The higher elevations around Lassen County got a dusting of snow on the night of April 12-13. I’m trying to figure out a good place for my first deployment of my recently built DSLR camera trap to get some coyote photos, so I figured the fresh snow would help me identify some of their paths of travel for trail cam placement. Of course, I took my standard photo gear along with me and I was very pleased to see some amazing conditions upon my arrival. There was a great deal of fog coming off the water as the low morning temperatures, in the high 20’s Fahrenheit, were sitting right on the dew point as they touched the somewhat warmer water of McCoy Flat Reservoir. My first stop was the location where I have been watching the trio of Sandhill Cranes that have been hanging out there. Alas, the cranes didn’t want to participate in the photo festivities as they were hanging out far on the other side of the lake in deep shade. However, I did find a couple things to aim a telephoto lens at during the brief period of morning sunshine I had. This American robin was good enough to land in the snow fairly close to me and go on a hunt for breakfast….
(Video clip on my Facebook page here if anyone’s interested.)
The robin’s cousin, the male mountain bluebird was hanging out on a gnarled driftwood long some distance away. I have several bird books that say these beautiful little thrushes can be seen in Lassen County but this is the first one I’ve actually spotted here. (Western bluebirds are far more common here and I frequently get them nesting in birdhouses on my property.) The little bird was too far away to get a tight portrait even with 560mm of telephoto glass, but I still like this rather “environmental” image of the scene as a whole….
Two pairs of wood ducks swam by my position while the sun was still shining. However, they missed the memo that I wanted them IN the sun and insisted on staying in pretty deep shade. Playing the cards I was dealt, I spot metered on one of the drakes, cranked the exposure compensation dial up a fair bit to overexpose, and made a high key minimalistic image…
This Canada goose was hanging out by another large driftwood log while actually being quiet. Impressive, especially since there were other geese not far away…
The sunshine only lasted about 20 minutes so I moved a half a mile to the west to check on a trail cam I already had out. I was struck by the moodiness of the foggy conditions among the driftwood debris that litters the shoreline and shallows in the area so I grabbed my other camera and tripod and did a bit more shooting. I think this scene does a great job of illustrating just how much debris there is along the shore. I processed this one in both color and black and white as I think both have something to offer….
I think this is my favorite landscape capture of the morning. By this point the sun was trying to fight its way back through the clouds and having some success on the distant snow dusted ridge beyond this snow-dusted large driftwood log.
All in all it was a wonderful morning to be out with a camera (or two)! I also found some coyote tracks as I hoped and gained some insight for my first camera trap deployment which I hope to make happen in just a few days.
Until next time, thanks for stopping by.