Tag: wildlife

Eagles at Klamath Basin

I will admit to having a bit of the winter doldrums. It has been so cold for so long that most open water is frozen over and other than the birds that visit my backyard feeder, the places I visit have seemed empty and sterile. I belong to an online Birding Photographer site and was becoming envious of all the wonderful exotic places full of wildlife and birds that people were visiting. I started daydreaming of visiting some of the legendary places that kept being mentioned like Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico and some different far flung destinations that I can’t realistically visit. That led me on a research hunt to find places I could go that were within reach. It seems silly that I did not realize or have the awareness that California, right next door, had so much to offer in the way of wildlife. Of course it is on the Pacific Flyway and has many refuges. I have overlooked all of this as I usually am oriented to looking east into the desert for inspiration. All of this led me to a weekend trip to the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex on the California- Oregon border.
Visiting the refuge was an amazing experience that I will definitely repeat. During the winter months the Refuge plays host to the largest concentration of Bald Eagles in the contiguous United States with up to 1000 eagles visiting some years. Millions of waterfowl pass through the refuge on their way south for the winter and back north. The eagles come to take advantage of the bounty. In addition to the eagles there are lots of other raptors that winter there and live on the refuge year round. The amount of and diversity of wildlife I saw was amazing. Sometimes I hardly knew where to point my camera it was so overwhelming.
I rented a 500mm lens for a month so that I could use it on this trip and another outing I have planned in a couple of weeks. I am glad I did as it was nice to have the additional reach that my 400mm would not have afforded me. Speaking of affording, I will have to save my pennies for a 500mm of my own. It was pretty nice using this lens and will be a sad day when I have to send it back. That was what I was practicing with and for prior to this trip. I will be making several posts about visiting the Klamath Basin and showing photos from my visit but wanted to start with the rock stars of the Refuge: The Bald Eagles. Hope you enjoy!

Practicing

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Winter has been bitterly cold here and after not going out for a few weeks I could not stand it anymore. Have made one trip out to the refuge to see if I could stay warm with some new boots and got the pic of the Great Horned Owl. The boots worked pretty well with heat packs in them. Took these pictures yesterday in my back yard. I need to practice for an upcoming trip. I have a camo drape that my Mother was kind enough to make for me. I sit on a little stool with the cloth draped over me. It is amazing how quickly the birds forget that you are there. There is quite a lot of drama in my backyard. I have a feeder set up for the small birds which they have been flocking to. We have at least two hawks that hunt the little birds on a regular basis. It is interesting to watch the hawks. They show up and the little birds all take refuge in bushes that the hawks are too large to get into. The little birds scold and chatter at the hawks from their hiding places. Yesterday this Coopers hawk landed on the fence and watched the birds for a bit allowing me to get photos of him. Then he flew at the bushes until all the birds flew out and he chased them. He was not successful this time but I have observed the Sharp-shinned Hawk eating a sparrow from my weeping cherry tree. Just wish they would snag the pigeons. I feel fortunate to have so much going on right out my back door!

Quail

Quail are among my favorite birds. I love their calls and that silly top knot feather they carry on their heads . I have quite a few visiting my yard this winter. They can’t get into my feeder but they wait patiently for the smaller birds to knock seeds down to them. From my tent blind I was able to take some decent photos of them yesterday.

Little Birds

Like everyone else who has tried to take photos of tiny birds I have experienced my share of frustration. A few months ago I purchased a portable blind I thought I would use in the field but it proved to be a bit of a hassle to carry with me. I set it up this week close to my bird feeder in the back yard to see what would happen. It was amazing how fast the birds acclimated to it and they don’t pay attention to me inside it snapping away at them. These are some images I was able to take from the blind. I am not quite satisfied with my efforts yet but hope to have more and better examples soon. Striving for that crisp, clear image with a nice background. We will see…

Backyard Birds

I put up a bird feeder a few weeks ago. We have a pigeon problem in the neighborhood so I put up a feeder that will only allow small birds access to the food. So far have lots of visits by sparrows, finches, juncos and this Rufous sided towhee (correction – spotted towhee). Along with the little visitors we have had visits by Kestrels and this handsome hawk which I believe is s Sharp-shinned Hawk. So far I have not seen them take any of my little friends who flee and hide in a weeping mulberry in a corner of the yard by the feeder. The branches are very thick and the hawks can’t get to the birds who scold them from their refuge. The Hawks have to eat too I just hope that they will discover the pigeons.

Mule Deer

The last few weeks I have been battling my fear of the dark to go out very early in the morning to try to capture good deer photos. It is challenging getting close to them and the light is tricky. I am learning a lot about deer and other wildlife sitting still for long hours at dawn but also learning how much I don’t know about photography. The light is tricky and I am struggling with getting the settings right before the sun comes up but I will continue to stumble along as all of this and me are a work in progress. Hope you enjoy the photos.

Autumn Collection

I have not been posting much lately because I have been out taking photos every spare moment. Love this time of year. The foliage of course is lovely but so fleeting here. We had a few days of peak color and then a storm rolled in with 60 mile an hour winds and temperatures in the twenties at night. Any leaves left clinging to the branches are a dull brown.

This is the best time of year to take deer photos. They are far more active and you are more likely to see the bucks hanging around the does. I have had good luck the last couple of weeks and the rut has not yet started. I got photos of this small two point and a giant buck this morning. The biggest I have ever been this close to. I hope to get more photos of this big fellow in a week or so when he has other things on his mind. I started wearing full camouflage and using scent killing spray. It seems to be working as I am getting very close to the deer before they spot me. Then it takes them a while to figure out what I am.

Goodbye Little Friends

I typically get obsessed with a topic or subject to photograph for a while and then it becomes all-consuming for some time. This summer it was hummingbirds. I had never been successful attracting them to my backyard so this year I made a project out of it. First I replaced some of my plants with surefire Hummer attracting plants. Then I got rid of the feeder that the Hummers could never figure out how to feed from. Then purchased some inexpensive feeders and hung them up and what do you know? I had hummingbirds all over my back yard!

The type of hummingbird that seemed to dominate my yard and the feeders is the Rufous Hummingbird. These little guys are feisty. They put on aerial acrobatics that would rival a Blue Angels air show vying to be the Lord of the Feeders. For many weeks I sat outside in the early morning and evenings and enjoyed their company. They soon let me sit right by the feeders and take pictures of them. I did not seem to bother them at all. They buzzed my old Labrador retriever a few times and she got cranky about it and barked at them which did not seem to impress the birds.

Sadly, last evening I went out to watch them and not a single bird showed up. The local newspaper said they were getting ready to migrate but I thought it is still summer! Surely they are not leaving yet? I sat there until dark and did not hear their little chirps announcing they were there or the shrill sounds of combat my dogs and I have grown accustomed to. This morning I saw a couple of birds visit the feeders but the days of seeing 6 or 7 at once seem to have passed. With their departure comes the first whisper of winter. I will miss them until they return next summer.

I am getting ready for my vacation in September. Two weeks of hiking so I have been in training. I have not been taking as many pictures because I have been speed hiking to prepare myself. I did take my camera out today and in spite of rushing across the landscape before the temperature exceeded 90, I was lucky to see quite a bit to photograph.

Ran into two coyotes and was fortunate that I saw them before they saw me. I think the sun was in their eyes and I was able to get off a few snaps before they hightailed it out of there. Noticed some wild horses coming down to water across the river and with the water between us they were fairly relaxed about my presence. My concerns about the drought taking a toll on them have unfortunately been warrented. These pictures are pretty hard to look at. This particular band does not seem to be feeding well at all. You can see every rib, hip bones are jutting out and you can count their vertebrae in their backbones. There is plenty of water to drink but the lack of snow and rain this spring meant very little grew for them to eat. They are not going into the hard months in  good shape.

I almost ran into this doe while she was doing a trim job on the lower branches of a cottonwood. I actually saw more wildlife today than I do when I am trying to be stealthy. Not sure what can be learned from that!