Month: November 2022

One of the easiest ways to identify a Turkey Vulture in flight is to look at its flight pattern. Turkey Vultures hold their wings in a slight v-shape, known as a dihedral, and teeter slightly from side to side as they soar and circle. They have excellent eye sight and an extraordinary sense of smell so they can sense carrion from long distances. If you see a group of Turkey Vultures circling in the sky, they are homing in on a potential meal. According to The Nature Conservancy, a group of vultures circling is called a Kettle of Vultures. If they land in a tree, they are called a Committee. But when they feed on carrion (i.e., dead animals) they become a Wake of Vultures. How appropriate. This Turkey Vulture was part of a Kettle circling over a dead carp on the shores of the American River last week and was circling down to join the Wake.

Last August, we spent some time in Plymouth, Mass. with a plan to photograph shorebirds on the beaches there. Unfortunately, our access to beaches was limited and it wasn’t until our third day there that we were able to do what I call “beach panning,” laying flat on the sand with our panning plates on Frisbees and using our long lenses so we were at eye level with the small birds. It was one of the first chances I had to use the new Nikkor Z800mm lens and I loved the results. Seeing these tiny shorebirds (this is a juvenile Piping Plover) at eye level as they dashed back and forth looking for tiny crustaceans buried in the sand, was remarkable.

Mr. Anna (male Anna’s Hummingbird) decided to show off his gorget yesterday afternoon. The last couple of times I’ve photographed him I have attached a snoot to the front of the Profoto A10 flash. Yesterday I adjusted the snoot down a little and rotated the zoom ring to narrow the beam so I could better highlight the gorget. It hit the gorget just right. It’s the shot I have been working on for a while now.

Mr. Anna (the dominant male Anna’s Hummingbird in my garden) is getting more tolerant of my ever present camera and flash. Yesterday morning he was more concerned about another hummer in his territory than he was of me. I saw two hummers, one being chased by Mr. Anna, before I went outside. While I was photographing him on various branches in the garden, he spent as much time looking up and around and behind as he did looking at me. The morning was brisk and he was puffed up against the suddenly cooler temperatures as fall enveloped us. He had an adorable plumped and pudgy look, not a bad-ass look that he seemed to be trying to convey to the interloper in the yard.

This Great Blue Heron, standing in the American River on Sunday at the Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael, CA had just stepped away from a feeding competition on the riverbank. The GBH was the first on the scene, where a large carp had washed ashore. Taking advantage of the fresh catch of the morning, it began to feast. Remnants of the fish are visible on the bird’s beak. While we watched the GBH, we noticed a Turkey Vulture circling overhead. Then there were two. Then there were ten. A couple of the Turkey Vultures landed and approached the Heron but the Heron, a much larger bird than the Turkey Vultures, lunged, hackles up (do birds have hackles?) and the Vultures backed off… briefly. Eventually, the Vultures and the Heron came to a truce and three birds feasted on the carcass together. Then one of the Vultures began to drag the large fish away from the water’s edge and several then surrounded it, leaving the GBH to watch from a distance as the remaining Vultures circled overhead.

The sun was bright and the sky was cloudless at mid morninag when we visited the Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael, CA a couple of days ago. When a large bird landed on the riverbank, I did a double take. From the dark markings on either side of its beak, I realized it was a Peregrine Falcon. The American River was flowing swiftly behind it but it proceeded to bathe at the river’s edge with abandon. Although it is looking directly at the camera in this shot, it didn’t seem concerned about our presence and we stayed a respectable distance away. It spent almost 15 minutes enjoying its morning bath before flying off. Although it was just shaking off the water, I like to think of its wing gesture as a hello. What an unexpected treat to see this.