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Figure 1. American White Pelican, Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
I still remember my first time seeing this bird in Grand Teton National Park. They were riding the thermals and flying higher and higher and gone. I also saw them in Oxbow Bend Turnout and Heron Pond in this park. The distance is far and I was not able to take a closer look.
Fortunately, I found they were quite abundant in Bay Area when I lived there. Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Alviso is one great place to see them in closer distance. I was so glad to see a lot of them there and that's why I went to this refuge so often. They are usually in a flock and do things together. Although they are kind of habituated to human, they still try to keep a distance even in the air. Most of the time you can get a picture of couple pelicans flying and floating. I've been here a lot and I've got some good opportunities with good lighting to take a good solo close-up of it.
I've left Bay Area and lived in San Diego now. I know I can find them in Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Sea National Wildlife Refuge, especially in winter. It is not a 10-minute drive like before, but I am sure to go there and find them.
Figure 2. American White Pelican Incoming.
Figure 1. Snow Geese, Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge, CA.
It is kind of unexpected for me to photography birds. I bought a used Canon 100-400mm lens from eBay in 2009 primarily for large mammals in places like Yellowstone National Park. At that time, I didn't expect to use this lens a lot. After all, I live far away from that kind of places. There is no way for me to go there often. Since I wouldn't use it often, a used lens should be good enough.
Sometimes lens finds a way. I knew there are people out there shooting birds. So I thought why not give it a try? Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge is just a short drive from where I live. That's where I start to shoot birds. From later on, I went other places, too.
To me, migratory birds are fun to watch. Every winter, these birds come south to places like California to spend their winter. Snow geese are among them. When standing alone, they are not as impressive as birds like bald eagle or others. But their number and sound are always amazing. One thing distinguishes them from others is the number, especially when they burst off together to blanket the sky. While they are small, the power is huge. This is always the moment I am waiting for whenever I see them on the ground. The two figures here are some of my experience for this aspect.
Although this number of beauty also happens to other birds such as sandhill cranes, Canada geese and tundra swans, snow geese seem to be the easiest to see, relatively speaking. If you haven't seen this ever, it is worth the effort to go there and enjoy it.
Figure 2. Snow Geese, Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, CA.
Figure 1. Red-Winged Black Bird.In California, and perhaps other places, red-winged black bird is a common sight in spring and summer. This one is shot with Canon 50D with Canon 100-400mm lens. This combo of equipment is not supposed to get a shot like this. As this is a small bird, it tends to fly away when you are trying to close in. Most of the time, I can only fill at most one ninth of the frame at the distance it allows me using this combo.
In early March 2012, I was in Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, which is quite remote from any big cities. I saw this bird when I was still far away on the auto route. Somehow it didn't fly away when I approached. I didn't expect this and so I had to back up my car to get a good angle of it. Surprisingly enough, it still allowed me at a close distance like this, which is my ever closest distance to this bird. So I have good opportunity to get a close up of this bird.
The time is around sunset and the horizon is quite hazy. This provides a good background for this bird. This is especially useful for a bird or animal (bison, moose, and black bear) in black. If the background is too bright, it is difficult to get the details of the subject. In addition, the bright background competes with the subject. The soft effects from the bokeh work pretty well in this case. It is not easy to wait for all conditions right, especially for wildlife. But sometimes it just cooperates!
