Copyright © 2014 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
Taken last month while out birding with friends Rainey, and Rene. He looks like he could overcome anything!
Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f4 @ f8| 1/1000s| ISO 500| Manual Priority| Hand-held
Tag: Wildlife
Bushtit
Copyright © 2013 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
This is my first Bushtit capture. These little birds usually stay deep in the branches and are quite flitty. This morning while birding with Rainey and Dali we saw quite a few on two bushes so, I hung out hoping I’d be quick enough to capture a photo of one if it happened to venture out onto an exposed branch.
This was a great morning. Birds of note that we saw are a Merlin having breakfast, Thompson Warblers, Vireos, Hummingbirds, Ruddy Ducks, Acorn Woodpeckers, a few Cedar Waxwings, and the Mandarin Duck.
Note: This was shot at a very high ISO 1250 to stop action and blur so there is quite a bit of noise even after using a noise reduction tool. I’d rather have noise than a blurry photo. I delete the blurry ones.
Nikon D300s| Nikkor 300mm f/4
Zajac
Copyright ©2013 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
When I got married way back in the early 80’s my name changed to Zajac. It’s Polish and means White Rabbit, or Little Rabbit depending on which Eastern European you’re talking to. 🙂 I’ve named our house Rabbit Hollow. In Polish my last name is pronounced Zi-onsh.
I’ve never really felt the name is me, but He-Man, and my children are Zajac’s, and I’m honored to be bonded with them for the rest of my life. I’ve often wondered if other married women feel this way? You know, my daughter will always be a Zajac to me no matter what.
I took this photo last week-end while out birding looking for Cedar Waxwings. It’s thought this rabbit was a pet set free. People have been seen feeding it I’m told.
Nikon D300s| Nikkor 300mm f/4
Canadian Geese and Goslings
Copyright © 2013 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
I went to a local park this morning looking for a small flock of Cedar Waxwings that I spied yesterday, and on the way I spotted two Canadian Geese Goslings.
They were adorable pecking along the grass looking for worms and grubs.
Here’s the only photo I was took with the parents fully in the frame:
…and here are the two little ones together:
Since these were born in the USA shouldn’t they be called United States Geese, or California Geese? 🙂
Related articles
- Mom and Baby Goslings (franzsfeaturedfotos.com)
- Family of geese released into wild after rescue Tuesday (fox6now.com)
Hooded Merganser
Copyright © 2013 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
This is my first sighting of the Hooded Merganser! I was so excited to see both a male and female swimming around in the pond in the Children’s Zoo section of San Francisco Zoo. According to one of the staff they are free range and can come and go as they please like the gulls and Peacocks.
The female:
Nikon D700| Nikkor 70300@ 300mm| f5.6| 1/400s| ISO 400| Manual Priority| Matrix Metering| Hand-held
Related articles
- Hooded Merganser (travelingrainvilles.typepad.com)
- Hooded Merganser nesting box, the sequel (michaelqpowell.wordpress.com)
- Neighbor Hooded (charleymckelvy.wordpress.com)
Northern Harrier on the Hunt
Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
This Harrier was just one of many great birds I saw when I got out for a day of birding recently. The Harriers were flying low over the ponds, and marshes all day long. Whenever they were near, or overhead the Snow Geese, White-Fronted Geese, Ibis, and Coots would take to the sky. The noise was amazing to hear.
Late in the afternoon we saw a Harrier chasing a Snow Goose, the goose dived into the marsh grass with the Harrier in hot pursuit! We waited with anticipation to see if the Harrier would come up with the Goose. He did not! That was one lucky goose.
Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-200 @ 200 + Tamron 1.4x TC| f8| 1/800 sec| ISO 500| Hand-held and shot from the car window
There must have been a Harrier nearby to create this stir-up
Snow geese in retreat…
a couple of Greater White-fronted Geese enjoying the pond,
Related articles
- Snow Geese Make Middle Creek Sparkle Every Spring (gloucestercitynews.net)
- Snow geese make comeback (poststar.com)
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/20139314@N05/6828314045/in/photostream (flickr.com)
Red-Tailed Hawk: light morph
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
Related articles
- Birding the Central Valley (naturalhistorywanderings.com)
- Red-tailed Hawks – More from the Big Bend (bobzeller.wordpress.com)
- Just when I thought I’d seen it all (randomthoughtsfrommidlife.wordpress.com)
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