Author Archives: Con Daily

Summer Hummer ID?

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This might be an immature rufous, I see them every year at this time and wonder about the ID. It’s hard to get good hummer ID information on the females and young, while easy to find photos and descriptions of the colorful males.
This hummingbird was acting like a male rufous and has some of the right color, but no red orange gorget. He (she, it?) sat on the tip of a dead branch about 30 feet from the flowers and feeder on my deck twisting and turning to watch for other birds. Whenever another hummer would come near the flowers or feeder, this one was quick to chase the other away.
In evening sunlight at 1/160 sec, f/8, 300mm, ISO 200, August 20, 2007.

wapiti

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South Park – I watched a large herd of about 100 wapiti (American Elk) jump fences and cross a road toward a small lake. One of the babies couldn’t cross the fence. The whole herd stopped and called out encouragement, but still the baby could not make the leap required to cross the fence. Very slowly, the entire herd turned around and crossed back over the fences and road to join the baby. Then, they began running in the opposite direction stretching out in a long line silhouetted against the distant hills. At times like this, I wish for a 600mm lens. Here are a few images at 300mm.

the golden gate

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My mother-in-law said she was disappointed that the bridge was not gold when she went to San Francisco . The postcard we sent her over the weekend will confirm the bridge is still red-orange, not gold. Low clouds kept my photos a bit dark and hazy on the day we spent hiking the coastal trail and walking on the bridge.

Wild About Wildflowers

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Fairy Trumpets
(can you hear the music?)
1/800 second (wind!) @ f/8, ISO400, 200mm
The wildflowers are fantastic this year. Rain almost every afternoon this summer has kept the color show going throughout the forest, meadows and along the roads. Early morning is a good time to photography wildflowers. You can find sunlit flowers against shadowy backgrounds before the sun gets too high and the light too harsh.

Bell Flowers
1/400 second @ f/5.6, 200mm, ISO400
I like to photograph the flowers after a rain or whenever the clouds soften the sunlight and shadows. The images below were captured under cloudy skies.

Wild Geranium
1/125 second @ f/8, 60mm, ISO 400

Paintbrush
1/125 second @ f/8, 60mm, ISO 400

Wild paintbrush glows with the beautiful colors of sunsets. A story is told of a young man who wanted to paint the summer sunset. He was given brushes dipped in all the right colors and painted a beautiful sunset. When finished he tossed the brushes to the ground and now each summer the wild paintbrushes grow red, pink and orange.

Here Comes Trouble…

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Let the hummer wars begin.

Rufous is here now guarding the flowers and feeders and chasing all others away. The broadtails are sneaking in to the feeder when they can for a quick sip and early this morning before there was enough light for photographing it, a male calliope hummingbird was here for a drink.

Rufous sits on the tip of a dead douglas fir branch to keep an eye out for intruders. He doesn’t seem to know that he’s the intruder here. The broadtails arrived months ago.

Rufous is like the grade school bully who thinks he has to make up for his small size by being faster and meaner than everyone else. For those of you who haven’t met rufous, you can see how small he is in the image below where he sits on a feeder with a 5 inch tall bottle.

Rufous will stay for about a month and then he will move on. He’s already ‘summered’ in the north and will continue his southward migration sometime next month. Rufous hummingbirds nest as far north as southern Alaska and winter in Mexico. They travel northward in spring through the pacific lowlands and make the return trip mid summer through the Rockies to take advantage of peak wildflower times.

The male rufous’ gorget (the iridescent throat patch) reflects bright orange-red when light hits the feathers. The feathers of the gorget direct light in a single direction so that the color seems to change from dull brown-red to bright orange-red as the bird flies about.

Rufous is a little harder than the broadtails to photograph on the wing. I need bright sunlight so I can get my shutter speed quite high. My most popular rufous image can be seen here.

Wildlife in Como

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This bunch of rowdy outlaws showed up in Como for the 4th of July parade. I was setting up when I saw them gathered behind my booth smoking smelly cigars and waving their guns. What could I do? I drew my camera and shot them there, but like the blanks in the guns they carried, my shot harmed no one. The outlaws were shot at 1/320 second f/11, focal length 38mm, and an ISO setting of 200.

the red columbine

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Here’s a close up of a small red columbine I photographed Father’s Day weekend in June.
Sorry to have been neglecting the blog recently. I’ve been busy selling my images at local festivals. Tomorrow is the 3rd one for me in a month’s time. After that, I’ll have a month’s break and more time to spend photographing and posting here in consworld.

fox kits update

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For those of you who have been asking about ‘Tippy’ and the rest of the fox family, I went over to the home where they have taken over the back deck and captured a few images on June 12th. Mother and kits are still calling the space under the deck home, romping, grooming, and hunting in the area. My friends may not be using their deck much this summer! When I arrived, the morning rain had ended and I was able to photograph the kits in that beautiful after-the-rain light when it’s seems even the air is full of color.
The first image is the little runt Tippy, the only kit my friends have named, with the small crooked nose. The first I saw when I was setting up to shoot. Mother fox ran by and dropped a live mouse in front of Tippy who swallowed it quickly. Here is Tippy with one paw on an edge of the multi-level deck shot at 1/200 sec at f/5.6, ISO 400, focal length 300 mm.

Often, foxes will move the kits from one den to another. This family seems content to stay under this low deck where we know they have been staying for at least several weeks. And why not? The large deck affords shelter and safety from predators. The kits can retreat far under the deck and have three or four outlets for escape.

The 2nd image is one of Tippy’s siblings whose tail is already getting the white tip characteristic of adult red foxes. Image captured at 1/125 second at f/7.1, ISO 400, focal length 200mm. This kit has mostly black legs and I believe is the largest of the three.

The black legged kit is also in the 3rd image play fighting with the mother. There was a lot of this going on that morning, but the action was mostly behind the trees and I was only able to catch glimpses of it. Here, the kit with ears layed back goes after the mother’s neck while her open mouth moves toward the kit’s leg. I suppose a good mother must teach her children to defend themselves. Image captured at 1/200 second at f/7.1, focal lenth 300mm and ISO 400.

I’ve read that these kits may stay with the mother until September when the family will split up and go their separate ways. If they continue to use my friends’ deck as a base camp throughout the summer and I am able to photograph them, I shall post another update when they get a bit bigger.

This final image was captured at 1/125 second at f/5.6, ISO 400, 300mm.

favorite perch

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The broadtails are fighting over favorite perches near the currant bushes loaded with tiny pink flowers. They like perches with a 360 degree view so they can see the competition coming. Sitting on the tip of a dead branch, the hummingbird looks left, right, and back twisting and turning his head above late May’s food of choice – the wild wax currant flowers. Though they perch elsewhere, this little upward pointing twig is the spot they most often choose. The first image was taken last evening in the after glow of sunset. The next one, this morning, same place but from a slightly different angle to take advantage of the morning light.

1/640 sec at f/5.6, ISO 400, focal length 300mm

1/640 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200, focal length 300mm

For a look at a broadtail feeding on a currant flower, go to this page of my website: http://www.dailyphotography.net/hummingbird_gallery/pages/natural_food.htm

Looking for more fox kit photos? A new gallery of fox kit photos is on my website now. http://www.dailyphotography.net/redfoxgallery/index.htm

grooming

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Tippy holds very still for ear cleaning. Mother has big teeth! Sometimes, Tippy squeals in protest at all the grooming his mother does to him. The first image is a crop to show a close up of the big tooth. The one below is the full image. Image capture at 1/160 sec at f/8, ISO 250, focal length 200 mm.

Tippy

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1/640 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200, focal length 300mm, cropped

Here’s Tippy, the runt of the litter of fox kits born under my friends’ back porch. Watching through the windows as the three kits play, this little one has captured my friends’ hearts and earned a name. He limps a bit, has a crooked nose, and shorter snout. Though he’s the much loved favorite of the people who watch from the house, I have waited to introduce him here. I wanted to make sure he was going to survive, didn’t want to have to post that he’d disappeared. Tippy caught a small bird resting on a low branch of a shrub a few days ago as I photographed the mother fox and her kits. He’s been seen with a mouse in his mouth and is running, hunting, and playing with the others, so it’s time to introduce him. Be assured, we do not feed these foxes. If we fed them, they might stop hunting and come to depend upon us. If we feed Tippy, he won’t learn to hunt and survive. We watch them and they watch us from a comfortable distance.


1/800 sec at f/5, ISO 160, focal length 200mm, cropped