Winter – Circadianreflections Blog

Friday’s Feathered Friends- Cooper’s Hawk

January 6, 2023Posted in Bird Photogaphy, birding, Birding in Nevada, Hawks, PhotographyTagged Birds in the Wild, Carson Valley, Cooper's Hawk, Friday's Feathered Friends, Nevada, Russian Olive Tree, Snow, Winter66 Comments

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

For several weeks we’ve had a Cooper’s Hawk perching on a neighbor’s tree out back. With all the White-crown Sparrows, and Quail about I’m sure it’s hoping for a meal.

I’ve been enjoying seeing it perched there.

Cooper’s Hawk

Fun Facts-

- Dashing through vegetation to catch birds is a dangerous lifestyle. In a study of more than 300 Cooper’s Hawk skeletons, 23 percent showed old, healed-over fractures in the bones of the chest, especially of the furcula, or wishbone.
- A Cooper’s Hawk captures a bird with its feet and kills it by repeated squeezing. Falcons tend to kill their prey by biting it, but Cooper’s Hawks hold their catch away from the body until it dies. They’ve even been known to drown their prey, holding a bird underwater until it stopped moving.
- Once thought averse to towns and cities, Cooper’s Hawks are now fairly common urban and suburban birds. Some studies show their numbers are actually higher in towns than in their natural habitat, forests. Cities provide plenty of Rock Pigeon and Mourning Dove prey. Though one study in Arizona found a downside to the high-dove diet: Cooper’s Hawk nestlings suffered from a parasitic disease they acquired from eating dove meat.
- Life is tricky for male Cooper’s Hawks. As in most hawks, males are significantly smaller than their mates. The danger is that female Cooper’s Hawks specialize in eating medium-sized birds. Males tend to be submissive to females and to listen out for reassuring call notes the females make when they’re willing to be approached. Males build the nest, then provide nearly all the food to females and young over the next 90 days before the young fledge.
- The oldest recorded Cooper’s Hawk was a male and at least 20 years, 4 months old. He was banded in California in 1986, and found in Washington in 2006.

Fun Facts gleaned from allaboutbirds.org

Fuji X-T3| Fujinon 100-400mm| PS CC 24.1.0

more to come…

P52 1/52 Yosemite Chapel Doors

January 7, 2016Posted in Photography, Project 52, Project 52:Doors, Yosemite National ParkTagged Bench, Doors, Pine Trees, Project 52 Doors, Winter, Wreaths, Yosemite Chapel, Yosemite National Park20 Comments

I am doing another Project 52 this year. I thought about doing one or more genres which I love to photograph, but in the end thought I’d do something different this year; Doors. I thoroughly enjoyed Dan’s doors over at

No Facilities blog this past year brought to us by Norm over at:

https://miscellaneousmusingsofamiddleagedmind.wordpress.com

I like doors and windows and I hope to come up with 52 or more doors that are interesting.

My first door for the year are the doors of Yosemite Valley Chapel. I love this Chapel. It’s so pretty in all seasons.

P52 1 of 52 Yosemite Chapel Doors

I went to Yosemite on January 1st to shoot the valley in it’s new Winter Coat of snow with 2 dear friends. This was our “not-so annual” trip. We try every year to start the year with a photography trip, but it hasn’t been consistent since we all have families, a life, and other interests. This year 3 of our little group were able to make the trip to Yosemite. Our 4th we will forgive for missing…one day! He was in the Galapagos Islands photographing all the sights, and some wildlife. I confess I’m a little jealous! Okay, back to the subject at hand. The Chapel.

I had the pleasure of attending a friends wedding here in the early 80’s. It was lovely!

Yosemite Chapel

My favorite time to photograph this chapel in the winter when there is snow. It has the distinguished honor of being the oldest building in public use in Yosemite Valley. It was built in 1879 under the auspices of the Yosemite Union Chapel Association. Their stated purpose was:
“To erect an undenominational house of worship in the Yosemite Valley”. ~Yosemite Valley Chapel.org

“Mr. Charles Geddes, a leading architect of San Francisco, made and presented the plans. Mr. E. Thomson, also of San Francisco, erected the building at a cost of between three and four thousand dollars. It will seat an audience of about two hundred and fifty. Mr. H. D. Bacon of Oakland donated the bell. When its first notes rang out on the evening of dedication, it was the first sound of “the church-going bell” ever heard in Yosemite.” [“In the Heart of the Sierras” by James M. Hutchings (1888)]

My interior images must be on film because I can’t find them in my digital archives. I’ll have to stop by the chapel on my next visit to photograph it again in digital since it’s been a long time since I was last inside. Who knows when I’ll find the negatives, or scan them since they’re boxed up in the garage, and I’m moving ever so slowly through the boxes in the garage.

For more information about the Chapel please visit http://www.yosemitevalleychapel.org/history.htm

This post is part of Norm’s Thursday’s Doors click over to see all the doors posted this week, and add your own if inspired to. Norm gives you until Saturday noon to post!

More to come…

“I’m waiting for you Morning Star…herald of the dawn.” ~ Deborah M. Zajac

May 25, 2012Posted in California, Landscapes, Nature, Nikon, Photography, TravelTagged Convict Lake, D700, Eastern Sierras, Landscape Photography, Nature, Nikon, Photography, Sunrise, WinterLeave a comment

“Rise quickly for I am numb with Winter’s morning chill.
My fingers ache for your warm embrace.”~

That’s my plea every sunrise shoot, and to be honest most nights too! My fingers are the first to go numb, and I’ve not found a hand-warmer or pair of gloves to keep me warm enough to thwart the chill.

This is a shot from Convict Lake taken the third morning of 2012. Seeing sunrises like the one my friends and I saw on this morning make the early rise, drive time, and standing in the cold worth it!

Winter Yosemite February 2012

March 5, 2012March 5, 2012Posted in California, Landscapes, Nature, Nikon, Photography, TravelTagged California, D700, El Capitan, Manual Focus Lenses, Nikon, Photography, The Three Brothers;, Winter, Yosemite National Park2 Comments

This is a very popular photo spot in Yosemite National Park,and while here to shoot the Horsetail Fall annual event we stopped here. A companion whom I drove up with had never been to Yosemite before so this was a “must see” stop for him. Even though I missed the snow in valley, I have to admit the colors, and textures here were marvelous.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 18mm Ai-S| f16| 1/30 sec| ISO 200| Manual mode| Tripod|

Merced River (Orton Effect)

January 6, 2011January 6, 2011Posted in California, Landscapes, NikonTagged Merced River, Snow, Winter2 Comments

Standing on Swinging Bridge watching the Merced River slowly, and quietly flow west while brothers and sisters built snowmen on the river bank, and Mom’s and Dads had snowball fights, and gaiety and laugher was ringing through the afternoon air, and I was happy.

” When it’s not always raining there’ll be days like this,
When there’s no one complaining there’ll be days like this,
When everything falls into place like the flick of a switch,
Well, my mama told me there’ll be days like this.”
~Van Morrison

There”ll be Days Like This

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 17-35@ 25mm| f5.6| 1/50 sec| ISO 200| Manual Mode| On a Tripod”

Among the Tree Tops

January 23, 2010January 23, 2010Posted in CaliforniaTagged Mountains, Snow, Trees, WinterLeave a comment

The view from downtown Campbell looking across the trees to the snow and cloud covered peak of Mt Hamilton CA.

The storms we’ve had this last week dumped a bit of snow on the peaks in the Diablo Mountain Range. Mt. Hamilton is the highest mountain overlooking Silicon Valley.

Elevation 4360+feet

First ascent- 1861

Age of Rock- Upper Cretaceous

Cooper’s Hawk

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