Sanderling with prey, Parker River National Wildlife Refuge

I took a trip up to the North Shore coast again last Friday, with a return visit to the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge and Sandy Point State Reservation on Plum Island. It was a cold morning, and when I arrived at my car in the dark to start my trip, I couldn't quite believe my eyes when I saw a thick layer of ice across the windshield. Wow, it's been a long time since I've had to scrape off the frost while my car warms up! Fortunately, my wife had the foresight to suggest that we purchase an ice scraper to keep in the car last weekend (fully thinking we wouldn't need it for quite some time), and it was so nice to have it on Friday morning.

As I drove up to the coast, I couldn't help but think to myself, "Where am I?" as I saw a coating of snow on the trees and highway medians. (Of course, that was nothing compared to the crazy Nor'easter that blew through the area on Saturday. Snow in October? Really?!) Then as I was nearing the end of my drive to the beach, I saw a thick bank of marine layer fog hanging just offshore. After watching the sun set behind a fog bank over San Francisco Bay on so many evenings in the past few years, it was a new experience to watch the sun rise above the fog on this coast. It's so interesting to me how the Atlantic and Pacific coasts are so similar in many ways, and yet so different.

I arrived at beach #7 in the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge about 20 minutes after sunrise, and it was a beautiful scene to crest the dunes and see a huge expanse of beach before me. The early morning minus tide exposed so much additional land, as well as some interesting rock formations that I hadn't seen on either of my previous trips here. The shorebirds seemed to be enjoying the additional feeding grounds, and a huge flock of mixed peeps were pouring over the sand and collecting their prey in the beautiful morning light.

In terms of photographing the shorebirds, it really seems like sunset will be a much better time for beaches on the Atlantic coast. I always prefer shooting at sunrise when I can (there's just something to special about seeing the first rays of light kiss the landscape as the sun rises and wipes away the shadows), but it presents a certain problem here. In California, the sun came up over the land, so it was ideal for getting blue water behind the shorebirds on the beach. On the Massachusetts coast though, photographing shorebirds in the morning means putting yourself between the shorebirds and the waves, which is not something you want to take too lightly. Thankfully the waves were rolling in slowly on this morning, but I had to keep a wary eye behind me to make sure there were no unpleasantly wet surprises.

View more photographs of sanderlings

Guiding the herd, Yellowstone National Park

While I'm excited to have some new images to share from Massachusetts, I also still have a lot of photos to share from my trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, so it will probably be a mix on the blog for a while. In this shot, the dominant male pronghorn that we saw on a daily basis during our trip is rounding up his herd at sunset, presumably to keep them together overnight.  While the buck was not always right with his harem, he was never far away, and it was interesting to watch their interactions. The females clearly responded to his presence, and on more than one occasion, we saw him gently guide the herd to a different location on the prairie.

View more photos of the fastest animal in North America in my Pronghorn Gallery.

Dunlin and shadow, Parker River National Wildlife Refuge

A dunlin stands alone with its shadow away from the rest of the flock at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island. Finding pleasing compositions within a flock of birds can be challenging, and sometimes the most dramatic are when you can find an isolated subject set against an out of focus flock. I like how this bird gave itself some separation from the rest, and especially since it seems like its only company was its shadow.

View more of my photos of dunlin.

Flock of sandpipers, Parker River National Wildlife Refuge

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had a wonderful first two days of wildlife photography in Massachusetts last week. This lovely flock of sandpipers (mostly sanderlings and dunlin) were very friendly, and accepted me right into their flock. A handful of times while I was lying in the sand with them, something would spook the birds, and the whole flock would take off in a delightful show of calculated chaos!



They would then circle around and land back on the beach. On more than one occasion the flock landed on three sides of me, leaving me quite literally in the middle (too much fun!). Better yet, since a bunch of them landed between me and the ocean, I didn't have to be as careful about keeping an eye out for waves that would get me wet, since every time the water started coming towards me, I would hear a loud uprising of irritated peeping coming from the sandpiper crew to my right.



The four images in this post are all from one take-off and landing event as they circled around me, and are in the order that I took them. I always find it amazing to witness the movement of flocking birds, and it's so fascinating to see how closely they fly together without bumping one another. I also love to see the patterns that form as they rapidly change directions, and especially when the early light is still glistening off of their feathers.



View more photos of these adorable shorebirds in my Sandpipers Gallery.

This post was submitted to World Bird Wednesday -- follow the link to check out this week's posts!

Home sweet home, and my first visit to Parker River National Wildlife Refuge

(My Massachusetts shorebird welcoming committee.)

After a month of living in the great state of Massachusetts, I finally had a chance to get outside with my camera. Between the move, getting settled in a new city, my job search, and the death of my step-father, there had been little time to get out and experience my new home. Finally though, I had my first photography trips on Thursday and Friday mornings of last week -- to a fantastic coastal property in Northern MA, the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge.

The forecast said clouds for Thursday, and since I have seen some amazing clouds out of my apartment window almost every day since moving to the Boston area, I had high hopes for beach photography under a pretty sky. Unfortunately, my first morning in the park was much more reminiscent of a day back in the Bay Area! There was ground level fog and drizzle all morning, which finally burned off to clear blue skies around noon. So while I still filled a memory card with heavily overcast shorebirds, it was not quite what I had envisioned while planning my inaugural trip to photograph the wildlife along the Atlantic coast. Thus, I decided to return for sunrise on Friday morning, since there was a forecast of clear skies -- and I was not disappointed.


(Some birders enjoy the large shorebird flock on a wet Thursday morning.)

During my early morning drive along the highways to get there, I had wondered if I made the right decision to get up so early -- but once I made it to the Refuge and hopped out of my car into the cool, pre-dawn air, there was no doubt in my mind this was the right thing to do. I stopped at parking lot #1, and watched the sunrise break the horizon. There is just something so magical about this part of the day, and it's so energizing to feel the glow of those first rays of the sun. Although I must say, after 6 years of watching the sun set over the ocean, it was a bit odd to see it rise above the blue waters!


(My first sunrise viewed in my new home state.)

I then drove down to the southern end of the refuge, and headed for the beach at parking lot #7, which is where I saw the large flock of peeps the day before. Much to my delight, the flock was still there, and it was comprised of some very friendly shorebirds -- the best Massachusetts welcoming party I could have imagined. I then spent the next two hours or so laying in the sand with these birds. They went about their morning business of resting and preening, and after easily winning their trust I found myself as an honorary member of the flock. In fact, on more than one occassion, after they all took flight and circled around, they landed just a few feet away on all three sides of me. It was a perfect morning, and a great way to start my new adventures with wildlife photography in New England!


(The shorebird flock at sunrise.)

In other news, the list of highly honored images for the prestigious 2011 Windland Smith Rice International Awards was released this week, and I am happy to announce that one of my photographs was selected for this honor. Look for it in print in the next issue of Nature's Best Photography magazine!

View more photos of peeps in my Sandpipers Gallery.

A pronghorn looks surprised, Yellowstone National Park

One of the challenges of photographing the megafauna of Yellowstone National Park is that many of them (at least the herbivores) are ruminants. This means that they spend an awful lot of their time chewing. This can make for the occasional comical shot (this one looks surprised, doesn't it?), but it can also lead to a lot of photos with less than facial ideal expressions. But in the end, you take what nature gives you -- and make the most of the frequent chewers.

View more photos of this beautiful species in my Pronghorn Gallery.

Bald eagle, Yellowstone National Park

For as bird-centric as my photography often is, I photographed very few avian subjects during my trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. I had hoped to find more birds, but the large terrestrial megafauna were just too amazing to look away from. I did however, snap a few shots of a Clark's nutcracker (a fascinating bird with a really awesome memory!) as well as this bald eagle perched in a tree in Hayden Valley. I had really hoped to see some trumpeter swans, but that just wasn't in the cards this time. There's always next time though!



As for this eagle, it was perched in the top of a tree and was watching the water below. It had drawn a pretty good crowd, but since it was on the opposite side of the river, it seemed not to care too much about all the people watching it. What it did care about though, is the red-tailed hawk that must have had a nest close by. In the top photo in the post, the eagle is calling out at the hawk just before the hawk flew straight at it and scared it away. It was quite a sight to see a smaller bird come swooping in at high speed, and the bald eagle wanted no part of it.

View more photos of raptors in my Birds of Prey gallery.

Submitted to World Bird Wednesday -- Follow the link to check out this week's posts.

Portrait of a mother moose, Grand Teton National Park

One of my favorite wildlife encounters from our trip across the west was finding this female moose and her calf in the pre-sunrise light. The mother was beautiful (as you can see) and the calf was full of energy, and continually bounced around the sagebrush. They were a delight to watch!

View more photos of moose in my Moose Gallery

Pronghorn buck, Yellowstone National Park

A dominant pronghorn buck watches over his harem near the Gardiner entrance to Yellowstone National Park. It was a lot of fun to see this harem on a daily basis while coming into the park, and this buck seemed to take pretty good care of them. While the females happily fed fairly close to the road, he only occasionally come close to the group of onlookers, and he usually didn't stay close for long. He was quite a handsome buck though, and hopefully he was able to defend his harem during the upcoming rut.

Visit my pronghorn gallery.

Bison, Grand Teton National Park

While we certainly found bison on every day of our Grand Teton and Yellowstone trip, one of the best encounters came in the late afternoon in Grand Teton National Park. The large herd that resides there had moved fairly close to the road, and they stayed there resting, feeding, fighting, and running around until long after the sun had set. These are such remarkable animals, and it's interesting to think about what the landscape must have looked like a few hundred years ago when a few million were still roaming the west!

View more photos of the largest land animal in North America in my Bison Gallery.

Moose pair in the sagebrush, Grand Teton National Park

Our moose encounters in Grand Teton National Park were one of the highlights of our entire road trip. It was amazing to see these huge animals up close, and I'm really excited that we were able to find them feeding in the sagebrush on a few occasions. This post is a series of four photos of a pair of moose that we watched on our final morning in the park. We started the day by finding them off in the middle of the sagebrush at dawn, but they slowly worked their way closer to us in the morning light.



We were there just before the start of the rutting season, so most of the bulls we saw still had velvet on their antlers. However, on our last morning there we caught this bull with mostly clean antlers (you can see a bit of velvet still hanging down by his face in these shots). He was clearly still a bit itchy, and he spent a fair amount of time scratching on any solid object he could find. I was so amazed at how large these animals really are, and they really are a sight to behold. I know it looks like he's aggressively coming at me in the frame below, but he was just interested in feeding in that brighter patch of vegetation.



Unfortunately, for a lot of the shots on this trip (including many of the shots from our encounter with this pair) I really had to jack up the ISO, which introduced quite a bit of noise. It was a tricky trip in that regard, with a lot of shooting right near dawn and before the sun had made it over the mountains. It's a delicate balance with my gear, confounded by the fact that the low-light conditions challenges the autofocus on my lens (f/6.3 at 500mm), but I decided that I'd rather have a chance for sharp shots with noise instead of blurry shots due to slower shutter speeds with less sensor noise. Overall it seemed to work out ok, but the amount of shots that I've culled due to technical quality does speak volumes to what having a faster long-lens would allow you to do.



View more photos of these impressive animals in my new Moose Gallery.

Pronghorn in the grass, Yellowstone National Park

I still have so many images to go through from my trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks in September, but here is a frame that jumped out at me during an initial scan through the photos. When you have a chance to get close to such amazing wildlife like this herd of pronghorn, it's easy to get caught up taking intimate portraits of them, but I tried to also step back a bit with the zoom and place them in their environment. Pronghorn are so well suited to their prairie home, and they look beautiful when surrounded by tall grasses.

Visit my Pronghorn Gallery.

Young pronghorn, Yellowstone National Park

Here is one of my favorite shots from today in Yellowstone National Park, which was chosen for today's upload at my wife's request. This photo cracks her up since it appears that the pronghorn is smiling into the camera and saying "Cheese!" She's always joking that wildlife likes to pose for me, so this one was her favorites. We had a great close-up encounter with a group of pronghorn this morning, and some of the other highlights included seeing wolves (and pups!) through the binoculars in the Lamar Valley, as well as a grizzly bear! Both were feeding at different times on a bison carcass that was really far away -- but thanks to some friendly people with scopes, we were able to get a pretty good glimpse of them.

Black bear cub, Yellowstone National Park

We spent our first full day in Yellowstone National Park today, and we were able to find some interesting wildlife. In addition to the standard bison and elk, we saw a coyote hunting in the grass and some big horn sheep after the sun had set. We also believe we saw two gray wolves in Hayden Valley. However, we only saw them as tiny black dots in the binoculars. Those around us at the turnout had been watching them for a little while, and claimed that's what they were. I'm still hoping to see one that I can recognize in the binoculars.



One of the highlights was watching a family of black bears feed on pinecones in the top of the trees along Dunraven Pass. There was a mother and two cubs, one of which is shown in these shots. All three moved through the tree so easily, and with the tree growing on such a steep slope, one wrong move could have been very bad. But no worries, they all made it down safely!



We'll be out again for sunrise tomorrow -- and I'm looking forward to what we might find!

Pair of moose, Grand Teton National Park

A quick update from the road. We're having an awesome trip so far, and have seen a lot of wildlife in Grand Teton National Park. In addition to a few herds of bison and pronghorn, we've seen bald eagles, pikas (as cute as promised!), and so far 7 different moose! These animals are fascinating, and I didn't fully appreciate their size until I saw one for myself. We first saw this female relaxing in the grass, then as I was getting my camera ready to photograph her, this large bull came strolling by. It appears that he is courting her, and he kept quite close with a watchful eye on her.

Point Reyes National Seashore, My Happy Place

The sunrise over Inverness Ridge in Point Reyes National Seashore.

The Point Reyes Peninsula is a very special place to me. It’s where I go to relax, it’s where I clear my thoughts, it’s where I feel so alive as the breeze touches my face or the scents of the coast reach my nose. When I close my eyes and let my mind drift to my happy place, it’s always Point Reyes.

There is something about the landscape there that captivates me. I can’t quite put my finger on what exactly it is. There are so many amazing places in California, some well known and still spectacular (i.e., Yosemite National Park) and some under the radar that can be just as amazing (pick any beach along the Sonoma Coastline). But yet, as I realized that my time was running short in California, and that I would only be able to visit my favorite places or try out new ones just a handful of times, all else was forgotten and my eyes (and my heart) were set on Point Reyes.

I think the landscape is beautiful, and I know I’m not the only one (it was even recently recognized on ABC’s Good Morning America during their segment on the 10 most beautiful places in the country) – but when I take a step back, set my emotions aside, and try to think about what makes it so special, it’s hard to say exactly what it is. Sure, the coastline is spectacular with gorgeous bluffs and long beaches of soft sand, but you can find this in other places. And perhaps surprisingly, a lot of the land is agricultural pastures, and you’ll often see far more cows than anything else on a trip. But somehow, that just makes sense there. And the miles upon miles of old weathered fences pull me in every time. I once thought to myself, there are so many interesting fence posts here, that if I had the time, I could make a photographic book of just the beautiful patterns in the wood, the interesting mosses and lichens growing on them, the wildflowers that bloom along them, the raptors and quail that sit on the posts, and the songbirds that so elegantly perch along the wire, and maybe, just maybe a deer or elk leaping over one.

An old fence stretches along the dunes at North Beach

But set into this speckled land of fenced-off pastures are the rolling hills, the large sand dunes, and the small coastal mountains that add amazing depth and life to the landscape. Perhaps though for me, it’s not just that landscape that has gripped me so deeply. I know what wild things are out there, and the chance to spot one, and hopefully photograph one, always keeps me coming back for more.

So many times in the past few years, as I’m getting my camera ready the night before an outing, my wife will ask me where I’m headed the next morning. And with much regularity, I’ll say “Point Reyes.” She’ll often chuckle and reply, “Did I even have to ask?” It’s funny to me to realize that it took us a year of being in California to even take a hike there, but I can still remember that trip in much detail. After parking under a typical summer morning of heavy fog, we saw a quail for the first time near the trailhead, saw some tule elk off in the distance on a hillside, and we even saw a coyote (or maybe it was a grey fox?) through the binoculars. We sat on a large log that had long since turned into a piece of driftwood to eat our lunch along the beach, and we watched the pelicans skim the tops of the waves under the quiet foggy sky. Then, when we were ready to move on, we got back onto the trail, and the fog lifted and the blue skies came out – and we were in awe as we walked along the coast and saw the crystal clear sky reflected in the beautiful blue waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Me, excited to be in Point Reyes for the first time, but not yet knowing what this landscape would eventually mean to me.

While thinking about what I wanted to write in this post, I became curious about just how many times I’ve been to the park. A quick scan though my photo archives reveals that since our inaugural hike in 2006, I’ve been back to Point Reyes some 60 additional times. What is it that keeps pulling me back again and again? Shouldn’t I have gotten bored with walking the same trails, seeing the same sights, and driving the same roads?

A while back I read an interesting post on Greg Russell’s blog, which linked to a wonderful post about someone’s love of a specific desert landscape. In the comments, Greg replied back to me about how interesting it is that certain landscapes can capture the imagination and that he “thinks, perhaps, like choosing a mate; we need a fit with a complementary personality. Landscapes or people, it’s all the same…” This idea rang so true for me with Point Reyes.

A foggy sunset along Kehoe Beach in 2007.

There is something in the personality of the park that just connects with me. I’ve been to many parks in California, and I’ve really enjoyed all of them. But there is just something so special to me about this one piece of land that it just keeps pulling me back. Perhaps it’s not worth my time to try to pinpoint what it is that I love about that park so much. But rather, just to enjoy the fact that I have a place that is so special to me, and that always makes me smile when I think of it. Point Reyes is my Happy Place, and I like to think that no matter how often or how little I’m able to visit throughout my lifetime, it will always give me that warm feeling of freedom inside my heart when thoughts of it cross my mind.


If you're interested to see more of Point Reyes, please visit my Point Reyes National Seashore Special Collections.

Caspian tern taking flight, Point Reyes National Seashore

While strolling Limantour Beach in Point Reyes National Seashore earlier this month, I was disappointed to have not found any flocks of shorebirds. However, once I crossed over to the estuary-side, I was treated to a flock of 20 or so Caspian terns relaxing on the exposed mudflats. I've often had a hard time getting close to any terns, but I decided to go for it with these birds since they didn't fly away at the sight of my coming through the cut in the dunes.



I did a lot of belly-crawling to get close to the flock. I decided that I didn't want to push it, so I started sliding along the wet mud from quite a distance away. The wet pants and sand in my pockets was totally worth it though, as I was able to creep close enough to get some nearly full frame images. For a while I just watched them nap and preen, but eventually they started to stir, and every now and then a bird would take flight. I tried my best to get the lens onto an active bird as quickly as possible, and while I missed a bunch I was lucky to be looking at this one as it took to the air, and it happened to call out while it did.



Submitted to World Bird Wednesday -- follow the link to check out this week's posts.

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To all of my local followers -- I'm trying to cut down on the stock of photos that I'll be moving with me to Boston. Thus, I'm having a 50% off sale of in-stock prints ($22 for 11x14 prints and $18 for 8x10 prints). To see a sampling of the availability and get more info, see my Craigslist posting.

Feel free to email me with questions or to make arrangements to purchase a photo. I'll be in the Berkeley area until next Wed.

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Late summer sanderling, Point Reyes National Seashore

Limantour Beach in Point Reyes National Seashore is one of my favorite locations to look for shorebirds. There are a few miles of beach balanced on a narrow spit of sand that has the Drake's Bay of the Pacific Ocean on one side, and Drake's Estero, a tidal estuary, on the other side. It's a perfect place for shorebirds to stop and feed during their migration, and many also winter there. Knowing that the migration would be picking up, I took a few trips to Limantour in early August hoping to find some shorebirds still in their summer colors. Unfortunately, I was mostly skunked on my trips, and only once did I find a cooperative flock to photograph.

On this day, there was a small group of maybe 25 birds that were feeding along the shoreline, and after gaining their trust, I walked for a few miles with them as they worked their way up the beach. The way it would work is that I would slowly walk and keep pace with the birds, then when they would find a place to stop and feed, I'd get just a bit ahead of them before dropping onto my stomach in the middle of the flock. I usually tried to have a few birds ahead of me and some behind, since I knew that those that were behind me would eventually run right past my lens to get back with the forward birds. I'll note that you really have to have a flock get used to you before you can get up and down with them around since they normally get spooked if you change your posture near them. It took quite a while of belly-crawling close to them, and just hanging out on the edge of their group to win over their trust. But once I did, it really didn't bother them to have me slowly dropping down onto the sand as they fed (moving in super-slow motion as you drop from standing to the ground is imperative as well). These are the kinds of interactions that I treasure on my photographic outings, when you can truly gain the trust of the wildlife, and have them accept you as part of their world.

So after walking down the beach with them, and lying down in the sand like this perhaps 20-25 times, they were really comfortable in getting close to me, and I was able to get some full-frame views of the birds. Unfortunately, as we made our way up the beach we eventually crossed over the invisible line that separates the dog friendly part of the beach from the protected area. Soon enough I could see an owner with her dogs off in the distance heading my way, and as they came closer, my encounter ended abruptly. Not that the dogs were that interested in the birds, but the sanderlings wanted no part of having two four-legged visitors near the flock.

See more photos of these adorable peeps in my Sandpipers Gallery

Quail at sunset, Point Reyes National Seashore

A male California quail is kissed by the golden light of sunset as he sits on the old gnarled branches of a coyote bush near Abbott's Lagoon in Point Reyes National Seashore.

View more images of one of my favorite birds in my Quail Gallery.

Big bull, bigger news

This has been a busy summer for me, as my regular readers may have guessed due to my infrequent posts, so it may come as no surprise that there is big news in my future. I will be submitting my Ph.D. dissertation in the next week or two (in environmental engineering, if you were curious), which will be the culmination of a wonderful six-year journey filled with hard work, great challenges and successes, fantastic friendships, and some very fond memories.

In the beginning of September, my wife and I will be uprooting from California and embarking on a cross-country road trip to the Boston area, which will be our new home. While I do not yet have a position lined up, I am excited at the prospect of beginning my professional career in conservation there. I hope that I’ll be able to continue to find time to photograph wildlife in the Northeast, and I will definitely be keeping the blog as active as I can. I have plenty of images from California waiting to be posted, but I suppose I’ll need to come up with a new tag-line for the blog, since I’ll no longer be "seeking inspiration from the natural beauty of just northern California." Also, if you have any favorite bird or wildlife locations in Massachusetts (or the surrounding area) please let me know in the comments or by email. I’m definitely looking forward to finding some new wetlands, forests, and beaches to explore!

On our travels to the east, we’ll be spending around a week in Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks – two places that I have never visited, but that have been on my wish list for a long time. I’m looking forward to the wildlife photography opportunities there, and my wonderful bride has already agreed to wake up well before sunrise each morning so we can seek out wildlife during the golden hours. I probably won’t have too much of a chance to blog while we’re on the road, but hopefully I’ll come back with plenty of images to post throughout the fall!

For the next few weeks, I’ll continue to post new images whenever I get the chance while I wrap up many loose ends here before the move, including squeezing in as many trips to Point Reyes National Seashore as I can! As always, thank you for taking the time to read my blog and for your comments and support over the past few years!

Cheers,
Pat

Bugling bull tule elk, Point Reyes National Seashore

The tule elk rut is in full swing in Point Reyes National Seashore. I started my day with an early morning hike along Limantour Spit, but I again saw very few shorebirds. So since it was still early by the time I was back in my car, I decided to take a trip up to Tomales Point to check on the tule elk. Unfortunately, the fog was so thick that I could barely see the bushes just a few feet outside my window. So instead of taking a hike through pea soup (I've done that enough times in the elk reserve to know that it's just not photographically worth it), I decided to take a drive out to the outer peninsula. I saw some elegant terns on Drake's Beach last week, so I thought perhaps I could find them (or maybe some shorebirds) there as a consolation prize. Instead, I was treated to a fantastic display from the free-ranging tule elk herd. There are often elk near the turn off to Drake's Beach, but they are not often so close to the road. It was a real treat to park the car and spend some time watching three separate harems on the hillside.

The largest harem belonged to this very large bull, and although he was moving with a substantial limp from one of his back legs, he was still bugling loudly, chasing off rivals (no antler-locking fights while I was there though), and mating with his females. He was a truly impressive specimen, and it's always fun to see that slightly crazed look in his eye that you see this time of year. In this shot, he is bugling loudly across the valley, and it was fun to hear the other bulls answer him back. Since I was hearing multiple responses to his calls, it was also nice to know that there were more elk just down the road.

View more images of these majestic animals in my Tule Elk Gallery.

Ruffled willet at Pillar Point Harbor

My past three posts have included shorebirds looking quite relaxed while tucked into their classic resting pose. To change things up a bit, here's a willet shaking out its feathers, and looking a bit more unkempt.

View more willet images in my Willets Gallery.

American avocets at Radio Road Ponds

On my way back from Pillar Point Harbor last month, I decided to take a slight detour to Radio Road Ponds in Redwood City. I was delighted to see a large flock of American avocets resting in the shallows near a convenient place to set up a tripod. While they were far enough away that making a compelling image of a single bird was difficult, it was a fun challenge to find some pleasing compositions within the flock.



Many of the birds were busy preening, but occasionally they would all tuck their bills into their feathers to rest. I really love the shape of a shorebird in this pose, and it's always nice to photograph such a relaxed subject. The rippled reflections were a nice bonus too.



More photographs of these elegant shorebirds in my Stilts & Avocets gallery.

Submitted to World Bird Wednesday -- follow the link to check out this week's posts!

Resting willet, Pillar Point Harbor

A lot going on right now for me that has kept my hands off of the camera and away from the blog for a couple of weeks, but this shot is from my last outing in mid-July. I headed down to Pillar Point Harbor hoping to find shorebirds in summer colors. There were only a few sandpipers around that never stayed in front of my lens for long, but I did get to spend some quality time lying in the harbor sediments photographing a group of 15-20 willets as they rested and preened on an exposed rock outcropping. Some birds were already in their plain basic plumage, and a few were quite striking in their breeding colors -- and this particular bird was somewhere in between.

More photographs of these charismatic shorebirds in my willets gallery.

Western sandpiper in summer colors, Point Reyes National Seashore

From an overcast morning in July 2010, a western sandpiper rests on Limantour Beach in Point Reyes National Seashore. This is an exciting time of the year when the shorebirds return from their breeding grounds still wearing their bright summer colors. I was out on this beach last weekend and didn't see many birds, but hopefully I'll have a chance to get down in the sand with them soon.



View more images of peeps in my Sandpipers Gallery.

Osprey fly by, Point Reyes National Seashore

I had this unexpected encounter with an osprey on a hike a few weeks ago on Tomales Point in Point Reyes National Seashore. My goal for the trip was to photograph the tule elk in velvet antlers, and as I dropped into a wildflower-covered valley I started photographing some sparrows as they hopped around on the lupine. Then at one moment I happened to look up and saw this osprey go cruising by at a low altitude. I was already working on my tripod at full height, so I was able to pan with the bird fairly successfully, and managed to snap off a few sharp frames as it shot by.



View more of my birds of prey photos.

Submitted to the World Bird Wednesday blog meme -- Follow the link to check out this week's posts.

Light beams through redwoods, Muir Woods National Monument

Streams of warm afternoon sunlight filter through the high canopy of coast redwoods, the tallest tree species in the world. This image was taken in Muir Woods National Monument, Marin County, California.

View more images of these amazing trees in my Redwood Forest Gallery.

California quail on a post, Point Reyes National Seashore

Another day, another quail posing on a fencepost in Point Reyes National Seashore. I've had great luck with quail this year, often finding many different individuals in nice locations on the same trip. In fact, there have been a few trips I've taken, that quail are basically the only subjects I've seen. But I won't complain about that, since they're one of my favorite birds to photograph. I drove by this one on Pierce Point Road on my way to the Tule Elk Reserve, and he had a nice setting of blooming plants in front and behind him.



View more photos of these charismatic birds in my Quail Gallery.

Tule elk feeding in the fog, Point Reyes National Seashore

This herd of tule elk bulls was enjoying a dinner of tall, blooming grasses when I encountered them on Tomales Point in Point Reyes National Seashore. Through the shifting fog I watched them graze on the grasses and occasionally push each other out of the way. Every now and then a few would look my way, which made for better pictures since I could get some eye contact with them. The two looking at me in this frame are average sized, but there were some very large bulls in the group as well. Even though they all still had velvet on their antlers, you could already tell that the smaller bulls respected the larger ones, as they often parted ways when the big guys were coming through.

View more in my Tule Elk Gallery.