Category: Northern California

Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge

Although I knew that this wasn’t the best time of year to visit the Sacramento Wildlife Refuge and that first light isn’t the best time for lighting, I can’t imagine not stopping by the refuge on our way to Santa Rosa. It’s that delightful even in off-season and ridiculously early in the morning.

We got this shot of a young buck just after sunrise,

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and if it wasn’t for the quality of light I would have just deleted it without a second thought.

Much of the refuge hadn’t been filled with water yet, but the areas that did have water were certainly filled with large numbers of ducks that seemed aware that hunting season is near.

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No matter how I early I get out birding at home, I’m never serenaded by a Meadowlark,

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a great way to start any day.

Although we didn’t see some of the rarer birds, like American Avocets, we did see several Snowy Egrets, one of my favorite birds to photograph.

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We even saw a single Night Heron.

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The best shot of the day, though, came at the end of the tour when we sighted this Peregrine Falcon

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posing in ideal sunlight while both Leslie and I shot away. Although I’ve managed to get shots of Peregrine Falcons even at home, I’m pretty sure these were the best shots we’ve ever managed to get — even if it was Leslie who actually captured the shot.

In the Morning Light

With a long drive in front of us, I wanted to get an early start on our last day in California and get a last look at The Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge even though I knew the light wouldn’t be ideal at that hour.

We finally got to see the flocks of Snow Geese that we hadn’t yet seen, though the orangish, sunrise light gave them a different look than I’ve seen before.

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The same light gave this male Northern Shoveler an almost surreal look.

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We didn’t see a single Avocet, but this Black-Necked Stilt

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appeared almost as pinkish as Avocets do.

Later, I wished that we had the same light when finally got to Mt. Shasta,

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but by then the sun had ducked behind the clouds, giving it a very different look.

Days like that give you a real sense of just how subjective light and the resulting colors can be.

Colusa National Wildlife Refuge

We’ve gotten used to seeing Snow Geese, Avocets and White-Faced Ibis in previous visits to Colusa National Wildlife Refuge. This time, however, we didn’t see a single Avocet and only saw two or three White-Faced Ibis,

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and had to wait until the second day to see any Snow Geese, and had to settle for some nice shots of Greater White Faced Geese

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which we also seldom see here in the PNW.

We did enjoy seeing the Night Heron Rookery we discovered on our first visit, but when we visited this time they were all roosting in the heavy brush, making it challenging to get a good shot.

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Luckily, when you don’t find what you expect, you often find other birds that you didn’t expect, like this Northern Shrike

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that Leslie got a nice shot out her window, and this Marsh Wren

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announcing Spring to the world.

Nothing Is Ever Just Black and White

Although it was â€?”bright” while I was in Santa Rosa, it was never sunny. It was actually the perfect light for portraits, but less than ideal for action shots. As it turned out, though, it was nearly perfect light for at least two of my subjects.

As I’ve complained before, it’s really hard to capture both the subtle whites and blacks of male Bufflehead. 95% of the time either the whites or the blacks get totally washed out, and you end up with a silhouette. This is probably the best shot I’ve ever gotten of a male Bufflehead, with details in both the blacks and the whites,

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though I’ll have to admit that I had to tone down the highlights further than seemed realistic to get the details. In real life, the white seems brighter than this and yet, somehow, manages to maintain details.

There was another black and white duck that I have also struggled to capture in photos, a male Common Merganser.

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This guy was actually standing in fairly heavy shade, but it’s one of the few â€?”closeups” I’ve ever managed to get of one out of the water so I like it quite a lot. As a result, the blacks were a little to dark to draw details from and the whites also lost details trying to correct the blacks.

Here’s a shot of a male Common Merganser in brighter light.

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At this angle it’s clear that the head really isn’t solid black as it appeared in the previous shot, but is really a very dark green that shimmers in the right light. The trade-off, and there invariably seems to be one, is that there is a loss of detail in the white areas.

In an ideal world, a male Common Merganser would have stood upright and flapped its wing like this female did, but I long ago accepted the fact that I don’t live in an ideal world and was grateful that this female Common Merganser provided a little action for the day.

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Of course, since it was slightly overcast the shutter speed wasn’t quite fast enough to prevent blur in the wings, but that’s okay to me because they actually appeared blurry when I saw them beating, too.

Of course, these shots would benefit from HDR, the method I use almost automatically on scenic shots nowadays, but there’s no way to combine three shots at different apertures when the subject is in motion. RAW format is the best you can do at capturing what the eye really sees.