elevation gain of 2,017ft. Total miles hiked 6.8
It was very crowded up there today. The line to stand on the pole and take your picture was long. It took us a half hour or more. I was pleased to see it has become custom to wait in line for your turn since my last hike up to the pole. Honestly it’s got to be so popular up there avoid week-ends, and holidays if you can!
Look at this line! There were 4 to 5 people ahead of me not in the frame.
Nikon D700| AF-S Nikkor 50mm f1.8G @ f8| 1/250s| ISO 200| Manual Priority| Matrix Met| Hand-held
Circadianreflections Blog 
You must be logged in to post a comment.