Thursday, January 31, 2013

EAGLES ON THE WING

This morning dawned partly sunny with winds to about 15 mph gusting to about 20. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the motel and then waited for it to warm up a bit outside as there was ice on the highways to start with. We left Cedar Rapids about 1030 and headed to the Davenport, IA area.

The drive went smoothly though we saw a total of 14 vehicles that had slid off the highway in the past 24 hours. Four of them were big rig trucks. It pays to pay attention to the locals and listen to their advice. We arrived at our hosts lovely home about 1145. Judie and Jay gave us a very warm greeting, and offered extra clothing for the elements. They also provided a delicious hot minestrone soup and sandwiches for lunch. This stoked our bellies for the afternoon out in the cold. I had brought along a loaf of my sourdough bread so we had some of that as well.

After lunch it was time to suit up for about three hours of photography on the banks of the Mississippi River just down stream from Lock and Dam 14. This is a very well known site for photographing these magnificent birds. I shot over 16 GBs of pictures which comes out to about 600. The lighting was not the best with mostly overcast and grey skies. It still was lots of fun, and I got some good photos. Jay and another local photographer were our spotters and coaches. Due to my practice with the pelicans in San Diego I was ready to be a bit heavy on the shutter release so there will be a great deal of editing when I get back to San Diego. I am still quite pleased with what I got today.






It is amazing to watch and photograph these birds. We were photographing both mature and immature birds. We also saw and photographed a couple of Canadian geese, and saw a trumpeter swan, and a few seagulls.   



I was well dressed for the weather with two layers of thermals and a pair of fleece pants under some snow bib overalls. on the top I had two thermal layers, a wool sweater, a photo vest, a wool shirt, an Irish wool sweater and a down jacket. On my head a rabbit fur bomber hat. My hands and toes were kept warm with two layers of gloves and two heavy pairs of socks with a set of chemical hand and toe
warmers between layers. I was quite toasty. It helped that generally the wind was at our backs for the afternoon as it was blowing quite steadily.



Enough! Time for bed as we are leaving tomorrow morning about 0800 for a full day out in the weather photographing at two or three different sites. Thanks for coming along with me. --

Raven Maven 

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

FLYING TO THE EAGLES

Wednesday, 30 January>>>

Yesterday was spent running errands, doing exercises, and packing. Lin also called to say that she had really come down with a bad cold. It turns out there was also some flu symptoms thrown in. I got my gear organized and packed before dinner so that Lin would have my office to herself. Lin arrived about 2125. and headed directly to a hot bath, followed by bed.

We followed the path to bed as reville was to be at 0430 today. George got us to the airport by a little after 0600 for our scheduled departure at 0805. Security went well for me, but Lin got pulled over for something in her roll-on. They scanned twice before finally finding a small knife that she had completely forgotten about. The bag had been through security at airports a number of time since she purchased the knife in March 2010!!

The weather today was not particularly good for flying to the center of the country. We made it fine to Denver though the flight was full.  The Denver Airport is huge. It is a long way from gate B28 to B80, and that is only one concourse. The flight to Cedar Rapids was over booked and they were looking for people to stay the night in Denver. We thought of taking them up on it but the connections would not have worked for our schedule. The weather in Cedar Rapids had been snow all day with winds to 25 mph. This was the first major storm of the winter for them, and schools were also cancelled.

As we were going to have to drive in the dark in snow and winds gusting to 35 mph we opted to spend the night at the Super 8 here in Cedar Rapids. Our hosts in the Davenport area strongly approved our decision. We will be off to bed by about 2100. We will await sunshine before heading out tomorrow morning. There will be cold and wind, but the weather generally will be clearing.

Here are a couple of pictures from our flight from San Diego to Denver. I got some good photos of San Diego from the air. We had a sunny flight and came closer to the Grand Canyon this time. I could easily identify Cape Royal and Wotan's Throne. We flew almost directly over Dessert View located at the East entrance to the park.

Dinner tonight was a salad from MacDonald's. This was the first time I have eaten a McDonald's meal! It was quite good actually. I enjoyed a Southwest Salad which came with Paul Newman salad
dressing. So you can see they are improving their choices. We opted for this as it was practically next door to the motel and we were able to pick it up before checking in and thus avoided having to go out again in the weather.

San Diego Coast with Mission Bay  and River Channel

Pt. Loma with Sub Base on East side

Coronado, San Diego Bay, Downtown, Balboa Park. and Mission Bay to North
Here is the Grand Canyon View--

View from above Desert View on East  end  of Canyon. Cape Royal, Wotan's Throne, and Cape Final are clearly visible.

 Time to start thinking about photographing eagles tomorrow afternoon. :-)


Monday, January 28, 2013

PHOTO TRAVEL 2013



PHOTO TRAVELS and ADVENTURES  2013 >>


These adventures will be on going throughout the year.

JANUARY: BROWN PELICANS – LA JOLLA CALIFORNIA

This adventure is on going and is close to my home as I can visit La Jolla on a weekly basis if I wish. This month of January I went out to photograph four times with the sunrise. The birds are fun to watch as they take off to go fish, and as they return to the cliffs and create a safe landing. Sometimes they pick some pretty crowded areas. 





There are a number of gulls that hang around as well looking for tidbits. One morning a fellow photographer brought some bread to feed the gulls when things got kind of dull on the cliff. I was able to capture pictures of heermann’s gulls, western gulls, and California gulls.

Heermann's Gull

Heermann's Gull
Ring-billed Gull

Western Gull

A real treat was capturing a perigrene falcon flying into the area. He likes to roost in the pines on the cliff above us.


Perigrine Falcon





It is also fun to capture their doing what is called a head throw which they do at the end of a preening period:





All of this was in preparation for an upcoming trip to the Davenport, Iowa area to photograph bald eagles. I leave on this trip on this coming Wednesday, with my friend and fellow photographer, Lin. Once more we are leaving the warmth of Southern California in January to travel to the cold snow and ice of the hinterland. Hopefully we will have three days/chances of getting some good photographs of these marvelous birds. The forcast looks promising.

Here is a link to my photo website  :http://nancykvarga.smugmug.com/

STAY TUNED FOR THE TRIP TO THE EAGLES.