I’ve noticed more Red-winged blackbirds this spring than in any other year; I’m not sure if that means there are more of them around or if I’ve just been lucky. I do find it funny that I drove three hours to Lake County hoping to see a few around Clear Lake — only to come home and spot a larger […]
I normally have a very difficult time getting close enough to photograph the local quail; they’re extremely shy and are usually fleeing long before I even notice their presence. Many times when I do manage to shoot them, they’re hiding in the bushes so I don’t exactly have a clear view. It’s all rather frustrating to me — mostly because […]
I could really spend hours gazing at the ocean off the Northern California coast, and I sometimes manage to shoot a few pictures as well! We were fortunate to make it over to the coast on three separate trips last year, in April, September, and November. It was the first time in ages that I’d seen the coast in springtime, […]
Yes, it’s still only February — but to walk along the Lake Natoma bluffs on a morning like this, you would never know it wasn’t the middle of April. For me, it was literally a bluebird day; these beautiful Western Bluebirds seemed to be in tucked into every tree and working busily in the grass along the trail. The sparrows […]
It normally takes quite a lot of patience, concentration, and good timing to produce the best photos of small birds in the wild. I’m sure I’m not the only photographer who has shot many, many not-so-great pictures in search of one decent one. Of course, if just anybody could easily do it, those truly great nature photos we all admire […]
Only a couple of years ago I was complaining that, apart from one occasion in Ensenada, Mexico, many years ago, I had never gotten a good look at a Brown Pelican in the wild. That all changed this past year during a couple of trips to Mendocino County in the fall and winter. I saw so many pelicans that my […]
One of these mornings I’m going to get myself back over to the vernal pools at Phoenix Park to visit the birds — and hopefully spend more than 45 minutes, which was all I had on my last trip. Even in that small amount of time, I saw Crows, Ravens, Canada Geese, Goldfinches, Black Phoebes, and a handful of Killdeer. […]
While I was mostly hoping to photograph some smaller birds yesterday morning while exploring the vernal pools at Phoenix Park, it was impossible to ignore the local crows. There weren’t very many of them, but they were very vocal — and determined to defend the area from the single Red-shouldered Hawk that made the mistake of passing just a little […]