Recent California Trip and Thanks

I wanted to express my sincere thanks all those that responded to my earlier post for help with a recent trip to California. Originally we were going to spend more time in The Bay area, but once we got down to southern CA, we realized our itinerary was too ambitious to fit it all in. Plus, the weather was so awesome around LA and out towards the Salton Sea (and not so nice up in The Bay area) that we stayed south for most of the trip.

I received many responses and opinions regarding the Sacramento, Colusa, etc wildlife refuges. We quickly discovered that Colusa was really the only good place for photography, as it has a spot before the auto tour that allows you to get out of the vehicle and get nice low angles. The other refuges do not offer this and require that you stay in your vehicle the whole time. I hate shooting from the vehicle, so they were not an option for us. Kern National Wildlife Refuge had tons of birds and does allow you to get out of the vehicle, but because they had recently been hunting there, the birds were extremely skittish. Anyway, I finally got my Ross's Goose shots at Colusa. Unfortunately the Falcated Duck had not been seen for at least 5 days before we got there, and I do not believe it has been seen since. It was well known there that all the hunters were desperately trying to shoot that duck and were bragging that someone may have done that. For me it seems to be such a hypocritical thing to have places called "refuges" where the birds and animals are hunted and killed???

My target lists are usually more ambitious than can be expected, but I managed to get about 50% of my target birds on this trip. So that leaves a good amount for a future trip. I will probably go a bit later next time for certain species. We did manage to find and photograph the Island Scrub Jay, but as luck would have it, it was about 20 minutes before the boat arrived to take us away. More time with that species would have offered better lighting conditions and images.

Anyway, if anyone is interested, my gallery from this trip can be seen at this link:  http://www.zuropak.com/photogallery/cal ... 2015/index  

Tim's site with his recent trip to California is well worth viewing along with his past trips to other locations. HCarl

It looks like you had a good trip Tim some lovely images there. How close did you manage to get to the birds, did you need a hide?

Trev wrote:How close did you manage to get to the birds, did you need a hide?

We both had bag blinds with us, but only used them once for the Canyon Wren, but that bird was so difficult that the blinds didn't help much at all. The rest of the species were doable without a blind.

Tim Zurowski wrote:

Trev wrote:How close did you manage to get to the birds, did you need a hide?

We both had bag blinds with us, but only used them once for the Canyon Wren, but that bird was so difficult that the blinds didn't help much at all. The rest of the species were doable without a blind.

Thanks Tim

Hi Tim

Lovely gallery. Are you able to share a little more detail about the spots you visited - which worked which didn't. You've mentioned a couple, but I'd welcome, if you're able, having some more detail so that I can factor that in a future trip of my own.

Many thanks

Martin

Nice banded snow goose. All are well done.

Your Gallery of birds from this recent trip shows a very successful visit - great to get the Ross's Goose, one that I continue to hope every year will visit our shores along with the usual flocks of Snow Geese.

All the best,

Hi Kwan

The Ross's Geese are pretty easy to get at Colusa NWR. There were thousands of them just off the flight deck. I met a friend of yours while we were there. He said he would be seeing you and I told him to say hi

Tim,

Looks like you had a good trip. I love the shots of the Blue Ross' Goose, Le Conte's Thrasher, Bell's Sparrow, Island Scrub Jay, Wrentit, Merlin and of course the Allen's Hummingbird. It was quite serendipitous to run into you and finally have met you. Also thanks for your email. I will send you an email later, a bit busy at work lately.

Take care,

Awesome images, Tim. Bravo!

Hi Tim,

Fantastic shots especially the Wrentit, for me the quintessential Californian bird.

Did you luck into that Yellow-billed Magpie? I found them wary and frustrating to get any kind of decent shot.

Cheers,

Jim

Yeah, the Wrentit was high on my want list for the trip and we were very happy to come home with good shots of them..

We tried for the Magpies at both Anderson River Park on the way down, and two rest stops along Hwy 101 on the way back home. They are typically very skittish and difficult. They are fed at the rest stops, but we did a whole setup for them and they would not come over for our feed. People were feeding them on their picnic tables. We spent over 8 hours trying to get them over to our setup and eventually gave up when the sun went down. As we were packing up our gear, we looked back at the setup and two of them were all over it. So for my second trip down there trying for them, we kind of struck out on them again. We got some grab shots, but nothing like I was hoping to come home with. Such a great species too!

Hi Tim,

I was sure someone would ask about those 2 rest stops, but I guessed wrong. Do you mind telling us these places that feed the magpies? Seems ironic that we go to all these wild locations and yet some of the more difficult subjects can be captured in the most urban of settings!

Cheers,

Jim

hcarl wrote:Tim's site with his recent trip to California is well worth viewing along with his past trips to other locations.  HCarl

good shout!   So many fab shots..  Marbled Godwit on Morro Beach is a sweet one for me.