Category: Photo of the Week

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Sooty Grouse

Female sooty grouse can be seen in wooded areas, usually on or close to the ground. Males can be heard throughout the Sierra Nevada, but are much harder to spot, as their deep booming vocalizations are difficult to triangulate. Yosemite National Park.
Female sooty grouse can be seen in wooded areas, usually on or close to the ground. Males can be heard throughout the Sierra Nevada, but are much harder to spot, as their deep booming vocalizations are difficult to triangulate. Yosemite National Park.

On a recent backpacking trip to Yosemite I managed to see and photograph a female sooty grouse. I had been hearing the booming calls of the male all day long as I made my way up switchbacks out of the valley, climbing ever higher into the high country. Although very vocal, the males are very hard to spot. They create a deep booming call that resonates at a low frequency. This allows the call to travel a great distance, but it is difficult to discern directionality of the sound. In addition, males will fly up into tree branches to broadcast, while most of the life of the female is spent foraging on the forest floor.

A female sooty grouse picks through the forest needles looking for food, Yosemite National Park.
A female sooty grouse picks through the forest needles looking for food, Yosemite National Park.

Indeed this is where I found the female – scratching for food in a sparse forest next to a creek. This situation called for me to stretch my stalking skills to the maximum, because my longest lens I had with me on my trip was my 70-200 mm, and this was on a full frame camera. I usually photograph birds with an 800mm on a 1.6X cropped sensor, so I was at a severe disadvantage to my usual setup.

Creeping ever closer, I managed not to disturb her too much. My best shots came when she ducked behind a tree and wandered into a small clearing. I managed to sneak up directly behind the tree, and then peak around the side.

Trying for these shots in a dark forest required I gather as much light to the sensor as possible. This meant shooting wide open (f/4 was the best this lens had to offer), using the lens’ image stabilizer (of course!), and shooting at a high ISO.

Although this is not the most colorful bird I have ever photographed, I was excited none the less. It was a life bird for me, and it was thrilling to have such an opportunity when I was not on a trip specifically geared toward bird photography, and I didn’t have my optimum gear with me.

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Dark-eyed Junco

A dark-eyed junco perches on a tree branch and flashes his tail feathers
A dark-eyed junco perches on a tree branch and flashes his tail feathers

Dark-eyed juncos are most often seen on the ground, pecking around for bits of seed. But in this photo, I managed to capture one perched for a long period of time in a tree branch, seemingly displaying his tail feathers.

Normal courtship behavior for a male is to stand on the ground near the female, dip his head and raise his tail feathers while fanning them out to each side. I had never before seen one fanning its feathers up in a tree. And no females were anywhere to be seen. If this bird was attempting a courtship display, he was going about it all wrong.

But it was amusing for me, and I snapped away, capturing a behavior and location that I had never seen before with this bird.

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Pacific Golden Plover

A pacific golden plover in winter plumage stalks through the grass looking for food
A pacific golden plover in winter plumage stalks through the grass looking for food

One bird I was surprised to see on my recent trip to Hawaii was the Pacific Golden Plover. I wasn’t so much surprised to see it on the island of Kauai as I was to see it so far away from shore or a wetland. Many were dispersed throughout a residential suburb, happily feeding from manicured lawns and landscaping. Apparently these birds had adapted to a new environment that lent itself to plentiful food.

A pacific golden plover in winter plumage stalks through the grass looking for food
A pacific golden plover in winter plumage stalks through the grass looking for food

This plover can also be seen on the western coast of the US, but not in such numbers as I saw on the island. Adults can develop a beautiful golden brown accent to their feather pattern.

In order to get intimate closeup shots with a 400mm lens, I found myself sitting low to the ground and waiting for the birds to get comfortable with my presence. When one would start to move away from me, I had to fight the urge to creep after it, and sure enough, most of the time it would wander back to within shooting distance. However, these guys were definitely more skittish than the Red-crested Cardinals.

A pacific golden plover in winter plumage stalks through the grass looking for food
A pacific golden plover in winter plumage stalks through the grass looking for food

Another lesson in patience and another species down for a trip which would eventually present many new species to photograph.

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Red-crested Cardinal

A red-crested cardinal stands in short grass, Kauai, Hawaii.
A red-crested cardinal stands in short grass, looking for food
A red-crested cardinal stands in short grass, looking for food

One of the more interesting birds I got to spend time photographing on my recent Kauai trip was the Red-crested Cardinal. This turned out to be a relatively tame bird, and I had several occasions to get quite close. I found that sitting on the ground and waiting for them to approach provided both a stable (and low) position from which to take photos, and allowed me to remain very still so as not to spook them.

A red-crested cardinal stands in short grass, looking for food
A red-crested cardinal stands in short grass, looking for food

Natively found in South America, this species was introduced to the Hawaiian Islands in the 1930s. Even though its common name includes “cardinal”, it is not closely related to other cardinals, including the common Northern Cardinal found in eastern North America. Rather, the Red-crested is part of the Tanager family. Males and females are similarly colored, while immature birds have a dull orange color to their crest.

A red-crested cardinal stands in short grass, Kauai, Hawaii.
A red-crested cardinal stands in short grass, Kauai, Hawaii.

Ultimately, I spent quite a bit of time with a few of these feisty looking little birds. The longer I sat with them, the more used to me they became. In fact, on several occasions, they got within a foot or two, far too close for my lens’ minimum focus distance. At that point I wished I had a second body with a wide angle lens attached – it would have made for a very unique photo!

A red-crested cardinal stands in short grass, Kauai, Hawaii.
A red-crested cardinal stands in short grass, Kauai, Hawaii.

Copyright 2017 Hank Christensen