Coyote

Coyote -- San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon Powershot SX40 HS

This picture almost looks like a painting, doesn't it?  There aren't any effects on this shot, this is just what the camera did in this case.  I think I like it.

Photo selection inspired by Geogypsy's Foto Friday Fun 181, image #7362.

Missed Another One

Western Kingbird -- San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA

I guess I get excited and bounce around, because with a few rare exceptions (for instance) my take off photos are always blurry.  This probably would have been a pretty cool shot otherwise.  Oh well.

California Quail

California Quail -- San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Quail are a common sight around the bushes and tall grass of San Luis National Wildlife Refuge.  This guy, though?  He was on top of a elk fence pole more likely to be occupied by a hawk or a kestrel.  I only saw a few hawks yesterday and the prey seemed to know they were in less danger than normal judging by this quail and some of the rabbits we saw sunning themselves in the open.  It's that time of year, I guess.

California Quail -- San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA

Hiding in the Grass

Tule Elk -- San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, f/5.6, 1/1600s, ISO: 5000

I took this picture late in the day last October at San Luis National Wildlife Refuge.  That place is hit or miss for elk photos.  I get killer shots on some trips, on others I get skunked.  Same with coyotes.  More often than not I don't see a coyote there, but I've had a couple of very nice opportunities as well.

Photo selection inspired by Geogypsy's Foto Friday Fun 155, image #6326.

Fuzzy Barn Owl

Barn Owl -- San Luis National Woldlife Refuge, CA
Canon PowrrShot SX40 HS

I've had exactly one opportunity to photograph a barn owl in the wild.  It happened two years ago just outside the San Luis Wildlife Refuge.  I took a lot of pictures, some of them were fairly crisp given the camera I was using.  The photos I'm showing here are not those.  These are a couple of the fuzzy shots I captured.  The picture above was actually well-focused as you can see by the sharpness of the post and wire fencing, the bird is blurry due to movement.  I generally wouldn't post a photo like this, but a conversation with a fellow photographer at work has me looking at this picture a bit differently.  His thought was that people get too caught up in the clarity of their shots.  He said something along the lines that we miss out on interesting photos just because they aren't sharp.

So, yeah, here I am getting over it.

Photo selection inspired by Geogypsy's Foto Friday Fun 149, image #7508.

Barn Owl -- San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA
 Canon PowerShot SX40 HS

San Luis National Wildlife Refuge

San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, f/6.3, 1/100s, ISO: 100

Rain in the lowlands.  Snow in the Sierras.  Here's to hoping we're looking at a wet, wet winter.

More Cranes

Sandhill Crane -- San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS II USM, f/5.6, 1/2000s, ISO: 3200

Not the most interesting photo, but I like how the crane on the right is looking right at the camera.  Cranes have such little heads for their big bodies.

Sandhill Crane

Sandhill Crane -- San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EJ 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, f/5.6, 1/1600s, ISO: 400

Tule Elk

Tule Elk -- San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, 1/2000s, f/5.6, ISO: 500

I took Pongo on a drive out to the San Luis refuge on Sunday.  He hasn't been out on an adventure in over a month so he was extra excited about the trip.  Most of the birds are gone until winter, but we did see a lot of hawks.  I always hope for a coyote or two, but no such luck.  There were a few elk hanging out near the fence, though.  It looks like they've shed most of the velvet from their antlers.

Great Horned Owl

Great Horned Owl -- San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS II, 1/2000s, f/5.6, ISO: 320

Kinda tough getting a shot of this guy (gal?) through the tree, but I think this one worked out OK.  This was my second crack at this guy.  He was in a tree in the union of the two main driving loops at San Luis.  The light was better in this later set of shots I took after driving the waterfowl route and before before splitting off on the elk route.  This was the only usable photo from that second set.  Better light, but either the picture was blurry or the branches were blocking too much of the face in the other photos.

Elk on the Meadow

Tule Elk -- San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS II, 1/2000s, f/5.6, ISO: 640

This is as close as I ever got to the elk on Sunday.  I only saw three, these are two of them.  The rest must have been tucked into the central part of the refuge.  I like this picture, though.  The yellows and greens are nice and I like how the elk stand out.

Hayfever Central

San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA

I think this kind of scenario is beautiful.  I suspect there are some who might look on a photo like this and start sneezing by reflex.  When I first moved to San Francisco I suffered greatly from allergies for a few years.  For whatever reason, that stopped almost as quickly as it started.  I haven't had any issues at all for probably fifteen years.  Weird.

Swainson's Hawk

Swainson's Hawk -- San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS II, 1/1600s, f/5.6, ISO: 200

I saw at least two swainson's hawks this weekend that I was able to identify.  I also saw one or two others that I wasn't sure about other than I knew they weren't red-tailed hawks or harriers.  The two I was sure about were a couple of hundred feet apart on the tall elk fenceposts.  I imagine they're probably wrapping up their long migration from Argentina.  What a haul.

Central Valley Wetlands

San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS II, 1/1250s. f/5, ISO: 160

I really like pictures like this of San Luis.  Reeds.  Swans.  Winter trees.  It's not particularly sharp--this lens rarely is--but I like these kinds of scenes, and the San Luis refuge is full of 'em in winter.  This is one of Pongo's favorite day trips.  We drive along the auto tour and he hangs out the passenger window and watches the large birds.  Sometimes we see rabbits and deer, those are his favorites.

Selection inspired by Geogypsy's Foto Friday Fun 108, photo #232.

San Luis Wetlands

San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm IS II, 1/800s, f/5, ISO: 100

Not much to say here.  This is the kind of scene that's pretty common at the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge.  Looking at a picture like this can bring calm when I find myself tensing up.  I imagine if you're a duck it might not seem quite so serene considering the usual high density of harriers and hawks, but to me this is the essence of tranquility.

Tule Reeds

San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm IS II, 1/1600s, f/5, ISO: 200

I suspect the beauty of this photo may be lost on a lot of people.  The colors, after all, are drab at best.  It was overcast, which kind of put an exclamation point on that drabness.  It's got a little bit of color with the water and the ducks (I love ducks) but not enough to negate the gray light and the pale reeds.  I love these reeds and what they represent.  They are a connection to this region's past.  The Native Americans wove these reeds into all sorts of things.  Boats, mats, shelter, baskets, pretty much everything they needed could be made from this stuff.  Seeing these vast fields reeds reminds me of this corner of the country's deep past.  Plus, I just like the way they look.

Beautiful Bird

Red-tailed Hawk -- San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm IS II, 

I caught this hawk in a tree on the auto tour yesterday at the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge in Merced,  Some hawks look tough, others look regal, others have an air of intensity.  This bird was absolutely beautiful.  Its legs looked strong and thick, its head sleek with rich colorful streaks of brown and gold.  Gorgeous.

Yeah, I'm kind of crushing on this bird.

Bad to the Bone

Red-tailed Hawk -- San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm f4.0-5.6 IS II, 1/125s, f/5.6, ISO: 6400

The sun was completely down when I came across this hawk sitting on a fence post just outside of the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge in Merced County yesterday.  I wasn't expecting much from this shot.  I had the f-stop at 5.6, which is as wide as it will go when zoomed out to 250mm.  The camera cranked the ISO up to 6400, which is as high as it goes.  I usually don't like the photos I get with a high ISO, they're usually too grainy.  In this case, though, I like how it turned out.  This bird looks like a bad ass, and the roughness added by the high ISO adds to the hard look of the bird.

I saw a lot of hawks at the refuge yesterday.  I'd guess I had to have seen at least four dozen.  I've never seen such a dense concentration of raptors, and I've been out to that refuge many times in the last couple of years.  I even saw a bald eagle a few miles away from the refuge yesterday, which is the farthest South that I've ever seen a bald eagle.