Wildlife Photography

 On our trip to Oregon and Washington we stopped at National Wildlife Refuges. This tree swallow was among hundreds we saw at the Wood River Wetlands in So. Oregon. I worked hard at this portrait before coming across the huge flock later in the day. Then it was hard to narrow down to one simple bird. I am always surprised by the spider webs that are captured in my photos as I don't see them while shooting and therefore they are a bonus when I see the pic on the computer, including the hanging flies.

 This bandit is rarely at my home and I'm excited to see a member of his tribe anywhere and to capture one in a pic is even better. Cedar waxwings buzz off the toyon berries at home as the flock wings by in December or January and then they are gone until the following year. This one was at the Wood River Wetlands also. Those fiery tips are of special treat to see.

 I got professional help on this photo, not taking or editing, but identifying the swallows. This photo and several others were carefully reviewed to determine what species I really saw. I correctly got the tree swallow and the cliff swallow but missed the northern rough wing and bank swallows in the bunch. The birding community was trying to help me get it right. How do you count a huge swarm of moving birds?  These next several frames are a few of the several I shot of the swallows and while you could at your leisure account for most every individual contained, it would press your  ability to lay number to the milling beasts in the air and swarming the bushes and changing places. Less than a gazillion I figured.

 Many of these flying fellows over the fire weed are swallows as well, still at Wood River. That mountain out there that looks like a volcano? It is a volcano. Dr. Tanya Atwater, geologist at UCSB once said, if it volcano shaped, it's still active, no matter what human history tells you. After seeing the power of Mt. St. Helens on a minor blow day I have much respect for these sleeping babes and giants.





Haldane Harris (my brother-in-law) hosted my trip to the refuge and we met a local birder at our start for the day, who alerted us to the black terns present. Having never seen one, I spent considerable effort trying catch one in the digital pixels. Here's a couple of shots of the bird in flight and I never saw one light. No one asked to verify this bird, though it was rare to me, it was expected in the quantity we saw that day.

 Cormorants are generally working the waters where we look in the west and they are easy prey for the camera as they hold poses for long periods, providing good practice for challenged photographers to work on. Goldfinches are a little more flighty, but once partaking the tasty thistle seed they hold relatively still with much ducking of the head to tear loose another.

Magpies with their terrific contrasting black and white pattern are endlessly fascinating in flight playing with the light. These were at the edge of Lake Tahoe, CA.

 The orange in the pollen saddle bags of this bee I assume is a native provoked questions as to the source of the color. Is it from the bee or is it the pollen color? Always with the questions, but isn't that the great part about nature? What is that? What is happening there?  What if?









Let's see, this one was on my camera, but shot by my friend Brett, while I shot the same colorful fellow with his professional grade camera. Cooperative bird this Western Tanager in full color. We entertained some cousin a week or two later in Santa Barbara, but only the female who is not quite so colorful.

Who likes blue berries? I'll let you work on the ID for this one.






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