Posts for: rockdog
Nov 5, 2018 11:11:30 #
I spent this past Thur and Fri visiting my favorite northern Sacramento Valley wildlife refuges. I don't usually stat my visits to these winter waterfowl migration wetlands until late November. It was an early visit, it was warm and the mosquitoes were very active, but the Snow Geese, White-fronted Geese, Pintail, Northern Shoveler and other ducks are all beginning to show up. All of the usual suspects were also present. In more than 55 years of regular visits to the Sacramento NWR I have never had the good fortune to see a Kestrel there. This photo is flawed, you can't see her eye, but dang.....it's a Kestrel.....in morning light!
Nov 5, 2018 01:00:09 #
Nov 3, 2018 17:24:42 #
jederick wrote:
The Ferruginous Hawk claims most of the western prairies from Canada to Mexico as its home. A powerful hunter it feeds on reptiles, birds, and mammals with rabbits, prairie dogs, and ground squirrels its favorite prey. I was fortunate this fall in finding an unusually large number of them to photograph in Northern Utah, including a "rufous dark morph" color variation.
Very nice jederick! This is the one buteo that ranges into the west that I never seen. These are very good photos and you even caught a dark phase example. Thanks for sharing!
Phil
Nov 2, 2018 19:28:43 #
Nov 2, 2018 19:28:13 #
J-SPEIGHT wrote:
Nice set Phil but definitely not for me.
Thanks Jack, yah I have a little more respect for gravity every year!
Nov 2, 2018 19:26:44 #
Swamp-Cork wrote:
Excellent downloads, Phil and we are a strange speies!
Wonderful!! but....yes, strange. Thanks Corky.
Oct 31, 2018 22:36:57 #
vicksart wrote:
Living vicariously is the way to go - at least for me. Thanks for sharing these amazing shots Phil.
Me too, even vicariously this makes the back of my leg hurt. Thanks for the kind comment Vicki!
Oct 31, 2018 21:47:18 #
gregoryd45 wrote:
First time I have see the Little Blue catch a crab for breakfast. Please enjoy the download
Great sequence Gregory!
Phil
Oct 31, 2018 21:43:23 #
Katydid wrote:
When the birds are scarce, we look for other interesting subjects. These guys are so appealing to me, such pleasant and happy posers. They were living in an irrigation pond below road level and hard to initially spot. Taken on an auto tour from the car with the Nikon 200-500 lens.
Nice work with exposure on all of these. A well done set Katy!
Phil
Oct 31, 2018 20:09:36 #
Chuckwal wrote:
Cool set super story
chuck
chuck
Thanks Chuck, I appreciate the kind words.
Phil
Oct 31, 2018 20:06:33 #
Dixiegirl wrote:
Yikes! The climbers look like ants but easy to see with clear shots like yours, Phil. This climb must surely have been a nail biter to watch!
Most visitors drive by El Capitan unaware of these ants. It takes careful searching with good optics (binoculars or spotting scope) to find and follow them. They are, at least, 3/4 of a mile from my pov and barely within reach of 400-500 mms. As I age I am less comfortable watching them. Diane will sit with me in the meadow but she keeps her nose in a book. Thanks for the visit Donna!
Oct 31, 2018 19:49:21 #
merrytexan wrote:
they have more nerve that I do...lol. great shots of the traffic jam, phil! love the downloads!
Thanks mt! I have been attempting to photograph these folks since the 60's but the older I get the more nerve it takes just to watch them.
Oct 31, 2018 18:16:45 #
GRIZ357 wrote:
Seems they had a lot of help along the way. This was really a team effort.
Hi Griz, thanks for the comment. If you are referring to the two speed climbers in the link the only help they received was from other climbers moving our of their way. They did not use any lines set by other parties. They did set their own belays and use many of the existing anchor points where absolutely necessary. In the climbing culture, even among conventional parties taking three or four days to "top-out", there is a thing about not getting help on these big walls.
I appreciate your visit, Phil
Oct 31, 2018 14:26:33 #
PH CIB wrote:
WOW !!! What an Exciting Series !!!
I appreciate your visit and kind words, thank you!
Oct 31, 2018 14:23:49 #
srfmhg wrote:
Great shots Phil. What lens(s) did you use?
Thanks Mark. The wide shot was with a Tamron 18-400 at 18mm, the rest were taken with a Sigma 150-500 with some aggressive cropping. This shot of climbers on different route is at 500mm with no crop.
