The Traveling Widower

Tag: adventure

  • Maybe I Should Specialize in Bird Photography

    A cheerful man stands in a forest by a lake, using binoculars to observe birds. He wears a vest with a badge and holds a camera, surrounded by various bird species perched on trees and the ground. Generated with Google Gemini

    February 7th, 2026

    I really do need to stop taking pictures for a while and start prepping for my next trip, just two weeks away. But I’m a compulsive obsessive type, and it’s hard for me to stop doing something I actually enjoy. Like walking around in nature preserves and taking photographs. 

    Last week, before I had my knee procedure, I spent a wonderful 3 hours hiking and photographing birds at the Cosumnes River Preserve – I got some nice images, but that short trip was more about just being out in a beautiful spot. Fast forward to Friday – my knee was still sore, but I really wanted to get out of the house for a while. Walking was OK, and the weather was still great, so another outing to the preserve seemed like a good idea.

    The nice thing about photography close to home, is that you can try out new things, or correct mistakes you made the last time you visited the place, unlike most of my trips where every day is a new location, with totally different lighting conditions. So this time, I brought a tripod instead of the monopod for increased stability of my big, heavy camera and lens, and I shifted to shutter speed priority, since I had quite a few shots which were a bit blurred. The lighting was not too bad, but the birds all move around a lot, especially when they are feeding. I also wanted to focus on lighting this time and avoid shooting into the glare, and also stay there long enough to get that nice, warm sunset lighting. That turned into a long list. 

    Earlier in the week, there were only a few die-hard birders and hikers at the preserve. This time, on a Friday night, there were gobs of high-school age kids, all carrying binoculars and clip-boards. I’m guessing this was some type of class assignment. Birding 101? Who knew? It seems like the viewing area is also popular for couples who want to take posed selfies at sunset. Whatever. 

    Sometimes with photography, you just luck out – the lighting is perfect and the beasties are cooperative. Well, this was one of those days for me. There were a few birds which I had not seen the day before (Black Necked Stilts, Dowitchers) and a few that were within camera range (Pintail Ducks). The Coots, geese and other waterfowl were all present and active as well. And the lighting was getting better and better as the sun was setting. I wound up shooting about 400 images, with a higher percentage of keepers than I normally get. And quite a few are worth entering for competition and contests. I’ve just started curating with Adobe Lightroom, but here are a few of them.

    A common coot swimming on a calm water surface, reflecting its image in the water.
    A blackbird with vibrant red shoulder patches perched on a branch, singing against a blurred background of water and vegetation.
    A wading bird standing in shallow water with reflections visible, surrounded by green vegetation and wetland plants.
    A greater white fronted goose standing in shallow water with its reflection visible in the calm surface.
    A black-necked stilt wading in shallow water, reflecting on the surface, surrounded by sparse vegetation.
    A male teal duck swimming in calm water, featuring a distinctive green head, reddish-brown face, and gray body with black and white wing accents.
    A white fronted goose standing in water with its wings outstretched, showcasing its plumage, set against a blurred natural background.
    A pair of white fronted geese in a pond, one stretching its wings while the other is submerged, with greenery in the background.
    A female pin tail duck swimming in calm water, creating gentle ripples on the surface.
    A duck swimming in calm water, with visible ripples and reflecting its image on the surface.
    A northern pintail duck swimming in calm water, creating ripples as it moves.
    A black-necked stilt wading through shallow water, surrounded by aquatic plants and reflections.

    My personal favorites are the Pintail Ducks – pretty much everything is perfect technically, and the level of detail is awesome. Something to do with that 55 megapixel sensor. The higher shutter speed also caught drops and streams of water mid-air. One or two of these will make for nice additions to my growing gallery of acrylic prints. I’ll make room for them somewhere. 

    As for getting into serious birding….nah. I’d have to start remembering all the names, something I’m not very good at. (Fortunately, Google does a good job of identifying them). I’m more of a generalist when it comes to nature and landscape photography. No specialities, just whatever shows up in the viewfinder. 

    Thought for the day: I am spending a small fortune on these adventures, traveling around the world, taking thousands of photographs, most of which I wind up deleting. Then I go to a small nature reserve 50 minutes from my house, and get all kinds of great images. If only there were penguins in the Central Valley, I might not travel as much. But wait…there they are!  

    A water tower with a sign reading 'Welcome to Sacramento, America's Farm-to-Fork Capital,' surrounded by trees and a blue sky, with a group of penguins walking nearby. AI generated using Gemini

    No more posts until I’m back from petting the Grey Whales in Baja.

    Peace

  • A Walk Through Gold River’s Scenic Trails

    American River Bike Path

    February 1, 2026

    One of the very few things I really like about where I live is the trail system that the developer created – Robert Powell bought this chunk of river front property, which had been thoroughly dredge-mined since the 1800’s, and had a vision of creating a planned community with separate villages separated by nature trails. He did a pretty good job of making that vision a reality – it’s pretty cool to be able to wander miles of trails, lined with very wild patches of big oak trees and various native undergrowth. Lot’s of birds and beasties (rattle snakes too) live in the dredged-created mounds of river rock. And best of all, the trails connect in two places to the American River Parkway, a county maintained bike trail which runs along the American River between Sacramento and Folsom.

    I try to take walks on the trail three or four times a week, and usually around the same loop, about 2 miles worth. Today I was really bored and wanted to up my mileage – I need to start getting in shape anyhoo for the summer, where I may be doing up to six miles on some of my trips. So, I strapped on my Forest Gump foot brace, grabbed a small pack to carry water, and headed out the door. It was a great day for doing anything outdoors – low 60’s, high clouds, lite breeze. That’s why it costs so much to live here in California – it’s a climate tax.

    I was not alone in deciding to hit the trails today – there were walkers, runners and lots of cyclists on the parkway. Almost everyone is friendly, and the cyclists are almost always courteous (I still don’t like all the high-powered motorized bikes on the trail). I have walked to the river many times in the past year – there’s a path I take to a quiet spot along one of the rocky channels created for spawning salmon, where I go to once in a while to ponder my fate. But today I chose to follow along the river bike path from one entry point to the other, about a mile or so with some slight hills, and great views of the river. 

    View of the American River, downstream from the Nimbus Dam

    When I grabbed my pack, I thought briefly about tossing (gently) one of the camera in. Well, I regretted the decision to leave it home. The phone camera is darn good in the Pixel 10, but really cannot compare to the capabilities of a Sony DSLR. And of course, I encountered  some interesting opportunities on my little walk. Like a big, white heron hunting in the reeds on one of the islands. 

    Great white Heron, hunting along the American River

    Oh well. There will be other opportunities. I plan to start taking longer walks along the river every few days now, and pretty soon, the eagle pair will be back at their nest, and I’ll branch out further on the trail to see (and hopefully photograph) their chicks.

    Once I made it to the second entrance to Gold River, I started the long walk back home. Along the way, I passed my previous residence in Enterprise Village – we sold it during the Covid Pandemic when we decided to move back to Colorado. We were afraid that if we both died of the disease, nobody would know until the Turkey Vultures started circling the house. I wish we could have bought it back when we returned – it was a great house. Sigh.


    According to the All Trails app on my phone, I managed to cover almost 3.5 miles. Not very fast, but pretty good for me. I could try to pick up the pace a bit, but what would be the point  – I might miss a good photo op. Better to be slow and steady, and enjoy the scenery.