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.

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

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.

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