One of my favorite birds, besides the one in my lens view, is the Sandhill Crane. I saw my first in eastern Florida where I watched a pair of immature with their mom. This pair I first saw out of the corner of my eye when rounding the south end of Washoe Lake.
It was a good year for photography at least. Below I saw this White-faced Ibis perched on this stump on a bird walk around the Diamond Creek Pond in south Reno, NV. I have continued to use the 1.4 telaconverter, which extends my 500mm lens to 700mm.
Moving from the Santa Cruz Mountains in California to Reno, NV one of the first animals I encounter were the Wild Horses or Mustangs. Hidden Valley is located on the western side of the Virginia Range, which forms the Washoe Valley with the Sierras to the west.
Photographing birds is a challenge and when you add movement it make capturing a bird in flight more complex. To be successful you really need to know your camera so when an opportunity appears you can take advantage of it. I was walking along the Santa Cruz, CA coastline at Baldwin Creek. In this section, there are 100 to 150 ft cliffs and inland there is a lake about 100 ft below the bluffs. This Snow Goose was flying south toward me and I was able to capture the guy at eye level. Larger birds move more predictably so they are easier to photograph while in motion.
It was a good year, at least for photographing bird, and there were many rare migrants this spring (see my 2020 Northern Nevada Rare Spring Migrants post). One of my 2020 favorites was this Hutton’s Vireo that showed up during the Truckee Meadows CBC in Reno.
