SIDEBAR

The American Kestrel of CHRP

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Mar 18 2017

Please click on the above image to view the video clip. This was my first great opportunity to capture a pair of the American Kestrel nesting in great length over a short period of time at Coyote Hills Regional Park, Fremont since I got into birding photography back in 2011. They are ever so obligingly posing for us with their daily shows that usually start after 5:00PM with fresh caught meals as well as courting and mating. It was unfortunate for me that I can only shoot on weekends – darn work got in the way.. The American Kestrel’s scientific […]

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Instant Celebrity of Humboldt County

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Feb 25 2016

Perhaps it was the global warming that brought it to the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park of Humboldt County but whatever the reason, it was certainly a pleasant welcome news for the first sighting of the Great Gray owl within the county’s border in 34 years.  It became an instant celebrity when flocks of photographers gathered around it. The owl didn’t feel intimated by the large numbers of people surrounding it and some even at such close proximity it feels that its privacy and space are violated. It took me over three weeks after the first sighting/report before I decided […]

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The Northern Harrier of CHRP

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Aug 08 2015

The Northern Harrier aka the Marsh Hawk flies low by gliding over a marsh or grassland when hunting. It has an owlish face which helps to hear mice and voles beneath the vegetation. All Northern Harriers have a white rump that is visible when they fly. The Northern Harrier is one of the a few raptors including the Red-tailed Hawk and Great horned Owl that are residents of CHRP and can be seen almost all year long at the park. They cover a very wide territory and can be seen gliding over all the marsh areas of CHRP. At times […]

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The Red-tailed Hawk of CHRP

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Aug 01 2015

As she was just about to gain elevation from the launch, searching for a new feeding spot, little did she know a pair of preying eyes had been intensely shadowing her every little move from a nearby tree. A golden window of opportunity finally opened up for the hungry, cold juvenile Red-tailed hawk, who had been hunting to no avail since the break of dawn. Not wasting such an opportunity, the young raptor simply seized the ill-fated female bufflehead in the mid-air with little struggle. It took over three hours for the hawk to devour its fresh catch. This was […]

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The Story Behind the Photo of a Crow Riding an Eagle – Part 3

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Jul 22 2015
Post's featued image.

Many photographers take it for granted but we are blessed to have great lighting in the United States compared to several countries I have visited including Costa Rica, Malaysia, and Singapore. Good lighting allows us to have a good shutter speed setting for shooting handheld without the expense of a high ISO. My main go-to lens is the Canon EF600mm f/4L IS II USM coupled with Canon 1.4X extender III almost full time. I shoot with both the full-frame Canon EOS 1DX and the crop body EOS 7D Mk II. Even though the EOS 1DX produces superior image quality than […]

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The Story Behind the Photo of a Crow Riding an Eagle – Part 2

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Jul 22 2015

Since the eagles were in action all along the beach, we each went our own way in search of our targets. As I was tailing one of the eagles, whose undivided attention was on the water surface for an easy midshipman, a crow approached from behind, about 25 feet below the eagle. In my five years of capturing raptors and birds in flight, I have witnessed crows aggressively harassing other raptors that are much bigger in size in their territories, and usually these ‘intruders’ simply retreat without much fuss. It was absolutely mind-blowing when the crow did not appear to […]

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The Story Behind the Photo of a Crow Riding an Eagle – Part 1

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Jul 22 2015

It all started when I saw jaw-dropping images of bald eagles doing all kinds of aerial actions, taken by a wildlife photographer friend, Conrad Tan, in Seabeck, Washington back in 2013. We were envious enough to want to hop on the next flight to Seabeck, but unfortunately, we had to wait for the next season of the plainfin midshipman fish migration to Seabeck as they are the main prey for bald eagles. The following year, I made my maiden trip to Seabeck, organized by another keen photographer friend, Thinh Bui. Before the trip, Thinh thoroughly researched the best time for photography, […]

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The Owls of Coyote Hills Regional Park – Part 2

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Jul 22 2015

Short-eared Owl 2015 has been a lucky year for bird photographers at CHRP. A pair of this owl stayed long enough to give every photographers an equal share of taking their images. It usually comes out to hunt after 5:00PM and most of the time it would keep flying around a fix territory until it gets tired then it would perch. It is very skittish thus taking a perch shot of this owl requires a lot of patience, and a lot of luck. I had to hide under a camouflage blanket on my belly against some rock surface for almost […]

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The Owls of Coyote Hills Regional Park – Part 1

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Jul 22 2015

Coyote Hills Regional Park (CHRP) is part of the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRP) system of beautiful parklands and trails in Alameda and Contra Costa counties east of San Francisco, California. It comprised of nearly 978 acres of marshland and rolling grassland covered hills and was dedicated to public use in 1967. The park is popular for outdoor activities such as picnicking, jogging, bicycling, walking, nature exploration, and bird watching. Since it is located only ten minutes away from where I live in the City of Fremont, it is one of my favorite spots for my bird photography activities. […]

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