Northern Shoveler

Northern Shoveler -- Merced 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: 640

No story here.  Just a duck on a pond.  A flooded field, really.

Ross' Goose

Ross' Goose -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, ISO: 320, f/5.6, 1/1600s

Why is it that when geese stand together in a flock almost all of them stand facing the same direction?

Seriously, I want to know.  I see this over and over and I don't know why this is.

Black-necked Stilt

Black-necked Stilt -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, ISO: 800, f/5, 1/1600s

Identifying shorebirds can be difficult.  That's one of the reasons you won't find a whole lot of shorebird photos on this blog.  If I can't identify the bird I generally won't show it here.  If I'm not going to show the photo I often won't even bother to take it unless I'm sure it's something I haven't seen before.  That's probably a bad attitude, but it is what it is.  Plus, I'm just not all that interested in shore birds.  Sparrows, gulls and warblers suffer similarly.

Having said that, avocets and black-necked stilts are beautiful birds that I never tire of photographing.  Avocets are sleek and graceful and black-necked stilts are just downright cute.  So, I bring you this photo of a black-necked stilt in all of its cute glory.  Indulge yourself.

Duck Week: Cinnamon Teal

Cinnamon Teal -- Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS II, ISO: 500, f/5.6. 1/2000s

Cinnamon teals are always fun to spot.  They're small ducks, bigger than ruddy ducks and buffleheads but not by a whole lot.  I've found that they are tough to shoot for whatever reason.  Maybe another way to say that is that I don't have very many good shots of cinnamon teals.

One of the things I find surprising is that they have the same blue color in their wings that a blue-winged teal does.  I guess it's not too surprising if you look only at the female ducks.  It's tough for me to tell a lady blue-winged from a lady cinnamon teal.  I just assume if she's hanging out with a cinnamon drake she's a cinnamon teal and vice versa.

Cinnamon Teal -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS II, ISO: 400, f/5.6, 1/2000s

Early Arrivals

Greater White-fronted Geese -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, f/7.1, 1/400s, ISO: 320

I like how these five geese look like they're just out for a little stroll and a chat.  I wonder what geese talk about.  How was the flight, maybe?

Black-necked Stilt

Black-necked Stilt -- Merced 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: 640

I don't tend to get very excited about small shorebirds unless they're flocked together in large numbers.  I do enjoy taking photos of black-necked stilts, though.  They're easy to identify and are probably the cutest shorebird on the West Coast.  They're a challenge to photograph well because like egrets their white feathers tend to wash out.

Sandhill Cranes

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

I almost passed up on this shot because of the poor lighting.  Glad I hung in there, though, because I like what happened when the front crane turned into the sun.  I ended up with this shot, which I kind of like.

Winter Is Coming

Sandhill Crane -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, f/8, 1/500s, ISO: 400

Winter is coming.

It's hard to tell this year.  The temperatures have dipped only slightly.  We have yet to see rain.  The grass has been brown for months.  Aside from the fact that the days are getting shorter, the only physical indication that we're approaching winter is the departure and arrival of migratory animals.

I took a drive out to Merced National Wildlife Refuge on Friday.  A few thousand sandill cranes have already arrived, with probably an equal number of norther shovelers.  They've been around at least a couple of weeks.  I also saw a hundred or more white-fronted geese.  I didn't see any of those two weeks ago at the San Luis unit.  A few northern pintails and ross'/snow geese were there on Friday.  Soon they'll number in the thousands.

Western Kingbird

Western Kingbird -- Merced 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: 100

Not the sharpest of photos, but I like the colors in the background and how the bird stands out against it, so this one's a keeper for me.

I took this yesterday at Merced National Wildlife Refuge.  Most of the aquatic birds have left for their summer home, leaving the refuge to the swallows and kingbirds and owls.  That's not quite fair, I think one could tick off almost as many different species this time of year as in the middle of winter, they're just a different set of birds.  These birds just aren't out in the staggering numbers as the inhabitants from a couple of months ago.

More Cranes

Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm IS II, 1.2000s, f/5.6, ISO: 400

OK, unlike yesterday's photo, I'm not so sure about this one.  Again the depth of focus is too narrow, but zoomed in it's a bit more obvious.  Basically most of the picture is out of focus.  I like the crane with its mouth open and also how the egrets can be seen mixed in with the cranes.  Sandhill cranes are pretty awesome, I'm thinking about heading back out there this weekend.

Sandhill Cranes

Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm IS II, 1/2000s, f/5.6, ISO: 400

This photo has grown on me.  Cranes.  Blackbirds.  Egrets. The depth of focus is too narrow, but I like all the action.

White-faced Ibis

White-faced Ibis -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm IS II, 1/2000s, f/5.6, ISO: 640

I took this photo last week on the auto tour at the Merced National Wildlife Refuge.  This ibis was right next to the road and paid no attention to me as I pulled up to take pictures.

What's the plural of ibis?  Ibises?  Ibii?  Just plain old Ibis?  The spell check is letting me get away with ibises, so that's what I'm going with.

I've seen plenty of ibises on these auto tours.  I've never gotten this close, though.  What a strange collection of colors and patterns.  It's hard to imagine it could all go together on a single bird.  The "white-faced" part of their name comes from their breeding plumage, which has more red in their chest and neck and obviously white on their face.  I had to look that up, I've never actually seen one with a white face.

Snowy Egret

Snowy Egret -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm IS II, 1.1600s, f/5.6, ISO: 320

Lovely birds, snowy egrets.  It seems like when nothing else is going well a snowy egret will come through with a nice photo op.  This was the first good shot of the day on Monday, and it came at around 4:00.  Things went better after that, though.  I credit little snowy here for getting the ball rolling.

Owl in a Nest

Great Horned Owl -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T4i, EF-S 55-250mm IS II, 1/1600s, f/5.6, ISO: 640

Can a person ever tire of seeing owls?  I suspect not.

I did a bit of research, and it turns out that great horned owls usually lay their eggs in January and the eggs hatch about a month later.  So, if this mother's eggs haven't hatched yet they will be soon.  The old man is probably off hunting for food for her.

Cinnamon Teal

Cinnamon Teal -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm IS II, 1/1600s, f/5.6, ISO: 400

Cinnamon Teals are such pretty little ducks.  They're not exactly rare, but I always get excited when I get an opportunity to get a good picture of one.  I saw fifteen or so yesterday at the San Luis and Merced National Wildlife Refuges.  A few were close to the road where I was able to snap a handful of nice shots.

Love these little guys.

Fly by Night

Great Horned Owl -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm IS II, 1/2000s, f/5.6, ISO: 400

Another picture of the owls from last weekend, this time both of them.  This picture gives something of an indication of how much stuff I had to shoot through to get to the owls.  So many branches.

Cranes & Trees

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

Sandhill cranes tend to keep their distance from cars and people.  I wasn't able to get close enough to the cranes for decent photos with my paltry 250mm lens.  I was able to get a few fuzzy-ish shots of the birds that flew over the car, but this is probably the best photo I got of the cranes from Saturday.  I kind of like this picture.

I might as well include one of those flight shots.  I think I did OK considering I had to use manual focus.

Sandhill Crane -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm IS II, 1/1600s, f/5.6, ISO: 320

'atsa lotta birds!

Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i. EF-S 55-250mm IS II, 1/800s, f/5.0, ISO:100

Hundreds, probably thousands, of snow geese in flight like this can make a hell of a racket.  It's something incredible to witness in person.While they were doing their thing on the left side of the car on Saturday sandhill cranes were whooping up a storm of their own on the right side of the car.  Pongo lost interest in both sets of birds when he saw the little cottontail rabbit about ten feet away from his side of the car.

Some moments are absolute magic.

Great Horned Owl

Great Horned Owl -- Merced National Wildlife Refuge, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm IS II, 1/2000s, f/5.6, ISO: 400

This owl looks like a real bad ass, doesn't it?

Pongo and I went to the Merced National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday.  We went for a walk around the Bittern Trail, which is a short little loop around what I imagine is more of a marsh during normal years.  I think my jaw dropped a little when I saw not one but two large silhouettes in a tree.  I'd read that this trail sometimes has owls on it, but I read that about a lot of places and it has never panned out for me.  Luckily the trail wound around to the other side of the tree where I had  good light for pictures and the birds were content to just watch as I struggled to find a clearing through the dense, leafless branches.  A truly clear vantage point wasn't possible without a pair of wings of my own, but I found a spot that wasn't too bad.

I dunno, pretty cool bird if you ask me.