My Visual Adventures: Sharing my Travel, Sports, Nature, and Animal Photography. With a little bit of life thrown in. I luv living life in Northern California.
Proud single mom of one beautiful daughter who shares my love of sports and music. She doesn't share my love of the outdoors which I find weird. I love photography and wish I had a better camera!! Maybe someday...
Oh my. This post again brought to you by the Olympus Test and Wow program which allows photographers in certain areas to borrow certain Olympus cameras and lenses free of charge to test them out and be "wowed"!
Wow! Well, I have certainly enjoyed each time I was able to borrow from this program and quite like the equipment. But in this case, I have learned a hard lesson.
Make sure you are shooting in raw + JPEG! I took over 250 photos on this trip and had changed the setting to raw (as I normally shoot now on my Nikon or Sony). Surprise Surprise! The ORF file is not supported on my Windows laptop so I couldn't review my files to see what were the best shots.
I had to open each one in Photoshop to check it out. It. Has. Taken. Me. Forever. To. Edit. These!
But the good news is I had some pretty good shots and some unusual birds for me! Woot woot!
I got there pretty early, as I like to do, so I can hopefully see jackrabbits, deer, and raptors hanging around drying their wings. I had some great success in the raptor and jackrabbit department!
I love trees! Trees are so cool, no matter what the season. But a birdwatcher/photographer's friend is definitely bare, interestingly shaped trees.
There is a certain field along the auto tour (just after you enter pretty much) that is often filled with jackrabbits. On this trip, I saw about 4 different ones that were pretty close to the road and feeling pretty confident!
The ponds were full of beautiful Mallards and other ducks.
Honestly, I have so many pictures from this trip so I am splitting up the posts. Stay tuned for a gorgeous Pacific Downy Woodpecker, Peregrine Falcon, and Bald Eagle! Among many more.
The topic of Zoological Societies (zoo) can be controversial and inspire strong sentiments amongst many. For me, they create a very mixed reaction.
I'm grateful for the opportunity to see beautiful creatures and be near them when I might otherwise never have the opportunity. I also welcome the opportunity to learn about animals and I do believe that if humans were not able to see animals up close and personal, they wouldn't care or learn to love these animals that are so worthy of love, admiration, and of saving!
As Steve Irwin once said,
"If we can teach people about wildlife, they will be touched...humans want to save the things they love."
Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary lives up to this philosophy. This small zoo was started in 1963 by Folsom City Parks Superintendent who kept a rescued coyote and and several deer. It's a really cool story which you can read about here.
Today, the Zoo takes in animals that, due to injury or other reasons, cannot be returned to the wild. In February of 2018, my daughter and I decided to spend the gorgeous, sunny day visiting this intimate zoo and it's amazing animal population.
Because of the intimate nature and enclosures that ensure privacy for the animals if they desire it, photography becomes a bit of a challenge. But I had fun capturing the beautiful creatures even if I couldn't always get a full "beauty" shot.
Bobcat!
Golden Eagle!
Puma!
Cougar!
Panther!
Sleeping Bear!
Sleeping Little Bear!! Seriously, this little kitty lives with the bear. He showed up one day and never left so they named him Little Bear!
Deer!
Fuzzy Antlers!
Wolf!
Seriously, the wolves are so awesome to watch.
I have a deer!
Tiger! Be sure to notice that both the Cougar and the Tiger have their tongues out. Just like house kitties!
Turkey Vulture!
Fun Fact: Vultures are bald so the blood and guts can be cleaned off their heads easily after sticking them in carcasses. Not so fun fact: I don't actually know if that's a fact. lol
Be sure to check out the Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary if you're in the Sacramento area! The Sacramento Zoo is pretty awesome too.
I don't go to animal parks where the animals are forced to perform and the living situation is not ideal. Zoos are often not up to standard and I think you have to be discerning and make sure to patronize worthy zoos that focus on providing education and the correct living circumstances for the animals in their car. Just my two cents worth.
I saw a little boat launch with a lot of birds around it, so I pulled in to see if I could get any decent shots. I couldn't. But just as I parked my car beside the water and opened my door, I heard a loud SPLASH and saw this little critter swimming away from where I had disturbed it's sunbathing on the bank.
I think it's a muskrat because of the way the tail looks in the water and because he was smaller than the only beavers I've seen.
I tried to remain as still as a statue hoping he would swim back towards me, but he didn't. So I, too moved along. I turned onto the auto tour road and immediately saw some cool birds floating on the brilliant, blue lake.
A Western Grebe
And a beautifully weird looking female Common Merganser.
I was told by the rangers at the visitor center and also by some other travelers I had been speaking with that there was a large flock of Snow Geese. Now, I was blessed to see a huge flock of Snow and Ross Geese at the very first National Wildlife Refuge I ever happened upon in Merced. It's one of the things that got me hooked on bird watching. So I was very happy to hear that I would be seeing some at Tule Lake and this flock did not disappoint.
Clark's Grebe - notice that the black cap does not come down over the eyes like it does on the Western Grebe photo above.
Oh! I've always tried to get a good shot of a beautiful Ruddy Duck with their distinctive blue bills but the blue has never really stood out in any of my other photos. But this guy's bill was so vibrant that even I couldn't mess it up! And it looks like he has blue guyliner on too. How emo.
I was told by the Rangers that the Grebes were beginning to partner up and that I might be fortunate enough to see a mating dance. They said it was a little early for it, but that someone had reported seeing one a couple days before.
So imagine my delight when I spotted a couple doing the preliminary preening moves of the mating dance.
I waited for quite a while, but they never did the running along the water bit. They were taking it slow and I guess that's a good thing for true love. haha Since I didn't see it, here's a gif of a BBC production so you know what I'm talking about.
On to the next treat!! I turned my attention skyward when I saw the splendor of a large Bald Eagle sitting on a telephone pole surveying his kingdom (and probably looking for his next snack).
As I usually do, I snapped photos every few feet or so as I inched my car forward while praying that he wouldn't fly away.
Closer!!
I really think he's trying to decide if he should eat me. I'm very heavy Mister Eagle!
As I inched underneath and past him, he hopped from the middle to the ends and back to the middle again. Of course I didn't get any photos of that. haha
And now he's in the middle!
I pulled a little way passed him and then leaned out the window to get a few last shots, just in time to see him spread his wings and hop to the end again! And of course I didn't get the camera up in time.
I love this shot. Wish it was a little clearer but it looks like the perfect American Bald Eagle you see on posters with Uncle Sam.
Here is a completely zoomed out shot so you can see what he looked like to the naked eye! Pretty impressive specimen!
Just after that, another very large white and black bird few over me!
I followed him to his pod of fellow pelicans and watched them for a bit as they fished in the American White Pelican's coordinated fishing dance.
I saw a couple of Canvasbacks - the first I've ever seen I think.
And a purple-headed Northern Shoveler!
And then the auto-tour suddenly spit me out into the high desert on the far side of the lake! But it wasn't over...not yet.
There were lots of cool landscape shots to be had. Including this one with a meadowlark and a prairie dog sitting on rocks!
And this landscape of two prairie dogs with Mt. Shasta in the background.
And this landscape with a Northern Harrier flying through.
There were still birds to be seen, for sure.
But the beautiful landscape was just as much the star of the show now.
After figuring out where the hell I was, I headed for Lava Beds National Monument to explore some history.
