To say 2023 ended better than 2022 isn’t saying much. 2022 ended with fog. Laura, Marlene and I went up to the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge where we found zero visibility. We thought it might lift in an hour or two, so we went out to lunch at the only place open in Willows on Christmas Day. It didn’t help!
So 2023 proved to be slightly better with overcast weather. So Laura, Ray and I went up to the refuge. Yes, it was better, but still no sunshine. This was a true test of the 18-300 mm Tamron lens. It worked well.
The birds weren’t too happy either. We didn’t see eagles, but there were lots of turkey vultures. Stay tuned for the weather in 2024!
It was windy. Maybe that’s why the birds were scarce at the Sacramento National WildlifeRefuge, near Willows, this month. The driving tour at this wildlife refuge is a 6-mile circle with three places to get out of the car. Otherwise we are to be in the car. So, it pays to have a long lens and be on the correct side of the car to photograph out the window.
Our (Ray, Richard were with me.) first trip around, there were hardly any birds. We thought it was probably because of the wind. I didn’t even see flocks of snow geese in the water. Other wildlife that usually inhabit the refuge found a better spot or were hiding.
Since it takes 1 1/2 hours to get there and a lot of gas, I was disappointed, and soon got hungry. We had a great meal in town and then went back to the refuge. It wasn’t as windy this time, and this is when I got the bulk of my pictures (Still down from previous visits.).
The snow geese were back in numbers. We were lucky to catch a fly off.
Now for the really sad part: the only bald eagles we saw were out of range for my Nikon 7100 and prime F/4 300 lens. But that didn’t stop me! You know what they say, “Garbage in; garbage out!” I worked on those eagles, but couldn’t get them to the point of putting them in the blog. I will tell you it was a pair with their juvenile.
This is why I titled this post “An uneventful photo outing!” Maybe next time we will have better luck.
I hope you’ve been having a great holiday season and will have a wonderful New Year!
Honestly, I’m not much of a birder, that is a photographer who loves to photograph birds. But I do like to get out during the season and do my best to capture some of our feathered friends. A great birding day, for me, is when I can photograph our amazing bald eagle. I recently went on an all day outing with Laura, who is an amazing nature photographer, to four wildlife areas within 2 hours from home.
First stop was the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge in Willows. Wow, just one drive around and we saw eagles, hawks, and sandhill cranes. Here are some of my images:
From there we went to Llano Seco Wildlife Area near Chico. We had never been there and were surprised to see just one viewing platform. I took the opportunity to do some landscape photography:
From here things get blurry in my brain. I should post these blogs when I’m fresh from the activity! We were out on January 11! I think these birds are from Colusa National Wildlife Refuge. It’s much smaller than Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, but there were photographic opportunities:
Our final stop was Gray Lodge Wildlife Area in Gridley. The sun was beginning to set and we caught a golden glow on the birds and landscapes. The mountains in some of the landscapes are the Sutter Buttes. For sunset, we went to our favorite spot in the area to photograph a spectacular sunset:
So this was the beautiful end to our fantastic day! Could it get any better?
Slow Shutter Speed 