I sold my photography gear and motor cycle before moving to Bay area, California thinking I am going to take a break from passion for wildlife photography. After reaching the US, first few months went as per that plan as I was getting accustomed to new place, getting a driving license, buying a car were the priorities. After the initial busy days, I got ample time during weekends since my family didn’t join me for a year, some of my friends also moved to the US around same time and during weekends we started exploring nearby tourist spots like Bigsur, 17-Mile Drive, San Francisco etc. Other than that, I started exploring trails in the nearby regional Parks like Rancho San Antonio and Mission Peak which kept me occupied during the weekends.
Back in India, my favorite photographic subjects were wild life, especially elephants and butterflies. Compared to India, the variety of wild life in California is not that great and thought this as an excuse for not spending on camera gears again. It backfired soon. As I started exploring these trails, I came across wonderful birds who were not scared easily by my presence. This triggered the idea of buying a DSLR again.
That November when the Thanks giving day offers started pouring in, I started my homework reading reviews, comparing costs etc. I have used Nikon and Canon DSLRs in the past and still there were some confusion regarding brands like Nikon, Canon or any other also full frame vs APS-C, and so on. Cost was another limiting factor, since photography is my hobby which I do at my own pace and I don’t earn from it. Since my primary subject was birds, it is good to go with APS-C so that I can get additional reach due to crop factor. While considering lenses, for birding I need a super telephoto lens that is at least 400mm or above. One lens that did strike me was the newly launched Canon 100-400mm IS ii which was moderately priced among 400mm range lenses. Another plus point of this lens was that it supports Canon extender and still can do autofocus with right canon body like canon 7d Mkii. Autofocus is one of the most needed features for capturing a bird at flight. After a week of research, I narrowed down to Canon 7d Mkii to be paired with a Canon 100-400mm. Purchase was done online. Later I realized that 400mm with APS-C crop factor is also not enough for birding and after a few months I brought a Canon 1.4x iii extender.
These are my first few shots which I clicked just outside the apartment after getting my camera. First is an Anna-Humming bird. I had noticed it for few weeks and it used to sit at the same spot most of the time, and then there was woodpecker, Scrub Jays and so on. At bay area, varieties of raptors and small colorful birds like Sparrows are abundant even within the city. Few other shots are from Martin Murphy Park and from Elizabeth Lake at Fremont. I am not an expert in identifying the birds; experts please correct me if I am wrong or missed naming any of them.
Humming Bird - Anna's
Scrub Jay
American Robin
Cedar Waxwing
California Towhee
Starling
Yellow Billed Magpie
Townsend's Warbler
American Coot
Turkey Vulture, Too far for my Lens.
Rancho San Antonio Open Preserve is a very vast area with some beautiful trails. This park has lots of deer, coyotes, wild turkeys, rabbits, Snakes, different birds and rarely heard of Mountain lion sightings. One occasion, unaware of the size of the park, I got lost inside this park and I ran out of water and my phone also died. Since I deviated from common trails which most people take, I was not seeing anyone around to ask for directions. How it happened was I saw a pointer towards “Hidden Villa” and I was searching for that. Later I realized I had to go down a valley to reach there and was running out of time and water since it was already evening. So, I started walking back towards my parking and I saw a board towards a parking area and that happened to be a parking on the other side of the park and unknowingly I went towards the opposite direction. I continued walking and luckily after some time I met an old couple on the trail, they pointed me to the right direction. That day I covered fifteen miles on my hike. Some trails like PG&E trail are moderately tough and some other trails are comparatively easy ones. At Rancho San Antonio, somewhere near the beginning of PG&E trail, you can see some abandoned old cars. Over the time it’s almost submerged in soil up to the window level and the roof is covered in over grown bushes. From the rounded shape of the roof, one can speculate that it might be a model from 1940 or 1950s.
Eastern Blue Bird Male
Eastern Blue Bird Female
Northern Flicker Woodpecker
Dark Eyed Junco
Bob Walker
Acorn Woodpecker and its food Store
A Coyote
Acorn Woodpecker
Grey Squirrel
Eastern Blue Bird Female
I have tried to click humming birds at flight and was never successful at freezing the wings even by playing with the shutter timer. Its wings will reach a max of 80 flaps per second at times. After googling, I got to know that a flash can do the magic to freeze the wings. Since I don’t do much indoor photography, I was not ready to spend for flash just for shooting humming birds. Instead I tried shooting with on camera flash which is not great to do the task, still works to some extent. I added a humming bird feeder at my patio and immediately humming birds started coming and feeding. Initially it started with a male bird, visiting once in 20 minutes. Later its mates also followed, and I have seen four birds at a time and the visit interval came down to 3-4 minutes and I now must refill it more frequently.
Anna Humming Bird From my Patio. I removed humming bird feeder and kept a flower pot with flower.
Some more shots..
House Finch
On my trips to Yosemite, I usually take highway-140 which has a scenic drive as well as less traffic. In this route there are many farms with cows, sheep and horses. One might also see coyotes or foxes if driving during early morning hours or late evenings. There are some cherry and grape farms too. Another reason for taking this route is that The San Luis National Wildlife Refuge is near to that route which is a good spot for birding. I have never hiked deep in this trail, whatever I clicked is from around the visitor center. There itself you can see lots of variety of herons, Rabbits, California Quails etc. I heard Yosemite is a good birding spot and there are some paid birding camps offered by some private groups. I haven’t tried that yet.
California Quail
Cottontail Rabbit
Blue Heron near Mirror Lake
Nuttall's Woodpecker
California Black Bear