-37 Celcius Sunrise

[Paul Lagasi]

Winter sucks, as I get older I hate the cold more with every passing winter. This past week the thermometer dipped down to -31C with a windchill of -37 Celcius, which is -34 F for you folks south of the border. The cold weather coincides with the arrival of a pair of Gyrfalcon's, who've staked out a rural dump as their feeding grounds. Now while I have yet to get a usable photo, I have sat in my car waiting for them to appear for hours. The other morning a lovely sunrise happened.

I can't remember who showed me a while back but I used the paint by numbers effect....
The image below is the result.....
Thanks for looking

[Paul Lagasi]

I just couldn't decide....

[Diane Miller]

I love the reflection of the sun on the snow in the first. It would also make a great image cropped at the bottom of the trees!

I have no clue what that temperature is like. I think freezing is, well... freezing. It's supposed to be 60 here tomorrow. I should invite everyone down for a beach party.

[Paul Lagasi]

Thanks Diane, I'll be arriving in San Francisco on Friday the 16th and heading to Golden Gate Park to see the Rustic Bunting, then heading to Colusa NWR for the 17th, and moving on to Texas on the 18th. I am on a rare bird quest and will hit 7 states in 12 days, wish me luck. I can only hope it stays nice and sunny for most of the trip.

[Diane Miller]

I've been meaning to get over to Colusa and the Sacramento NWR a little further north near Willows. That's about a 2-hour drive for me. Any chance for a brief meetup?? I'd make it an overnight in Willows, with a flexible schedule. Looks like the weather may hold up, but you never know around here.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Hey, Paul, I love the second image!!!! Not many people are sitting in their car for hours in that kind of weather

[Nancy Bell]

My vote is for the 1st image...man this is cold looking. I like the pale orange glow around the sun against all the blue/gray. The sun appears as a large eye, winking on the miserable temperatures! We've been having super cold up here and totally agree with you that interest in enduring cold winters is diminishing as I get older! Hey, good luck on the rare bird hunt! I'll watch for your postings of success!

[Paul Lagasi]

Thanks For Comments....
Heryl: the things we do for bird photos.

Diane: I'll be going out with Dan Brown on the 17th and not sure what he has in mind after Colusa NWR, You are more than welcome to meet us there to look for the Falcated Duck. We could be there for hours (hope not) or seconds (if the duck is out in the open). I think he is going to help me find a few other birds I need if the duck is obliging.

I am free the morning of the 18th before my flight leaves (3:30pm), so Santa Rosa is only about an hour away from the airport, we could certainly meet up and you can show me where you go to photograph, especially if you know where I can find a Mountain Quail.

Nancy: Thanks so much. Question: I was looking through the ABA listing page and saw a Nancy Bell, Is that You?, if so, impressive total.

12 day 9 airports 5 new bird photos, Tundra Bean-Goose, Rustic Bunting, Falcated Duck, Common Crane and Key-West Quail Dove, Can't wait. Its the thrill of the hunt, what I live for.

The New Year is shaping up nicely....

[Wendy Kates]

Paul, I vote for Image #1 as well. It exudes coldness and really provides a sense of place. I, too, have totally had it with winter, even though it is only January. Good luck on your birding quest, and enjoy the California sun!

[Diane Miller]

Wow -- and I used to collect stamps! (At the age of about 11. Won't say when that was...)

I'm in this for the photography, but not a birder and barely know a duck from a pigeon, so certainly don't want to intrude on your hunting trip! (I never even heard of a Falcated Duck.) Just had the wild idea that it would be fun to run into you on a trail somewhere and shake your hand -- or buy you a cup of coffee if time. And Dan would be an unexpected bonus!

From Colusa or Sacramento, Santa Rosa is a bit out of the way to SFO, and the only locations I know locally I can tell you about here. (And Dan would know them.) Never heard of a Mountain Quail either, but we have a nice herd of whatever our common quail is (California Quail?) that troop up the driveway expecting to be fed every morning. They get really irritated if I'm late.

If I could run into you guys just for a handshake it would be great! But I do understand the mission involved takes total precedence and is not on a schedule. I'll PM you my cell #.

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Paul, I had no clue that you were a birder. Good luck with your quest. My birding claim to find was finding and IDing New York States first ever Red-necked (Rufous-necked) Stint in July, 1985. Put me down for #2.

[Paul Lagasi]

Thanks Diane, I leave tomorrow, PM me the number and I will add it to my contacts.

Artie Thanks, I sure wish I had that birding claim.
I've enjoyed birding since I was 10 years old. My www.birdquest2004.com blog is about photographing all the birds in my first bird book (Golden Guide to Birds of North America). I have photographed 665 species from that book and there's roughly 42 more to go but 5 are extinct.

I started to photograph birds because of my poor ID'ing, with a photo its easier to compare it to a bird in the guide.
Below is my Red (Rufous) Necked Stint from Alaska. I would love to see one like you did in the east.

[Diane Miller]

I did -- if you didn't get it email me thru my website -- link below.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks for the link Paul. I just spent 30 minutes scrolling. Great stuff; you really are addicted. You have some nice seabird images and I loved your posters.

[Dennis Bishop]

The first one says cold. No doubt. Maybe in part because my eyes are very light sensitive, I wish the white part of the sun were filled with a light yellow so it were less distracting. The complementary colors and opposing verticals and horizontals of the second one really make it pop. The white seems to work okay in that one, and that probably makes sense.

[Dan Brown]

Nice, Paul! BTW, the weather report has improved for this weekend, no rain, just clouds which should mean no fog in the central valley of CA. Temps should be in the 50's, which probably means sweating for a Canadian! ;-). FADU, here we come!

[Nancy Bell]

Paul, Yes I am the same Nancy Bell as listed in the ABA. Binoculars are always part of my camera kit!

[Paul Lagasi]

Just arrived in Lincoln City, Oregon, sitting here having a beer and a salad, you gotta love United, not even a bag of peanuts for free...bring on the Tundra Bean-Goose

Nancy, a very good world number, I am certainly a long way off on that total, I think I barely crack 1200....

Dan I've been watching the weather, looks good all around...see you in a few days...I was walking around Lincoln City in my tee shirt, people looked at me like I was nuts....Its 42F outside, I left home this morning it was -15F, feels bloody balmy...

[Anita Bower]

I'm going with the second image, probably because of the clarity and strong colors. I can say I'm glad I don't live in freezing Canada! I might prefer the first image, which does convey cold, with fewer black lines. Good luck with photographing birds on your trip.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

They are both so different, but I go with the second. It is much more graphic with the lines and colours being clearly defined, although it does not convey the feeling of coldness as well as the first. In the second the bottom could be water too. Yeah, winter is here! and I am not a big fan:(

[Diane Miller]

I did manage to run into Paul and Dan yesterday. It's always so great to meet the people I know online. They were staking out the spot on the fringes of the Colusa NWR where the duck had been seen. We had a nice chat for a while and then I went on into the refuge where I found wonderful light and many opportunities for what I call "studio shots" of individual birds in good water. They came along after a while and we hung out and shot for an hour or so, then they went on in pursuit of their bird list. I had a wonderful several hours there, then as I headed for the next refuge north it got too cloudy and this morning it's pea-soup fog. On my way home I'll hope for another good session at Colusa this afternoon, but it was well worth a two day trip for those few hours.

[Dan Brown]

Diane, it was nice to meet you and Paul yesterday at one of my favorite spots! Paul and I went on and were able to tick off 5 or 6 birds/bird photos for Paul's bird lists! Lots of fun but pretty exhausting!

I did manage to run into Paul and Dan yesterday. It's always so great to meet the people I know online. They were staking out the spot on the fringes of the Colusa NWR where the duck had been seen. We had a nice chat for a while and then I went on into the refuge where I found wonderful light and many opportunities for what I call "studio shots" of individual birds in good water. They came along after a while and we hung out and shot for an hour or so, then they went on in pursuit of their bird list. I had a wonderful several hours there, then as I headed for the next refuge north it got too cloudy and this morning it's pea-soup fog. On my way home I'll hope for another good session at Colusa this afternoon, but it was well worth a two day trip for those few hours.