Yosemite and More

Visited the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge and the Merced Wildlife Refuge on VERY different days. One very sunny, the other fog bound. The Sacramento NWR, was a clear day with a lot of visitors that limited the  birds near the auto route. The fog and few visitors actually allowed for more opportunities at the Merced NWR. Case in point First the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Blue Morph Ross Geese White Faced Ibis, Hunting and Hiding Small Bufflehead Duck, these swim fast and don't like  cars, people, or cameras. This is taken through the reeds and heavily cropped. I thought this hawk was going to take off but instead it just fluffed it's feathers and settled back down. Merced National Wildlife Refuge seemed to have a wider and more easily photographable subjects. Thought this was an interesting juxtaposition. Each section of the refuge is flooded to to certain depth depending on what species they want to accommodate. I find it interesting that in the wild the male al...

I went to the Refuge Christmas afternoon. As I was approaching I noticed  a lot of Sandhill Cranes and some Snow and Ross Geese flying around. This is only a very small portion of the geese in this area. One difference between Ross and Snow geese is the length of their necks. They tend to flock together.  There were a lot of Hawks around and while I saw a Kestral or two I couldn't get  them to cooperate for a photograph. Very inconsiderate. I figured this must be a mating pair, perched so close together. I mentioned I saw some Sandhill Cranes flying around on my way in. The only one I saw in the Refuge itself was this one. Great Egrets are pretty common around here. But this one was  pretty cooperative. This one was about as close as I've ever gotten to one without it flying off. This is what happens when someone or something spooks a whole lot of White and Ross Geese.  The ones in the foreground were content staying where they were. Here's the kind of reflectio...

 Spent some time at the Sacramento Wildlife Refuge and the Merced Wildlife Refuge and thought I'd share a few (okay a lot) of photos from those Refuges.  I've kinda mixed the photos up, i.e. no rhyme or reason!!! Let's start off with two types of geese that are very common. The Snow and Ross geese.  The two look very similar and can be difficult to tell apart. The Ross goose  has a shorter neck and rounder head. They also interbreed and can come in different shades or morphs. Speaking of geese, the Iconic Canadian Goose Okay not a bird but I liked the look of the thistle against the water. I don't know why all these blackbirds chose this particular tree.  There were other trees just like it nearby with very few birds on them!? There weren't may of these buffleheads and I had to try and catch this one through the reeds. I'm never good at identifying Hawks, but there were several  lurking around, mostly in the distance. This one thankfully  posed for me....