Slice of Wildlife

Slice of Wildlife Nature/wildlife photography by Tara Terpening

Hope everyone has enjoyed my San Joaquin Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary photo dump, which I am planning to wrap up this we...
06/13/2026

Hope everyone has enjoyed my San Joaquin Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary photo dump, which I am planning to wrap up this weekend! I have shared all my top photos at this point, but I took so many pictures and have a few more decent and/or fun shots I thought I would share just for fun. For post 11, I thought I would give a little attention to the roadrunner introduced in my last post. While the best and most interesting shots involving the roadrunner depicted his interactions with the hawk, I did take a few of him on his own that I am sharing today.

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For post 10 of my San Joaquin Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary photo dump, the final behavior I photographed of the red-tail...
06/08/2026

For post 10 of my San Joaquin Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary photo dump, the final behavior I photographed of the red-tailed hawk was actually an interaction with another bird species: a roadrunner! The roadrunner was hanging out in the same area as the hawk for most of the time I was there, and kept running out of the bushes and even running quite near the hawk despite the hawk’s clumsy attempts to swoop and catch it. Maybe the roadrunner knew the hawk was a juvenile who hadn’t quite figured out hunting yet, or maybe it just got lucky, but its bold behavior allowed me to get these cool shots of the two of them in the same frame. I played around the focus in each photo to try to capture the story of the prey sneaking in the background behind the predator from the perspective both birds.

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For post 9 of my San Joaquin Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary photo dump, I would like to share photos of one of the most in...
06/06/2026

For post 9 of my San Joaquin Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary photo dump, I would like to share photos of one of the most interesting behaviors I observed, which led me to learn something new about red-tailed hawks! The hawk was playing with a long strip of bark, swooping on it, stamping down on it, and pulling it apart with its beak and talons. At first, I thought it had a snake, since the hawk was interacting with the wood with the exact behaviors it would use to hunt and eat a snake. A few days later, I stumbled across a post from the with a photo of a hawk clutching an apple, titled “Just what is this young Red-tailed Hawk doing with this half-eaten apple?” I continued reading and found that young birds of prey often “hone their moves by diving on sticks, rocks, and other objects, like apples” because “it takes time to master the skills needed to capture living, moving prey.” The description lined up exactly with what I had seen with this red-tailed hawk! It was very cool to learn about this behavior by pure coincidence just days after I had observed and photographed it firsthand. I hope you enjoy my photos of the behavior, and if you want to see a truly spectacular shot of this behavior, check out the photo by Claire Beiser that was featured in the post I came across! View the photo and read more from the post here: https://www.facebook.com/NationalAudubonSociety/posts/just-what-is-this-young-red-tailed-hawk-doing-with-this-half-eaten-apple-its-not/1547396406750414/

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The San Joaquin Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary photo dump continues! Switching back to the red-tailed hawk, these photos a...
06/05/2026

The San Joaquin Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary photo dump continues! Switching back to the red-tailed hawk, these photos are certainly less majestic than the previous ones I shared, but are fun to look at for the unique behaviors they manage to capture. The hawk was a somewhat clumsy juvenile, and since he stayed around the area for hours, I got to observe and photograph him doing all sorts of interesting and silly things. For post 8, I will kick the weekend off by sharing an utterly laughable series of shots I took as the hawk fell out of a tree. As the photos show, the hawk starts of looking perfectly normal perched in this tree, and the next few shots show the beginning of what could have been a majestic take off. As they progress, it may even seem like the hawk was deliberately heading towards the ground from the perch. However, by the final photo, you can see the hawk has ended up completely upside down and is still holding a piece of the branch in its talons, almost like it forgot to let go of the branch. He tumbled for a bit after this, but did manage to right himself before he hit the ground. Watching it happen was a hilarious juxtaposition to the graceful majesty normally presented by birds of prey.

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For post 7 of my photo dump from the San Joaquin Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary, I would like to conclude the egret portio...
05/31/2026

For post 7 of my photo dump from the San Joaquin Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary, I would like to conclude the egret portion of this programming (for now) with my favorite shot of the day. As the low angle sunlight of the afternoon bathed the ponds in rich color, I managed to photograph this great white egret in the act of snatching a crayfish out of the water. While both of these photos of the egret with its crayfish feature beautiful colors and reflections, as well as the fascinating light reflecting from the rippling water onto the bird, what makes the first photo my favorite of the day is the droplets of water leading from the crayfish in the birds beak to the ripples in the pond where the egret snatched its prey from the water, showing the movement of the catch.

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Next up in the egret portion of my photo dump from the San Joaquin Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary, post 6 brings in more a...
05/30/2026

Next up in the egret portion of my photo dump from the San Joaquin Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary, post 6 brings in more action with a few of the shots I got of a great white egret eating a crayfish. Several include (for better or worse) a somewhat distracting duck right behind the egret, but they were still fun shots, and I did manage to capture at least one mid-bite photo without the duck.

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Continuing with my photo dump from the awesome day I spent photographing birds at the San Joaquin Marsh and Wildlife San...
05/30/2026

Continuing with my photo dump from the awesome day I spent photographing birds at the San Joaquin Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary, this weekend I would like to share some of the egrets I photographed in the ponds. So, for post 5 here, I am starting out with this simple but lovely shot of a great white egret among the reeds.

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Post 4 of my photo dump from the awesome day I recently spent photographing birds at the San Joaquin Marsh and Wildlife ...
05/25/2026

Post 4 of my photo dump from the awesome day I recently spent photographing birds at the San Joaquin Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary: continuing with the red-tailed hawk that I spent most of the day photographing, I captured these incredible aerial shots of the hawk in flight soaring through the vivid blue sky.

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For post 3 of my photo dump from the awesome day I recently spent photographing birds at the San Joaquin Marsh and Wildl...
05/24/2026

For post 3 of my photo dump from the awesome day I recently spent photographing birds at the San Joaquin Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary, I am very excited to share one of my favorite shots I captured that day, and definitely the best picture I took of this red-tailed hawk. I captured this photo just as the hawk landed on the post, wings and tail spread wide, claws grasping, and countenance fierce. The perfect lighting, exciting action, and beautiful subject combine to create a fantastic photograph.

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For post 2 of my photo dump from the awesome day I recently spent photographing birds at the San Joaquin Marsh and Wildl...
05/23/2026

For post 2 of my photo dump from the awesome day I recently spent photographing birds at the San Joaquin Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary, once the red-tailed hawk had settled a bit on this post, I played around with some different angles to frame him through the branches of some surrounding trees and captured these photos.

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