birds
Great Blue Heron
I had the opportunity to drive into Yosemite National Park yesterday. I squared away my new annual pass and got some needed information for the coming weeks. (park entry reservations, road closures, etc.)
Winter in Yosemite can be a challenging pursuit but the rewards sometimes surprise you. Case in point, after driving around the valley, I found a pullout near the river, stopped grabbed my gear and headed gingerly over the icy berm. (Falling awhile carrying camera gear, not fun). I found a few photo opts but they were just OK. Then out of the corner of my eye, through the trees I saw a steel colored shape! It was this heron!
Scrambled back to the car, switched out my lens (Tamron 150-600mm) and tried to quietly sneak back down to a spot where I thought I could take a decent photo. This heron kept one eye on me the entire crunchy, slippery time down the embankment. He allow me to fire off a few good shots and then flew off when another family parked and explored near by.
Great Blue Heron
Decided to go out after work and look for wildlife in the estuary that near by. Found this Great Blue Heron stalking the waters for a meal.
#28 Photograph Reflections
This week I pulled #28 from the Lightbox Photography Cards set. “The challenge here is to capture something of interest in a reflection”. Many iconic landscape photographs feature this technique. My samples this week are inspired by a recent trip to Oregon.
Osprey – Pandion haliaetus
I was backpacking and the resident osprey flew overhead. It was probably looking for it’s next meal.
Bald Eagle in Flight
A young Bald Eagle in flight on an early morning hike at Alpine Lake last month.
Sunset Hawk
It was another back road adventure down a less traveled road when I saw this hawk sitting on a fence post. The sunset was setting and I pulled over and grabbed the camera. I fired off a few shots before he took off into the hazy sunset.
Watchful Eye
When I have the time, I like to take the back roads home. Last Sunday, I took Hunt Road off of highway 4 and it meanders through Calaveras county and opens to a valley. Along the way I cut over to Rock Creek Road and I spied this bird in an old oak tree by a stream. It was fairly large and as you can see mostly white from the vantage point I had from the road. It seemed to have its watchful eye on the landscape in front of it.
Dinner To Go
These turkeys were feeding along the highway in this field. When I parked, they just started to wandered away from the highway (and out of range from my camera). All the time, heads down just eating their dinner to go.
Survived Thanksgiving
From the highway, I spotted a gang of turkeys. These guys were good sized and seemed to have escaped Thanksgiving last month.
Snapshots by Kats 