Flowers, Sunflowers, and More Flowers! Davis, California & Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area

In my previous post, I showed you some of the amazing birds to be found in the fields and rice paddies in Yolo County near Davis, California.  And, even though it is full on, hot summer here, there are flowers growing both wild and cultivated. 

And we'll start with the sunflowers! During the summer months there are many, many cultivated sunflower fields in Yolo County.  Farms with sunflowers and big, red barns!  

This moth was having fun in the pollen too!

And there were many, many bees buzzing about as well!

I confess I did spend a bit too long driving around and visiting this sunflower farm.  That's why I ended up getting the car locked in Vic Fazio at sunset!  But it's so beautiful and peaceful among the tall flowers. 

But when I got to Vic Fazio Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, I was very happy to see many wildflowers were blooming there as well!

I love the top edit but wanted to show what it actually looked like.  These flowers were TALL!  They actually towered over the car by about a foot. The bottom is a slightly different photo. 

The sun was starting (STARTING!) to set at this point, turning banks of flowers golden and bright.  

The play of light on different areas was so captivating.  And created some gorgeous bokeh too. 

This is one of my most favorite shots.  Possibly in my top 10(0) of all time.  A single daisy (?) in front of a gray, plowed field.  But the light turned the gray to soft purple. 

And I'm kind of particular about this lone flower peaking out of tall reeds too. 

Another one that I love love love.  

And another one!  What a magical sunset!

Such a beautiful ending to a wonderful day.  Except for getting locked in!!  hahaha  Well, all's well that ends well, and (spoiler alert)  I didn't end up sleeping in the car.  The Davis police were quite helpful in tracking down a maintenance man who came back back to let me (and the other car that came up after me) out.  

Thank you!!! 

xoxo

Sony A350

Birdwatching at Vic Fazio Wildlife Area - My First Bittern!!!

On a beautiful Saturday evening, I decided to go out to the Vic Fazio/Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area to see what birds may be out and about.  I was tempted to go because my co-worker got some great phone pics of a bird that may have been a Bittern although we both weren't quite sure.  

I've always wanted to see a Bittern and have stared at many a bunch of reeds hoping to spot the elusive creatures.  

So off I headed.  First I did a little wandering around Plainfield and came across a hawk standing guard over some beautiful farm fields.  It's a little blurry, but I had to include it.  

I headed out on the auto tour, totally bemused by all the beautiful flowers which shall be in another post. :)  I was happy to spot birds right away, but a little surprised to see this gorgeous Gull near one of the first rice paddies.  It looked almost like it was sitting on a nest!

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Just past it on the other side of the road was a beautiful egret stretched out in a towering pose.  

And on the next paddy was a gorgeous juvenile gull of some sort.  Perhaps a Herring Gull?  I'm not sure, but he was pretty big and definitely a looker. 

And then, right near where Yvonne had told me she saw her possible Bittern, I rounded a corner of and there it was!!  Not at all where I normally keep my eyes peeled.  He wanted me to see him!

Hi Hooman!

Amazing!  And so were the 7 or so Cattle Egrets that were hanging out just down the road as well.  

Along with a much bigger cousin! 

There were a couple brave birds in the water of the irrigation ditch along side the road and they were happy to pose for me!

On the other side of the road, another Egret and a Great Blue Heron were hanging out!

Golden hour was in full effect and this hawk was enjoying the sunset.

And OMG, this little Killdeer hanging out in the middle of the road made for a perfect photo op!

The sun was setting and (little did I know) that the gates were about to close.  I was so happy to see and hear a flock of blackbirds in the reeds and capture this beautiful silhouette in the sunset!

Then I headed for the exit.  I was startled to see many people sitting and standing on the hill around the entrance.  I literally thought I was about to be murdered and hesitated before proceeding.  

As I drove up the hill, I asked some of the people who were now walking up to the parking area what they were all looking at and was told that there is a colony of bats there that had just flown out in a magnificent cloud.

So cool!  I definitely have to go back to watch that!

And then they mentioned, that they believed the gate at the top of the hill was locked. 

Ummm, WHAT????  Sure enough.  Me and my daughter's car were locked in.  Holy shit.  When they say sunset apparently they mean as the sun dips below the horizon because that had just happened.

Another lady told me that the maintenance person had literally just driven away a minute before and pointed out a vehicle about a 1/2 mile away.  Which of course did me no good as I was LOCKED INSIDE THE GATE!

More on that in the next post!  =D

xoxo

Sony A350

Sunflowers at Sunset - Woodland, California June 21, 2020

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows follow behind you

~Maori proverb

More social distancing with flowers!  This time in Woodland at three of many sunflower fields growing in Yolo County this time of year. I came to see some sunflowers but got sidetracked by a little bird watching place nearby that my co-worker Yvonne had told me about.  More on that in another post. :)

When I finally tore myself away from the Egrets and Herons and made my way to my planned location just a bit up I-5, it was getting dark and the sun had pretty much set.  But the sky was a beautiful orangey-pink, the mountains were blue, and the fields were bright with green and yellow. 

It's a bit late in the season and it's been HOT so a lot of the flowers were going to seed and starting to brown and droop.  But they were still a gorgeous sight to behold. 

I learned a little something from Reddit recently regarding the two different sunflowers seen in the photo below.  

The smaller, multi-clustered flowers (that we sometimes notice on the side of random roads here in California) are the male pollinators.  The tall, strong seed-bearing sunflowers are, of course, the females.  Girl power baby!

You know me and know I have to do a couple "stylized" photos every time.  :-)  To me, there is beauty in every stage of life.  Not always the stereotypical "beauty", but beauty none the less. 

This picture is similar to the first one, I know.  But I just loved the way some sunflowers have their heads held high to catch the last rays of the setting sun.  And this time I found three more closer to me!

More "style"! 

This is the backside of the sunset.  Pro tip:  After the sun has set (or risen), look to the opposite horizon to catch the last bit of the beautiful show of light and color!

Here is another example of the male and female flowers.  This farmer's field had a thick row of male flowers planted between every 10 or so rows of females.  

This is the opposite side of the road.  Strong and beautiful females tower over there male pollinators with the orange Western sky and beautiful trees in the background.  

And this is probably my favorite shot of the day so I saved it for last.  So gorgeous.

Such a peaceful and perfect way to end a Sunday night after a pretty stressful/anxiety-filled week/weekend.  

Till next time.  

xoxo

Sony A350

Note: all photos taken by Jeanette H. (author/photographer) at sunset/blue hour with handheld DSLR at 400 ISO (Sorry for any grainyness). I've learned that the used 300mm zoom lens I bought has a lot of chromatic aberration which sucks to a certain extent (especially with birds and wildlife) but isn't a deal breaker for non-pro photos.

In Search of Spring Flowers & California Poppy "Super" Bloom! April 2020

Happy Spring!  These are coronavirus times and things are weird.  Not even going to sugar coat it.  So I, being me, self-distance in a car with a camera.  In search of beauty.  

I took a drive up towards Jackson, California in search of California poppies, which I had heard were blooming pretty profusely due to some late rains we were having in this drought year.  The drive did not disappoint!

Soon, I saw entire hill sides full of poppy patches!  

After taking the two pictures above, I turned around at a little closed county park by a river.  As I was pulling out, I noticed that the hillside had blue honeysuckle growing.  It was mostly in shadow, but I was able to get this awesome picture that turned out to be one of my favorites of the day. 

Back heading NorthWest on Highway 49, I pulled over beneath another hillside that was covered with poppies.  I had been heading in the wrong direction to pull over on the winding road prior, and the available pullouts were covered with cars and people anyway...everyone trying to get a photo in the poppies.  

But this time, there were only a couple cars pulled over and no one in the actual flowers! So I got luck and got a few cool shots. 

After I finished at this spot, I pulled back on to Highway 49, went around the corner, and pulled right back off again! This time there was a profusion of poppies and lupine at the top and bottom of what was otherwise a barren red cliff.  It was so cool looking!  I spent about 40 minutes there, wandering around the bottom of the cliff and taking photos of anything interesting.  

There were more than just poppies and lupine on the cliff face!  Beautiful red succulents were in bloom as well!

I finished up by laying on the ground (luckily I had a windbreaker in the car because the side of the road was littered with bits of broken glass and trash - do better people!!) and taking some shots of the blooms at the bottom of the cliff.

I then headed back and planned to stop twice more...once for a gorgeous purple blooming tree I had seen in a meadow but there hadn't been a place to stop on the other side of the highway.  It was so beautiful against the bright green background!  I actually had to lower the color sat in this photo!

While I was pulling away, I noticed what appeared to be a half cultivated and half wild garden at the base of a church on a hill.  There was a drainage culvert which had lush grass and blooms around it.  I had to pull over once again.

I have no idea what these pink cone-like flowers were and Google was absolutely no help.  But they looked so cool mixed in at the base of these poppies!

There were a few solitary white Iris here and there amongst the rocks making of the bed of the culvert and stream.  My mom loved Iris and planted then in our yard growing up.  

This BEE!  in stunning purple blooming clover!!

These flowers were sooo tiny!  I mean...tiny!  Like about the size of a quarter of a dime.  

And a purple IRIS!  Hi mom!

Okay, another unplanned stop.  I had taking some full moon pics in Jackson of the beautiful St. Sava Orthodox Church on January 31, 2019.  I heard that there was a vantage point to see down on the church, so I decided to make a quick detour to see if I could find it.  

I didn't.  But I did shoot a kind of cool photo in between two houses!  There is a piece of pretty-bad Photoshop on the lower left bottom of the photo where I tried to 'shop out a roof.  lol  

My last stop was in Rancho Murrieta.  I had seen a large swath of yellow Lupine growing in front of the construction site of a new Bel Air.  Full disclosure, I didn't see any other yellow Lupine on my drive although there were tons of blue ones.  So I think these may have been planted to make the construction site prettier.   But it was stunning and they were mixed with a lot of wildflowers so I felt justified in including them.  :)

Laker colors!!  Hi Kobe and Gigi!

I loved how the three yellow ones lined up in this photo.

Such a fun and rewarding drive.  I miss nature and road trips so much!  Be safe people.  Be well.  

xoxo

Sony A350

18-70 & 70-300 Lens used