Pick Me! Pick Me!

Sometimes in the travels through out my day I come across images that aren't neccesarily beautiful to some people. These are the common everyday stock images that you find illustrating articles in all kinds of industrial and trade magazines. These images just jump out at me and yell for me to stop and be creative and record what is there. It's a good thing to do too because sometimes these images are used as stock imagery. I have had images of wood decks and piles of broken appliances used before. You just never know what kinds of images someone might need.

While driving Annika to school the other morning (I do that a lot don't I? ) this cell tower was peeking up out of the fog just begging to be photographed. After dropping her off I found a spot on the side of the road where I could get a good view of it. It will make a great illustration for a cell tower company or an article on communication. Ah, more work to submit. It's a good thing.

A Little Black Tailed Deer

This morning after I dropped off Annika I decided to hunt down some Blacktail Deer to photograph. I went to all my usual places and didn't find anything. Well that's not completely true as I did find a beautiful doe and her still spotted fawn. The only problem was is that they were feeding in front of a large solid wooden fence. Not exactly a very photogenic setting. The lighting was starting to go when just a bit further down I spotted this little forked horn feeding on a hillside. He was in the worst possible light in that he was in the shade with bright lighting behind him. So I did the best I could and metered for the shade letting the background blow out. I loved the expression of concern on his face as he was looking to the east where some dogs were barking.

God's light and love to all,

chris

Part Three of Three

Steller's Jay (cyanocitta stelleri)

This is the last installment of the three part series. Those of you that have been following it already know that it will be covering the Steller's Jay. The Steller's Jay is one of North Americas most beautiful and striking birds due to it's dramatic blue color. They are often overlooked as such because they are very common and well they can be pretty obnoxious at times. They have a raspy call and they are pretty well known to be noisy and kind of a pest scavenging around campgrounds. In my backyard feeders I have come to know them as the Backyard Bullies. They typically come to the feeder in a gang and try to keep everyone away when they feed.

In appearance as I have already stated they are a beautiful blue. Their body is all blue darkening into a head and shoulders that is almost a blue black. Their head is cowned with a dark crest. The Pacific version where I live has a neon blue thin stripes running up the side of the forhead into the crest. As you go further east towards the interior this is usually more white.The bills and feet are dark gray to black.The tail and wings are also blue with blue black barring. Size wise they are eleven and a half inches tall with a nineteen inch wingspan. Alltogether a very handsome bird.

Their range is widespread over much of the western part of North America. It extends from the southern part of the panhandle of Alaska south through the intermountain region of the Rocky Mountains extending all the way to Nicaragua in South America.They are found all along the cost of North America from Alaska down to the lower part of Cental California.

They are omnivorous and eat a wide variety of food. I have watched them attempting to kill birds smaller than themselves. They eat seeds,acorns,frogs,lizards,insects,berries and fruit. A pretty varied diet.

They make a messy nest made up of sticks,twigs and leaves lined with grass and other soft materials. There is pair every year that nests above my Mom's porchlight! They lay two to six eggs that hatch out insixteen days. The young leave the nest in about eighteen days.

A pretty gregarious bird that adapts well to living around humans. They are not a species of concern either probably because of that adaptible behavior. They easliy take to bird feeders and robbing people of their food and scraps at campgrounds.

I hope you enjoyed this little mini series.

God's love and blessings to everyone,

chris

Part Two of Three

Band tail Pigeon (Columbia flavirostris)

Here in part two I’m going to be covering Band Tailed Pigeons. I had a fantastic time photographing Bandtails for two sessions in the blind. I was even lucky enough to capture and image of a banded one. Not bad for "Bandtail Pigeons".Bandtails are extremely nervous and will take flight at the slightest movement. They are extremely cautious and take a long, long time to come down to the feeder. They will tentatively come down one at a time nervously pecking at the grain. But once they feel safe it becomes an all out party with birds tumbling on top of and over one another with a lot of pecking and squabbling. Suddenly something will set them off in an explosive thunderous sound of wings. O.K. I will admit that sometimes I do know what sets them to flight. I may move my hand too quickly while focusing or recomposing or I may move my hand accidentally too close to the blinds camera port.

I guess the main point I’m trying to make here is that these aren’t city pigeons. They may resemble the common everyday rock pigeons of the cities but they are far from it. They are a truly wild pigeon. Bandtails are North Americas largest and only native pigeon.

So what do they look like? Bandtails are soft gray brown like a Rock Dove (introduced), but are more aerodynamic being longer and sleeker. Bandtails backs are gray, with a lighter gray banded tail tip. When landing these tail tips really stand out. The bill and feet really make a statement as they are a bright orange yellow. The eyes are black with a thin, red, fleshy eye ring around the outside of it. Though this can only be seen when you are really close up or with a pair of binos or a spotting scope or in my case a telephoto lens. Adults have a white collar at the nape (back) of the neck with an iridescent green patch underneath it. In the right light it really stands out! The breasts and bellies are washed in a pinkish-mauve. Adult males and females look alike; juveniles are an overall gray. Size wise they are large (as noted before) They are fourteen and a half inches tall with a wingspan of two feet.


Bandtails are found from Northern Britsh Columbia south through the mountains of Southern California. They are found eastward to Colorado, Arizona and Utah and south into Central Mexico. In fall and spring they do migrate though there are some local populations that seem to stay put in some warmer regions along the coast in California. They seem to prefer mountainous, coniferous forested (areas like where I live)

Diet wise I know Bandtails love acorns as I have watched them demolish the acorns off an oak tree. They also eat berries,seeds and grain.

Nesting wise they make a flimsy platform nest of twigs and line it with pine needles. They lay 1 or 2 eggs that hatch out in18 to 20 days. The young fledge in 25 to 27 days.

The good news is that Bandtails aren’t a species of concern though populations are currently on a downward trend.

God’s love and blessings to all,

chris

Part One of a Three Part Series

I spent the past two mornings sitting in a new blind set up in my front yard. I’m was using my semi permanent blind which is a pretty cushy set up for wildlife photography. It has a rolling office chair, shooting shelfs and moveable viewing ports etc. Well enough of that. During those two sessions I managed to create a fairly large body of images of Western Gray Squirrels, Bandtail Pigeons and the ever present but beautiful Stellar Jays.

Due to the large volume of images it took me numerous hours today to edit them down to my favorites. When all was said and done I decided it would be best to do a profile of each one in turn starting with the Western Gray Squirrel. I have always been a sucker for small mammals. They have such personality and character.

Western Gray Squirrel (Sciurus griseus)

The good news is that they are a species of least concern meaning they currently aren’t going to disappear any time soon. Males are called bucks and females are called does just like deer. Baby squirrels are called kits, kittens or pups. Here is some information to know and forget or throw out at parties. A whole group of gray squirrels is called a dray or a scurry. I’m sure you will be popular after bringing up that fact.

In looks they are a fairly large squirrel as they are about twelve inches long with a luxurious, bushy, gray haired tail with white tips. The tail is longer than their body. . The ears are neat in that they are kind of a rusty red on the backsides. Their belly is cream colored to white while the upper body is covered in peppery white and gray fur hence the name Gray Squirrel. Go figure!

Food wise they have a varied diet that changes with the seasons. They like to feed in the mornings. They have a diet made up of truffles (they have good taste) seeds, fungi, acorns, pine nuts and the new growth on trees. They also really love the sunflower seeds in my squirrel feeder along with bulbs from my flower beds sometimes.

Western Grays are found all along the western coast of the United States From Washington to extreme Southern California. They are a tree squirrel meaning “duh” that they live in trees. They typically claim an area of ½ to 2 acres as their territory. They are found in forests from sea level to the lower elevations of the Sierra Nevada and the Cascade Mountains.

Grays nest high up in the trees in a messy ball like nest made up of leaves and branches lined with fur. They also use this to wait out cold weather and storms as they don’t hibernate. They mate in early spring and give birth to three to five young between March and June. The month varies in their range depending upon elevation and latitude.
Now you know more than enough about Western Gray Squirrels.

God’s precious love and blessings to everyone,

chris

Sunrise to Sunset

This morning I posted images from the sunrise. Then it's only appropriate to post some of the sunset. I walked down our road and found a good spot to photograph the sun going down over the fog on the Pacific ocean.

Good night and God bless,

chris

Variations of a Sunrise

The dogs woke me up just before the sunrise. They wanted to be outside with Lenore. Why she didn't let them out I don't know. I rolled out of bed and padded downstairs to look for my camera. That's when I remembered that I left it in my truck. I wandered out past Lenore who was watering the flower beds to my pick up and found my camera. As I was returning to the front yard she squirted me with the hose. You can imagine how well that went.

I set the tripod up and within a few minutes the sun began making its appearance over the horizon. I made multiple compositions as it rose. Being careful (well most of the time) to focus and compose off to the side of the sun and then swing the camera over and pressing the shutter release to create the image. I ended up with five images that I really liked that I felt portrayed the mornings sunrise pretty well.

God's love and precious blessings to all,

chris