Wildlife – Page 5 – Circadianreflections Blog

Red-Tailed Hawk: light morph

November 20, 2012November 20, 2012Posted in Birds, California, Nature, Photography, WildlifeTagged Birds, D300s, National Wildlife Refuge, Nature, Nikkor, Nikon, Photography, Red-tailed Hawk, Wildlife4 Comments

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.

Red-Tailed Hawk-Light Morph-Take Off! — Lift off!

Red Tailed Hawk light morph in flight — Downward flap

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

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)

American Kestrel- Female

November 11, 2012November 11, 2012Posted in Birds, California, Nature, Nikon, Photography, WildlifeTagged American Kestrel, Birding, California, D300s, Nature, Nikkor lenses, Nikon, Photography, San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, Wildlife4 Comments

American Kestrel- Female, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Via Flickr:
Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

“Not on a wire, not on a pole, it’s a tree for me!” This is the little mantra I said today as I saw a Kestrel on a wire. Later in the morning while we were driving through an Auto-tour in San Luis National Wildlife Refuge I spotted this kestrel in a tree! I was so excited, and thrilled when I uploaded this photo. It’s the first Kestrel I’ve shot that wasn’t on a pole or wire, and the first I’ve posted I believe.
We (Rainy, Dali, Judi, and I) saw so many neat birds and photographed quite a few of them.
We saw, this Kestrel, Red-tailed Hawks, Northern Harriers, Black Phoebe’s, Sparrow’s a new one for me I need to ID, my first Merlin!, Ross Geese, Coots, Blue Herons, Egrets: mostly Great Egrets, a Kingfisher, an American Bluebird, a Burrowing Owl, Mallards, Northern Pintails, Shrike, Meadow Larks, Plovers, Ibis, Sandhill Cranes, White fronted Geese, Red-winged Blackbirds, Shovelers, and White-tail Kites. In addition we saw a Coyote, I saw a raccoon, and we saw a dear friend Judi. It was an amazing, fantastic, sunny, everything going our way, very good day!

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-200 @200mm + Tamron 1.4TC|f7.1| 1/800 sec| ISO 640| Manual Priority| Hand-held

Catch of the Day

November 10, 2012December 26, 2012Posted in Birds, California, Nature, Nikon, Photography, WildlifeTagged Ducks, Nature, Nikkor lenses, Nikon D300S, Photography, Water fowl, Wildlife, wood duckLeave a comment

Catch of the Day, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Via Flickr:
Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

This photograph of a female Wood Duck has been marinating in my archives for sometime. I find if I come back to photos months later I find more keepers.
I want to give a huge Shout Out to my friend Rainey for showing me this spot. THANK YOU Rainey!
It was a fun afternoon.

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-200 @ 185mm| f5.6| 1/800 sec| ISO 500| Manual Priority| Hand-held

Peregrine Falcon

November 2, 2012November 2, 2012Posted in Birds, California, Nature, Nikon, Photography, WildlifeTagged Birding, Nature, Nikkor, Nikon D300S, Peregrine Falcon, Photography, Wildlife1 Comment

I’m not sure if this is a juvenile or not. Anyone know? It was thrilling to see him. I knew he was in the area and went out last week with my photography friend Dali, but it didn’t come around that afternoon, but we did see the White Tailed Kite then. This morning Dali emailed me early and asked if I wanted to go out to look for the Peregrine again and I said, “Yes!”. We spotted it perched straight-away. We had the pleasure of observing and photographing it for a couple of hours. This is only the second time I’ve seen and photographed a Peregrine Falcon.

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-200@200 + Tamron 1.4x TC|f5.6| 1/600sec| ISO 640| Manual Priority|hand-held

Peregrine Falcon (mentalhealthed.com)
Nesting falcons may force shift in PennDOT work (triblive.com)
Peregrine Falcon, Ramble (starrtrips.wordpress.com)

They dance!

May 17, 2012May 17, 2012Posted in Nature, Nikon, Photography, Travel, WildlifeTagged Birding, Clark Grebes, Courtship, Mating Dance, Nature, Nikkor, Nikon D700, Oregon, Photography, WildlifeLeave a comment

I’ve been a bit behind working on my photographs from my trip to Oregon to see Clark and Western Grebes do their Spring mating courtship and Dance. I’ve still not transferred my files from my laptop to my PC where I do my processing and editing, but I have finally finished some.

By the last morning of our trip I still had not taken any photographs of the Grebes dancing that I liked. I had nearly given up hope of getting any really good photos as they tend to be very shy; keeping themselves pretty far from shore which really tested the limits of my focal range of 300mm + a 2x Teleconverter which gave me an effective range of 600mm. It wasn’t far enough!

We decided to go back once more before leaving for home. After spending 2 mornings on the pond we learned they’re awake and most active beginning about 8AM and settling down by 10AM, so arriving just before 8AM we set up in our favorites spots and waited for them wake up. About half past 8AM this is what I saw and captured with my camera…

The Visual Connection

After a quick sizing up one after the other dipped their heads in the water and then flung the water off!

I feel the tension rising as both were totally oblivious to anyone or anything around them. They only saw each other as they flung the water over and over again. This went on for a full minute!

and suddenly they were up gliding across the water in perfect synchronization!

The sound of the beating water was the only sound I heard. It was marvelous, and thrilling to watch. I feel very blessed to have seen it, and to have shared the experience with good friends.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 300mmVRII + 20eIII TC =600mm| Tripod| Wimberley Sidekick

In medias res

May 10, 2012May 10, 2012Posted in Birds, Nature, Nikon, Photography, WildlifeTagged American Robin, Birds, Birds in the Wild, Grebes, Klamath Basin, Nature, Nature Photography, Nikon, Nikon D700, Photography, Spring, WildlifeLeave a comment

I’ve just returned from Oregon. I was on a birding expedition with some friends who are also photographers. We spent a couple of days in the Klamath Basin looking for Clark and/or Western Grebes doing their Spring mating ceremony and dance or what the Scientist call “rushing”. We were successful finding them as well as several other birds; some familiar and others new, and it was neat to see many birds I know and see only when they Winter near me in and the Pacific Flyway in their Spring Breeding plumage.

Yesterday morning I was following this male Robin around trying to take his photo when he caught up with the female and I happened to press the shutter catching them “in medias res”.

Spring, Nature,and the Great Egret

April 16, 2012April 16, 2012Posted in Birds, California, Nature, Nikon, Photography, Travel, WildlifeTagged Birds, Breeding Season, CA, D300s, Great Egret, Heron, Nature Photography, Nikon, Photography, Santa Rosa, WildlifeLeave a comment

I spent a morning last week in Santa Rosa watching Egrets, and Herons, building nests, tending nests, and trying to attract a mate at a Rookery right in the middle of a suburban neighborhood. Mothers walked their children to school right under them, and traffic flowed on both sides of the street, and the Egrets and Herons were largely oblivious to all but themselves. Great Egrets nest in colonies so there are many, many birds in the trees.

The city is trying to give them some space so they blocked off one lane on each side of the street for a block or so sparing passing cars from being pelted with falling debris, and guano. The street under the Eucalyptus trees they’re nesting in is messy.

In the past when I’ve watch a Great Egret they’ve been very still, quite, and focused on hunting their prey, or I’ve startled them and they’ve flown away. That wasn’t the case on this morning though. The activity scarcely stopped.

Neither did the noise. In breeding season there is quite a lot of squawking, and screeching, and talking. In fact I found them very funny, and amusing. I laughed out loud many times listening to them.

There were many sorties by the male to gather just the right branch to build and strengthen the nest. He will seriously work on attracting a mate once this task is complete. The female lays 4-5 pale blue eggs which take 3-4 weeks to incubate. Both the male and female parents incubate the eggs, and feed the chicks.

During the breeding season the male Great Egret grows long tail feathers which he raises and spreads out . I’ve read their plumes were once prized for making ladies hats and they were nearly hunted to extinction.

…and he undulates his long neck, and lifts his head toward the sky to try to attract a mate.

It was a wonderful experience observing this behavior up close, and I have more photos to share in the coming days of Great Egrets, Cattle Egrets, and Night Herons.

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 70-300mm VR

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