Pintail duck pair, Cosumnes River Preserve, Galt, California

A pair of pintail ducks standing in wetlands along the Lost Slough Wetlands Walk at the Cosumnes River Preserve near Galt, California.  Pintails are distinguished from other ducks by their very pointy tail feathers.  The female has a gray bill, while the male has a blue-gray bill and a brown head with a white stripe running along the back of the neck.

We were visiting the Cosumnes River Preserve hoping to get a close look at the sandhill cranes that winter in the Sacramento Valley, but were certainly willing to photograph any other waterfowl or wading birds that inhabited the wetlands along with them.  Unfortunately, we only saw four cranes flying way overhead heading somewhere other than the wetlands we were visiting.  It was a good visit nevertheless thanks to the abundant birdlife flitting about.

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Wood ducks are the most colorful ducks

Wood duck males are among the most colorful birds in America. This one was swimming in the ponds in the Sacramento area during the 2016-2017 winter season, one of the wettest on record. They are called wood ducks because they nest in trees and their young have to jump out of the tree onto the ground to get to the water for the first time. Their call is somewhat of a whistling sound.

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Swan with young ones in Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Here is a recent picture of a trumpeter swan adult bird with two young ones swimming next to it. We visited Jackson Hole, Wyoming and got this picture by simply pulling off to the side of the road with lots of other people. There was even a platform on which to stand. Trumpeter swans are an endangered species that lives in Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, but this one was south of either park near the town of Jackson, Wyoming, in the National Elk Refuge. whose boundary comes right up to the road.

This image was taken with the ISO at 100, f/8, 1/400 sec.

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Canada goose at Woodward Park, Fresno, California, posing for the camera

Rick was out biking today and passed through part of Woodward Park, by the waterfowl refuge. There was a large flock of Canada geese seemingly expecting to be fed and it gave him an opportunity to get this close-up. The difficult part was capturing an image that only had one goose in it. Geese are something like the cattle of the bird world. Even if they'll take bread from park visitors, they mainly graze on grass. Rick runs to Woodward Park regularly and on one of those times that he was there, he watched several Canada geese swallowing whole acorns from under an oak tree.

The close-up was equivalent to a 1245 mm telephoto lens with 35mm film camera. The lens aperture was fully stopped down (which is f/8 for this paricular camera), ISO 100, and the shutter speed was 1/400.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!