Blog - Jacques Fortier Photography

Wood Duck Encounter

I don’t typically chase rare birds. I don’t have anything against it, but it just doesn’t lead to the kinds of photos I like to take. I like the calm and contemplative feel of returning again and again to the same spot as I work to take a photo that expresses how it feels to be in that spot with the animals that make it home.

On the other hand, I’ve tried a few different spots for Wood Ducks and haven’t yet found one that works. To be honest, I’m in a bit of a duck rut. My favorite spot was re-landscaped and just doesn’t yield the same opportunities it used to. So when I heard there was a Wood Duck at Golden Gate Park, I gave in and went to photograph it.

There’s not much point chasing ducks around a pond to try to get them to sit still near your lens, so I lay down next to the pond, tried to avoid the bird poop, and waited for the Wood Duck to swim over to the side with the good light.

Soon enough, someone toting binoculars came by. “Wood duck?” they grunted. I pointed them towards the other side of the pond and they headed off without another word.

While that encounter was lacking in common courtesies, once they got to the other side of the pond, the Wood Duck swam over and I got my shot.

March 1, 2023

San Francisco, Wood Duck
Dark-Eyed Junco in Ignacio Valley

Nothing fancy, I just liked the colors of the trees in the background.

Inspiration for the location came from natureinnovato.com, an amazing resource for birders in the Bay Area.

February 28, 2023

Dark-Eyed Junco, Ignacio Valley, Marin, North Bay
First Bobcat Photograph

I’ve seen a Bobcat five times so far. Given how much time I’ve spent in Point Reyes, I’m sure Bobcats have seen me plenty more times. Most of those times the Bobcats made themselves scarce before I got a chance to photograph them. This was the first one that was relaxed enough to get any sort of photograph.

It’s not an amazing frame-filling golden hour face shot of a bobcat carrying a gopher, but it’s a bobcat that deigned to give me with a look of feline distaste, so I’m very happy with it.

I wrote more about the outing where I took this photo at Bobcats in Point Reyes.

February 24, 2023

Bobcat, Marin, North Bay, Point Reyes
Young Elephant Seal at Point Reyes

An elephant seal bull surveys its future territory at Point Reyes.

This is a fairly young bull based on its weight and small proboscis (the trunk-like appendage on its face). The dominant bulls rely on younger bulls to help patrol their territory. Fighting off intruders is hard work for mammals used to being cooled by frigid ocean water, and the alphas save their strength for the largest interlopers. In return for driving off smaller challengers, the young bulls get the opportunity to mate with the occasional cow while the alpha is otherwise occupied.

February 23, 2023

Elephant Seal, Marin, North Bay, Point Reyes
Blue Hour Snowy Plover

Snowy plover on a Bay Area beach after sunset.

I love photographing shorebirds. What I don’t love is watching people’s dogs chasing after them on public beaches. There isn’t an easy answer. The dogs are just being dogs. It’s impossible to educate everyone on the state of our shoreline ecosystems. But a little bit of thought about how it would feel to have a giant carnivore 20-200 times your weight chasing you around would go a long way.

I don’t know if they were waiting, or if it was just a coincidence, but I was relieved not to see the snowy plovers come out until after the sun had set and all the dogs had headed home. Unlike sanderlings, which are perpetual motion machines, the plovers like to do a little dash, and then pause, and then dash again. Those pauses are perfect opportunities for a photographer to capture them standing in front of a snowy-looking pile of foam. Especially when the photographer is shooting at 1/50s to achieve 10000 ISO.

February 22, 2023

Snowy Plover
Double-Crested Cormorant Coming in For Landing

Double-Crested Cormorants move so fast that photographing them in flight, taking off, or landing is always a challenge. For this photo, I had some luck, because I was already focused on a perched cormorant. When it decided to take a swim, I was able to follow it down into the lake to get a nice landing shot. Even better, it was facing into the sun, creating some dramatic lighting on its face.

February 20, 2023

Double-Crested Cormorant, San Francisco
Sanderling Sunset Silhouette

In the winter, the lowest tides of the cycle happen right around sunset in the Bay Area. Whenever there’s a minus tide with a good sunset, I try to head to the beach to photograph shorebirds. Typically that’s meant Stinson Beach, but yesterday I tried San Francisco’s Ocean Beach.

I arrived about 40 minutes before sunset so I didn’t have much time to look around. Fortunately, I found some sanderlings zooming around in the swash zone. This one was kind enough to zoom across the sunset while I lay on the beach, giving me a near-perfect silhouette.

February 18, 2023

Ocean Beach, San Francisco, Sanderling
Hillside Coyote in Point Reyes

A Coyote surveys a hillside in Point Reyes. I really like the layering in this photo.

February 17, 2023

Coyote, North Bay, Point Reyes
Belching Cormorant

Have you ever seen a cormorant’s belch before?

This double-crested cormorant was sunning itself on a rock in Golden Gate Park. It was still a couple of hours before sunset and the light was fairly harsh, so I was playing with a backlit look and with the bokeh the sunlight made reflecting off ripples in the lake. All of of a sudden the cormorant reared back and opened its beak. I leaned on the shutter figuring I could get it “eating” a bokeh ball. It wasn’t until I reviewed the images that I realized it had been belching or something.

The internet tells me that scientists aren’t sure whether birds burp or not. Whatever this was, it wasn’t a normal exhalation. The cormorant is perfectly capable of breathing without opening its beak this wide. It wasn’t a particularly cold day, so a typical breath wouldn’t show up like this. If anyone knows what’s going on here, please let me know! (Irresponsible speculation is also welcome.)

February 15, 2023

Double-Crested Cormorant, San Francisco
Hooded Merganser at Stow Lake

There’s a Wood Duck wintering at Golden Gate Park this year. I went to try to photograph it, but it wasn’t at Stow Lake that evening. There was a larger complement of hooded mergansers than last year, however, so it was a good outing.

February 8, 2023

Hooded Merganser, San Francisco