January | 2014 | deansshots

A good friend of mine, Pete Bengeyfield, an accomplished nature photographer and writer, is publishing a book entitled You Can’t Be Everywhere at Sunrise. His point was that sunrise was the prime time for great photos. Well, last week I was parked in a photo blind at the Delevan National Wildlife Refuge at sunrise (6:45 a.m.). By 9:00 I had grown tired of looking at the few coots that wandered close and watching other waterfowl landing a long distance away, so I closed up shop and left without having taken any interesting photos (I have lots of coot pictures…little black feathered guys with less personality than an amoeba). As I was already in the area, I decided to take a swing around the auto tour route at the Sacramento NWR, a nice place to look at birds but never really great for photography since the birds are usually distant from the tour road, you’re not allowed out of your car, and there’s often a bunch of birders blocking the road, oblivious to anything except what they see through their binoculars. Well, there are days when it’s just the “luck of the Irish” for we photographers and this was my day for being everywhere at sunrise. Here are some of the images I got:

Peregrine Falcon-For the past few winters I’ve seen one in about the same place but never could get close enough for a photo. This one just sat and let m from the sunroof on my truck.