Picture of the week

Coyote Spy, a day on the Parkway

A coyote spying me from behind a tree.  The image above and all those shown below were all captured this last Saturday (May 21st) at various spots along the American River Parkway. 

My morning started at Discovery Park under the Jibboom Bridge at 6:30 AM.  A friend Brian from the Cal Fish and WIldlife Interpretive Services at the Nimbus Hatchery tipped me off about a planned release of chinook salmon fingerlings here at 7 AM.  These fish are about 6 months old, and deemed ready to be set out into the wild.  From the river they evenutally make their way to the ocean, returning up-river again in another 2-3 years, and much bigger in size.

They can't release these fish directly from the hatchery due to the long pipe run that it would take to get them down to the river from the hatchery raceways.  Instead, they put them in tanker trucks converted from transporting milk, and haul them to different boat ramps along the American River.  Brian convinced me to join him, and I agreed, unable to think of anything better to do that morning.  But I wondered how photogenic can it be to take photos of small 2-3" fish coming out of a pipe?  There was the intrigue of what type of predators may show up as these fish get released?  Large stripped bass jumping of the water, the occasional sea lion that makes it this far up river, a family of otters, or perhaps some more interesting bird species?

When these small fingerling were released, they would initially thrash about in the water, with many getting airborne.  There are also a few casualties that didn't survive the transport or adjustment to these waters, which can then be seen drifting more listlessly near the surface.  This ended up providing easy pickings for a family of common mergansers, along with some crows and yellow-billed magpie on the shoreline.  It was quite entertaining watching one particular crow stuffing its beak with many of these small fish in one mouthful.  When the crow couldn't hold anymore, it started piling them in one spot at the waters edge before the fish drifted away.  After gathering enough of them, it would grab as many as it could from the pile and fly off to a second more secret spot to cache the booty.  I watched and photographed as the crow made multiple trips, but also noted that a yellow-billed magpie spied the crow's secret cache. When the crow was picking up another load of fish, the magpie swooped in and grabbed a mouthful, taking off before the crow returned.  It was all quite facinating and reflective of the intelligence of these two birds species.

While hanging out at Discovery Park between truck deliveries, using the EF 100-400mm IS F/4.5-5.6L lens on my Canon EOS 70D I did some photo-sniping of various subjects, taking advantage of some good light that would occasionally show itself. This ranged from various fishermen, homeless that camp and otherwise hangout in this area, along with attempts at some artful compositions.  Some select images from this effort are shown below.

The next stop that morning was out at the boat ramp next to the Old Fair Oaks "Red Bridge".  There I watched the process get repeated, but without as much particpation from other wildlife.  I was expecting and hoping for a belted kingfisher that I could hear chattering in the distance, but those birds tend to be just too shy around humans.  On the way out while still having the 100-400mm lens setup handy, we spied a coyote off in the vegetation near one of the parking areas.

Later that evening, taking a walk along the river further upstream just below the hatchery, I brought along my Canon 5D mk3 with the 24-105 lens, noting some rather attractive skies and lighting.  This yielded some more compositions as shown below, taking advantage of this lighting.  All-in-all it was a good day, and a reminder of why I like the American River Parkway so much, constantly being awed by its beauty, yet so accessible.  I find it also interesting that I did not plan any specific shots or efforts for my photography that day, just letting serendipity of what you run into, and what strikes the eye to define the outcome.

The American River Parkway is one of my favorite areas in Sacramento, covering it over the years for photography as seen in my gallery here, as well as mentioning it in previous blogs.  I also cover this area in my latest book: Travel Guide to California Photography.

AAll content and images are property of Stephen Fischer Photography, copyright 2010-2016.  Last updated: 5/22/2023   ()