Almost Like Home

Our recent whirlwind trip to California included a quick stopover in Santa Rosa which gave me a chance to walk around Lake Ralphine and Spring Lake and see some birds I haven’t seen recently here in the Pacific Northwest.

A Scrub Jay confronted me as I was walking down to the lake.

Although I had hoped to see the Green Heron I’ve seen there many times in the past, I was satisfied to take this Snowy Egret’s picture instead.

Unfortunately, Spring Lake was still recovering from recent flooding, and I wasn’t to able access many of the areas where I commonly see Green Herons and Night Herons. As a result, I saw less birds than usual.

When we returned to Lake Ralphine two swans that I’d seen out in the middle of the lake had moved closer to shore.

Perhaps my favorite shots of the day, though, were these shots of a female Common Merganser,

a male Common Merganser in breeding plumage,

proving Dan Gurney was right when he told me a few weeks ago that I could see them in California even if they were still rare here in the Pacific Northwest.

2 thoughts on “Almost Like Home”

  1. Great photos. When I photograph Snowy and Common Egrets their white bodies are so overexposed that they look like they’re made of plaster–no feathers. Your photo of the egret here is so good.

    I hope you enjoyed your stay in my neck of the woods. Hiking in adjacent Annabel Park is a favorite thing to do while in Santa Rosa.

    1. I have the same problem, but if you shoot in RAW format and use a program like Lightroom you can sometimes draw out the details in the white. I can also set my Canon so that it tries to underexpose white areas — not quite as successful as using Lightroom afterwards, though.

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