Month: March 2014

Meadowlark in Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge

One of the best parts of visiting a Wildlife Refuge many miles from your home is that you’re apt to see birds you would never see at home. For instance, I was pleased to see this Meadowlark on our first visit to the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge,

Meadowlark

though I would have been even happier if I’d managed to hear him sing or if he would have turned a little more toward the camera so that the beautiful colors on its breast were more prominently displayed.

On our later visit I did manage to get a shot of one singing,

Meadowlark

and got to listen to it’s beautiful song.

Leslie, however, managed to get the very best shot out of her side of the car.

Meadowlark

I particularly liked this shot after I read that the Meadowlark is part of the blackbird family of birds, a thought that had never occurred to me, though further reflection reminded me that they do look like immature and female Red-Wing Blackbirds. This pose looks exactly like the classic male Red-Wing Blackbird pose, and even though their songs are quite different they both rank up their with my favorite bird songs.

Swans at Lake Ralphine

On my last trip to Santa Rosa and Lake Ralphine I had hoped that the Swans I had observed on my trip a month earlier might have had babies, especially when they didn’t show up at the boat launch. When they didn’t show up after several hours, though, I wondered if they had actually left. However, when I walked the back side of Lake Ralphine I saw a single swan at the end of the lake closest to Spring Lake.

Since I’d always seen the swans together, I wondered if something had happened to its mate or if the mate was sitting on a nest.

So, when the swan slowly paddled away and headed for the underbrush at the end of the lake

I followed.

No nest, no baby swans, but there seemed like a lot of â€?”necking” going on.

It seemed clear that the babies would be coming a little later.

Hopefully I’ll be back when they have cygnets.

California Pheasants

If someone asked me what’s the most important part of shooting birds/wildlife, I would probably say â€?”persistence,” followed much too closely by â€?”very expensive photo equipment.” Leslie likes pheasants and really wanted to get a good shot of one on our recent trip to Sacramento Wildlife Refuge. We saw very few on our first visit; the only one that was close enough to get a shot of was this one that ambled down the road in front of the car, swishing its tail

pheasant

from side to side,

pheasant

refusing to ever look back.

On our next trip back Leslie was excited to spot a pheasant on her side of the car,

pheasant

but once again the pheasant never looked back at her.

We saw our final pheasant just as we were about to leave the refuge and return to Vancouver. Although it took several minutes to get a shot of the pheasant on top of the ridge rather than behind it, we both got some excellent shots, like this one by Leslie,

pheasant

and this one by me.

pheasant

Of course, I’ve actually been trying to get shots of pheasants for several years now, but I think these two might be the best we’ve managed to get so far.

Raptors at Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge

If you visit the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge this time of year it’s impossible to miss the large number of raptors, most of which are Red-Tailed Hawks. Unfortunately, seeing hawks and getting good pictures of them is not the same thing. Most of the time they are sitting in distant trees, and, more often than not, the sun will be behind them, reducing them to little more than silhouettes, silhouettes only recognizable by the touch of red in the tail feathers.

”Red-Tailed

Occasionally, though, you get lucky and the hawk will stand its branch as you approach rather than flying to a distant tree. When that happens you can sometimes manage to to get a shot that you can save in Photoshop, as in this shot.

Red-Tailed Hawk

How can such a huge bird can support itself by wrapping its talons around such small branches? They must be a lot lighter than they look.

We also saw a few Bald Eagles, which excited the locals more than it did me

Bald Eagle

since it turns out Bald Eagles are just starting to rebuild in Northern California, though they’re quite widespread in the Puget Sound area.

My favorite shot, though, is of a much smaller hawk sitting on top of some reeds in the middle of the wetlands.

hawk

I think it’s a Sharp-shinned Hawk because of the eye color, though I wouldn’t swear that it’s not a Cooper’s Hawk, which looks quite similar. I seldom see a Sharp-shinned or Cooper’s hawk that’s not zipping by so fast that I can’t possibly get a shot. So, I was pleased when this one stayed put for a good five minutes while I took shot after shot.