Exploring Land's End

Exploring Land...

By John W. Wall

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I had a couple more ya-ya's to get out and wanted to try out Blurb's 11x13 format, so I put together a book of photos shot along the California coast. It's pretty darned expensive, so I hope I love the result and have it to enjoy for the rest of my life. No more Christmas presents to myself, I swear!

Wood Duck

I know it's turkey day and all, and I agree wild turkeys are fine-looking birds, but word went out this week that a Wood Duck (Aix sponsa) had graced our very own Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park. I was one of several people who went out this morning to have a look at this unusual visitor to the city.

Range maps show that wood ducks can be found in many parts of the state, though they aren't common anywhere. They weren't such an unusual find before we chopped down most of their habitat. The wood duck is one the few North American ducks that nests in tree cavities. I was surprised to read that it's second only to Mallards in the number taken by hunters every year. I wasn't surprised because it's so pretty, but because it's so small. The mallards it was paddling around with were about twice its size.

So far there's just the lone male at Stow Lake, but with any luck an attractive female will drop by in time for spring breeding season. Whether its family could get enough nutritious food to eat there, I don't know, but plenty of Mallards seem to do okay. In addition to tree cavities, they'll use nest boxes, and I imagine if a female did show up, local birders would have nest boxes put up in no time.

Intimate Portrait: Mt. Tamalpais

Intimate Portr...

By John W. Wall

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Still under the weather today, but I was close enough to being finished with this other book project that I decided to hack away at the computer to put on the final touches and upload it to Blurb.

Natural California

Natural Califo...

By John W. Wall

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I've been taking advantage of print on demand services for several years to create books of my images. It's an excellent way to keep a portfolio of favorite photos and to challenge yourself to impose a thematic structure to give more meaning to your work. It's not cheap, but it is cheaper than making your own prints -- and a book is also a relatively portable way to show off a couple hundred printed images. There are 299 images in this 238-page book, and it cost me about $61 to order it bound in hardcover (after taking the holiday discount). It's far too expensive to even think about selling in a bookstore, but if you don't mark up the price, your friends and family can order their own for the same price you pay.

Sacramento NWR

Even if you miss the small sign near the I-5 exit for the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, you'll still see thousands of other signs in the form of snow geese, white-fronted geese, white-faced ibis and northern pintails. Lacy lines of them. Cacophonous clouds of them. It's about as good a birding stop as the Klamath Basin at its best, but it's only about 2-1/2 hours from San Francisco.

Although there's still tons of hunting going on, the refuge itself is truly a refuge. An Auto Tour Route loops through it (entrance fee = $3; cash and plastic accepted), and even though shotguns are booming all around the periphery, it's just birds and bird-watchers on the inside. That doesn't necessarily mean all the birds are safe. It's still a wildland in the refuge after all. A wounded duck that sought refuge was spotted and attacked by a northern harrier, but fought it off, at least for the time being. At night, of course, the coyotes come out.

It was getting on towards night when I arrived after the long haul down from the Klamath Basin. I'd wasted precious time on a useless detour along SR-97 just south of the Oregon border to see the so-called Butte Valley National Grassland which, as far as I could tell, was entirely given over to agriculture. I was disappointed to arrive so late at Sacramento NWR, but sunset and sunrise are excellent times to visit the refuge. The giant flocks of birds are coming and going, and the sky blooms in living color. It actually remains an awe-inspiring spectacle even when it's too dark to do photography.

The bird action was so good that I decided to stay the night in nearby Willows, a nice old town on I-5 with a host of plastic motels and fast-food joints next to the freeway. There are non-chain motels in the town east of the freeway, but I ended up going for a Motel 6 because I thought it would be cheap (it was $66). If the town motels are competitively priced, they should advertise it because sometimes cheap is no bargain.

The real bargain is the $3 tour through the refuge. Weather-permitting, Pam and I are going back this weekend.

Klamath NWR

Hunting seems to have gotten a lot more popular around the Klamath National Wildlife Refuge. It's been more than 10 years since I was last up there in the fall, but I don't remember seeing any hunters that time. This time they were all over the place, and if solitude is one of the things you like about doing nature photography in far-off places like Tule Lake, you might be as disappointed as I was.

My favorite incident occurred after driving out beyond the fields full of hunters. I parked along the road where a bunch of geese were hanging out on the icy lake and got out to take some pictures. The geese backed away from the edge of the lake at my approach, but none took wing. About five minutes later, two pickup trucks drove by with guys riding inside and outside, plus dogs on their hind legs with forelegs on the roll bar to take in the view. They weren't hunting anymore. They were leaving. Unfortunately, the geese left with 'em, uplifting all at once in a fine display of sound and fury, signifying nothing left to photograph.

I did poke around a bit more, but I knew where the real bird action was -- way back down in the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge. There's nowhere to buy gas in Tulelake, so I drove to the nearest station in Merrill, Oregon, then headed southwest to pick up I-5 at Weed for the long drive south to Willows.

Lava Beds

It was about 28 degrees inside the tent when I woke up with the eastern sky just beginning to warm up. The previous night's snow flurries had quit, leaving a clear sky and a light dusting of white on the ground. I'd put up my tent beneath an old juniper tree and what little snow got through its branches before I turned in had blown off by the time I got out in the morning to look around.

It was 24 degrees outside the tent, and I felt a little dismayed by the landscape that surrounded me as I got my camera gear together and began my day.

There were no clouds to make the sunrise sky interesting, and the landscape itself was not the smooth, snow-coated, black pahoehoe lava of my imagination. I poked around in the general area of my campground in vain, settling on a semi-colorful sunrise image that probably wasn't worth getting out of my warm sleeping bag for.

Although I'd sort of promised myself that I had all the time in the world to explore Lava Beds, which I'd only been to once before (more than 10 years ago, and only to spend the night), I was magnetically pulled by the siren goose-honk of nearby Tule Lake.

I'd like to go back to Lava Beds National Monument in the spring. I'd like to bring Pam and explore some of the caves. Look for birds nesting in cliff faces and maybe find grouse on their leks. Discover what wildflowers grow there. Hike some of the trails. Visit the visitor's center.

Maybe next time.

I made a few photo stops on the way out, including one for a magnificent six-point blacktail buck. Back at the tire shop in Redding they had a buck trophy on the wall of the waiting room. It was a whitetail that had been shot in Idaho, and it had typically large whitetail antlers. But this blacktail buck I saw had antlers almost as big. He didn't even run off at first. He waited until I got my camera out, then ran. I pursued him, occasionally at a jog, over the broken, lava-strewn landscape, with Running After Antelope by Scott Carrier in my mind. The light was so perfect! Please stop, buck! Okay, look this way. This way!

I got a shot of his butt, but that's about it. Not worth uploading. In fact, I think I deleted it from my hard drive out of pure woefulness.

I made a few more stops to try to capture the scale of the lava beds, also to no avail. Maybe large format would have helped. The scenes looked great in person, but back at home on my computer monitor they don't seem to hold up under scrutiny. The light was good, but there's just too much space, too much complexity and detail, to do it justice by viewing it so small.

Just before I left Lava Beds, a pair of coyotes crossed the road in front of me. One of them passed close enough for a couple of photos while nosing around for whatever prey it might turn up, and checking out a rock for the scent of friends or enemies in the area, but also heading for the same place I was. Goose country.