Birding

On Monday I went birding with Lenore. I have always been a casual birder. I would bird only to ID what it was that I was photographing. Mondays expedition to the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge was one of the few times that I was birding with photography thrown in and not the other way around. We had our field guides and we pretty much stuck to ID ing the waterfowl and a few smaller birds such as a Black Phoebe and one LBJ (Little Brown Job an unknown sparrow). One of the highlights of the day was spotting a Bald Eagle way off in the distance near the viewing platform and seeing some Blacktail Deer out in the open. It's always such a wonderful feeling to be out on the refuge with all of the sights and sounds around you. The weather was simply beautiful and we had a marvelous time.God's blessings upon your day, chris All images created with a Canon 7D and a Canon 100-400 IS lens.

Trip Report Part Two Other Birds

The Sacramento Valley trip in Northern California continues. Besides Mallards there were a few other visitors to the blind at Delevan. A pair of Gadwall swam by and the usual ever present American Coots. Even a group of four White Fronted Geese came by for a short visit.The most colorful bird of the day was a Meadowlark that landed in a tree above the blind and proceeded to serenade me with its' territorial song. I left the bind when the Meadowlark left and nothing came to the blind for close to an hour.

I then made the drive up to the main Sacramento Refuge and took the Auto Tour around the refuge. If you ever get the chance to do the auto tour in mid january it is well worth the drive with tens of thousands of ducks and geese sometimes on the ponds right off of the auto tour route. Today however most of the waterfowl were dispersed from the refuge now that the hunting season for them is over. But there were still a lot of birds to see and photograph including many birds of prey in the trees right above the road.This included a Turkey Vultureand a Redtail Hawk.

Waterfowl wise I photographed a Ringneck Duck, Snow Geese a huge flock and a single. Both Green Wing and Cinnamon Teal. Completeing the Auto tour I headed south through the valley town of Maxwell where on the outskirts of town there wasa flock of White Faced Ibis that flew in to feed. Overall it was an exciting trip full of opportunities to photograph birds and even a squirrel. I also got to see three River Otters and a Peregrine along the way but they weren't in locations I could photgraph them. Maybe next year.

God's blessings and love to all,

chris

Trip Report Mad for Mallards

Yesterday I spent a great morning at a photography blind on Delevan Wildlife Refuge northeast of Williams California. The blind had the easiest access of any blind I have photographed from in the refuge system. It was located on a medium sized pond that was tinged with tules making it the perfect habitat for Mallards and other dabbling ducks.I arrived at the blind at five forty giving the ducks plenty of time to adjust or forget that I was there. Within an hour I had Mallards starting to use the logs placed near the blind for the ducks to use.I photographed Mallard for almost two hours before I scared the ducks accidentally when my lens bumped against the side of the blind when I was repositioning it. After that the photography dropped to almost nothing.To be continued..

God's blessings to all,

chris