Last Monday we went hiking on the Santa Rosa Plateau. It was a good time. Here are some pictures.
We saw a Bobcat and nine Coyotes. We also saw some birds:
Acorn Woodpeckers
Nuttall's Woodpecker
Red-tailed Hawk
heard a single Western Meadowlark singing
saw some Yellowlegs (probably Greaters)
Northern Shovelers
American Wigeons
a single male Phainopepla
Western Bluebirds
California and Spotted Towhees
Savannah Sparrows
Juncos
W. Scrub Jays
Oak Titmice
Bushtits and
White-breasted Nuthatches
I also just saw a Nuttall's Woodpecker outside my office. That's interesting because previously I've only seen Downey Woodpeckers around Biola. But this had an all dark back liberally streaked with horizontal white. Definitely a female-plumaged Nuttall's. I'm always keeping my eye open for wintering Sapsuckers, but it's interesting that a Nuttall's would be found. They're resident in Southern California, and thus not likely to wander. Thus, it may be indicative that we have an urban population. I've heard that they're beginning to adapt to urban mature-growth woodlands, but this is the first one I've ever seen outside of their favored oak-woodland habitat.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
My Friend
I haven't seen my commuter-friend, Genius 7, as often this school year as I did last year. Since September I've probably only seen her 4 or 5 times, but two of those times happened this week.
Today, I was stopped right next to her for 2 consecutive red lights on my way home. And I learned some things.
1. She wears a pink rain jacket, despite her bright red hair.
2. She talks to herself using animated hand gestures.
3. Unless that was a dog I saw in the front seat. If so, she talks to her dog using animated hand gestures.
4. But I think it was just a white grocery bag and not a dog.
Today, I was stopped right next to her for 2 consecutive red lights on my way home. And I learned some things.
1. She wears a pink rain jacket, despite her bright red hair.
2. She talks to herself using animated hand gestures.
3. Unless that was a dog I saw in the front seat. If so, she talks to her dog using animated hand gestures.
4. But I think it was just a white grocery bag and not a dog.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Beach-side Birding
Yesterday Libby and I had a pretty good time birding. One of our plans this year is to try and see most of the rest of the birds that are common in Southern California that we've missed so far. That will mean doing a trip to Santa Cruz Island for the endemic Scrub Jay, and we're talking about doing a pelagic birding trip. But we're also going to try and see some of the birds that are closer to home, and that we've just overlooked.
We're also going to try and study up before our little trips a little better than we have so far, in order to get a better shared understanding of what we're looking for. We're emulating Phoebe Snetsinger, whose biography Libby is reading, and doing a pre-trip notebook for all the species we might see. So, before our trip on Saturday we studied up on five birds: Common, Pacific and Red-throated Loons, Surfbird, and Wandering Tattler. The Loons aren't all the difficult, especially in summer plumage, but in winter, they're all pretty drab gray colored and the differences are subtle: bill size, and plumage features like the demarcating line on the neck being bold or subdued, faint chinstraps, collars, and also some behavioral differences. The shorebirds are just plain gray birds that live along rocky shores.
We've seen a Common Loon a few times before now, but we had never seen the other four birds. Mostly because they're not common in protected bays, which is where we normally go birding near the coast (Bolsa Chica or Newport Back Bay). This time we went to the Newport Pier and to Crescent Bay in Laguna Beach.
We hoped to have all three species of Loons and maybe try a little sea watching from the Pier. When we pulled up there were a bunch of gulls and some Brown Pelicans circling the beach - mostly Heermann's and Western. We saw one or two Ring-billed, too. On the way out we saw some Eared Grebes, Horned Grebes, and some Surf Scoters feeding on the barnacles encrusting the pillars. At the end, we found a place along the rail next to all the fishermen and started looking for loons. We soon found a Red-throated Loon! Soon we also had a Common Loon, and we spent a long time watching birds fly by the pier at quite some distance. Most of those we couldn't identify because they were so far away. Our scope is a little fella' and we've no experience with truly pelagic species. There was a constant procession of small birds with quick wing-beats skimming the surface of the water. I'm guessing they were a Shearwater of some sort. There were also distant rafts of Cormorants. Only a single Pelagic came close to the pier. It gave us great looks of its unique iridescent feathers.
I was disappointed not to see any Pacific Loons near the pier, but we decided to move on and check out Crescent Bay for the shorebirds. I missed the turn the first time, but we doubled back and found it soon enough. There were some other birders there looking for an American Oystercatcher that was reported last weekend. We set up on the overlook and started scanning the rocks. The low ones sported both Western and Heermann's Gulls, Black-bellied Plovers, a Whimbrel, and some Willets. The rocky off-shore outcroppings were covered in Sea Lions, Brandt's Cormorants, Black Oystercatchers, and Brown Pelicans. And then, there was an American-type Oystercatcher! We got the scope on it, and right behind it was our lifer Surfbird! Cool!
American Oystercatchers are common along the Atlantic coast, and they also breed on the Pacific coast of Mexico. However, our local Oystercatcher is the more range-restricted Black Oystercatcher. Its breeding range extends south into Baja California where it overlaps with the northernmost breeding American Oystercatchers. And that's where they hybridize. So when an American Oystercatcher appears north of the border, there's always some debate over whether or not it is an American Oystercatcher or an American x Black Oystercatcher hybrid. Last Saturday someone ran the bird through a scale named after an ornithologist named Jehl to determine its descent and decided it was good for an American Oystercatcher, but we heard second hand while we were there that someone had seen two American Oystercatchers on the beach that morning. So now we don't know if we saw the same one someone had earlier rated, or not. It definitely was not an ideal American Oystercatcher. It showed some a dirty rather than clean line on the breast between its black and white plumage, and it showed a few flecks of black on the undertail. The wing-stripe appeared slightly restricted, but the tail looked good. Overall, I'm leaning towards it being the bird earlier described (which was rated a 33 out of 38 - 30 or lower being a definite hybrid).
We hung around for awhile waiting for the appearance of the second bird, or our Tattler. We were rewarded with a good look at another Pelagic Cormorant coming in for a landing on the rock (showing big white patches behind the wing - a wonderful field mark) and a Pacific Loon! One came steaming along feeding and preening through the area. Great luck. And then I found a bobbing shorebird far away in the rocks. It turned out to be our Tattler. And with all five targets wrapped up, with a bonus hybrid or lifer to boot, we headed for the car. And were stopped by a pod of dolphins heading through! And then by a pair of Lincoln's Sparrows, some Golden-crowned Sparrows, and a White-crowned Sparrow in the cliff-top park. So that was fun!
Day list:
House Sparrow
Heermann's Gull
Western Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Brown Pelican
Rock Pigeon
Black Phoebe
Horned Grebe
Eared Grebe
Clark's Grebe
Surf Scoter
Snowy Egret
Red-throated Loon*
Common Loon
Pelagic Cormorant
Black Turnstone
Willet
Whimbrel
Black-bellied Plover
Brandt's Cormorant
Black Oystercatcher
American Oystercatcher?
Anna's Hummingbird
Surfbird*
Allen's Hummingbird
House Wren
Pacific Loon*
Wandering Tattler*
Golden-crowned Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
House Finch
We're also going to try and study up before our little trips a little better than we have so far, in order to get a better shared understanding of what we're looking for. We're emulating Phoebe Snetsinger, whose biography Libby is reading, and doing a pre-trip notebook for all the species we might see. So, before our trip on Saturday we studied up on five birds: Common, Pacific and Red-throated Loons, Surfbird, and Wandering Tattler. The Loons aren't all the difficult, especially in summer plumage, but in winter, they're all pretty drab gray colored and the differences are subtle: bill size, and plumage features like the demarcating line on the neck being bold or subdued, faint chinstraps, collars, and also some behavioral differences. The shorebirds are just plain gray birds that live along rocky shores.
We've seen a Common Loon a few times before now, but we had never seen the other four birds. Mostly because they're not common in protected bays, which is where we normally go birding near the coast (Bolsa Chica or Newport Back Bay). This time we went to the Newport Pier and to Crescent Bay in Laguna Beach.
We hoped to have all three species of Loons and maybe try a little sea watching from the Pier. When we pulled up there were a bunch of gulls and some Brown Pelicans circling the beach - mostly Heermann's and Western. We saw one or two Ring-billed, too. On the way out we saw some Eared Grebes, Horned Grebes, and some Surf Scoters feeding on the barnacles encrusting the pillars. At the end, we found a place along the rail next to all the fishermen and started looking for loons. We soon found a Red-throated Loon! Soon we also had a Common Loon, and we spent a long time watching birds fly by the pier at quite some distance. Most of those we couldn't identify because they were so far away. Our scope is a little fella' and we've no experience with truly pelagic species. There was a constant procession of small birds with quick wing-beats skimming the surface of the water. I'm guessing they were a Shearwater of some sort. There were also distant rafts of Cormorants. Only a single Pelagic came close to the pier. It gave us great looks of its unique iridescent feathers.
I was disappointed not to see any Pacific Loons near the pier, but we decided to move on and check out Crescent Bay for the shorebirds. I missed the turn the first time, but we doubled back and found it soon enough. There were some other birders there looking for an American Oystercatcher that was reported last weekend. We set up on the overlook and started scanning the rocks. The low ones sported both Western and Heermann's Gulls, Black-bellied Plovers, a Whimbrel, and some Willets. The rocky off-shore outcroppings were covered in Sea Lions, Brandt's Cormorants, Black Oystercatchers, and Brown Pelicans. And then, there was an American-type Oystercatcher! We got the scope on it, and right behind it was our lifer Surfbird! Cool!
American Oystercatchers are common along the Atlantic coast, and they also breed on the Pacific coast of Mexico. However, our local Oystercatcher is the more range-restricted Black Oystercatcher. Its breeding range extends south into Baja California where it overlaps with the northernmost breeding American Oystercatchers. And that's where they hybridize. So when an American Oystercatcher appears north of the border, there's always some debate over whether or not it is an American Oystercatcher or an American x Black Oystercatcher hybrid. Last Saturday someone ran the bird through a scale named after an ornithologist named Jehl to determine its descent and decided it was good for an American Oystercatcher, but we heard second hand while we were there that someone had seen two American Oystercatchers on the beach that morning. So now we don't know if we saw the same one someone had earlier rated, or not. It definitely was not an ideal American Oystercatcher. It showed some a dirty rather than clean line on the breast between its black and white plumage, and it showed a few flecks of black on the undertail. The wing-stripe appeared slightly restricted, but the tail looked good. Overall, I'm leaning towards it being the bird earlier described (which was rated a 33 out of 38 - 30 or lower being a definite hybrid).
We hung around for awhile waiting for the appearance of the second bird, or our Tattler. We were rewarded with a good look at another Pelagic Cormorant coming in for a landing on the rock (showing big white patches behind the wing - a wonderful field mark) and a Pacific Loon! One came steaming along feeding and preening through the area. Great luck. And then I found a bobbing shorebird far away in the rocks. It turned out to be our Tattler. And with all five targets wrapped up, with a bonus hybrid or lifer to boot, we headed for the car. And were stopped by a pod of dolphins heading through! And then by a pair of Lincoln's Sparrows, some Golden-crowned Sparrows, and a White-crowned Sparrow in the cliff-top park. So that was fun!
Day list:
House Sparrow
Heermann's Gull
Western Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Brown Pelican
Rock Pigeon
Black Phoebe
Horned Grebe
Eared Grebe
Clark's Grebe
Surf Scoter
Snowy Egret
Red-throated Loon*
Common Loon
Pelagic Cormorant
Black Turnstone
Willet
Whimbrel
Black-bellied Plover
Brandt's Cormorant
Black Oystercatcher
American Oystercatcher?
Anna's Hummingbird
Surfbird*
Allen's Hummingbird
House Wren
Pacific Loon*
Wandering Tattler*
Golden-crowned Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
House Finch
Friday, January 18, 2008
TGIF
What a day. I had to confront a kid about cheating on a Math test. And I also had two kids bleeding, and another one throwing up in class, though not all at the same time.
At least it's Friday.
At least it's Friday.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Bird Pictures
This weekend I completely organized Libby's and my bird pictures using Picasa's album feature. It's neat, because you can sort pictures in albums without moving them between folders. What I ended up doing was making an album for every taxonomic avian family we've photographed a representative from. This was quite time consuming, but it was also fun. Finding it fun, I suppose, separates me from most other human beings. Anyway, I can now find pictures by folder - which is organized by date or a title indicating the nature of the event we visited, or find a bird picture by family!
I thought I'd share two of my favorite bird pictures so far:
This Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte Anna) was photographed at the San Diego Wild Animal Park back in December when we visited it. I'm mainly happy about catching the iridescence on the head so well, but the fact that it's a hummingbird flight shot is also fun. My biggest complaint (besides quality limitations) is that there's an artificial feeder in the scene.
I thought I'd share two of my favorite bird pictures so far:
This Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte Anna) was photographed at the San Diego Wild Animal Park back in December when we visited it. I'm mainly happy about catching the iridescence on the head so well, but the fact that it's a hummingbird flight shot is also fun. My biggest complaint (besides quality limitations) is that there's an artificial feeder in the scene.
I found this Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus) at Irvine Park last Saturday when I went to take a picture of the wintering Lewis' Woodpecker and to just spend some time in the great outdoors. I was walking along the little nature trail up on the hillside above the park, when this little Hermit Thrush came right up to me! It was a special moment, as the bird was obviously interested in me for some reason. I was able to reach back, grab my camera (which was still in the bag) and take this one picture before it flew off. Unfortunately, it was obviously a little shady and so the photo's uncomfortably dark, but it's fun to get so close to any kind of bird. It's even more fun to capture the moment!
Friday, January 04, 2008
Christmas Break Photo Round-up
Over Christmas Break (Yay for Holiday pay and the wonderful category of Bonus Day pay here at Biola), we had an opportunity to spend some time with both sides of the family and even got to do some birding with Bill and Becca.
Christmas Eve was spent with at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and that was a lot of fun, and so was Christmas at the Mootharts. Libby put up some pictures in an album on Facebook.
On the 26th, we headed off to Bolsa Chica with Bill and Becca, and we saw 65 species for the day. Nothing really out of the ordinary, but lots of fun looking at all the wintering water fowl. I was pleased we were able to find the resident White-tailed Kite for them, though we missed the resident Reddish Egret. The tide was really high, so we didn't do much shore-birding at all. A real highlight was a very confiding Brown Pelican sitting above a tide gate that let Becca get almost within arm's reach of him before flushing!
On the 27th, we visited the San Diego Wild Animal Park (photo album here). It was a real blast to see all the neat African animals. Of course, we really enjoyed the aviaries. Golden Orioles are beautiful anywhere, and so are Golden-headed Quetzals! There were also a good number of native species hopping in the bushes or flitting about. Bill and Becca got to see Say's Phoebes, Nuttall's Woodpeckers, and Cassin's Kingbirds. Libby and I got our binoculars on a beautiful soaring dark-morph Red-tailed Hawk - which was our first of that color morph for Red-tails. It was very striking.
Oh, and it turns out we saw a semi-wild Wood Stork that lives at the Wild Animal Park (but isn't an exhibit bird). We saw a stork flying between exhibits, but I just thought it was an escapee. It did occur to me that it looked just like a Wood Stork - white body and wings, with dark head and black flight feathers - primaries on down - but as I'm unfamiliar with the family in general, I couldn't eliminate other options. But I just read on a birding blog - 10,000 Birds - that there is a wild Wood Stork living there. I don't think we'll count it, though. On the one hand, I'm sure that we saw one, but on the other hand we didn't know what we were looking at, and I'd like to appreciate it better. Kind of like how we've held off on counting Varied Bunting so that we're sure to find it again and appreciate it in color (rather than in a distant silhouette).
We spent the last few days of that week relaxing! But on Monday the 31st, we went birding/walking with Mom and Dad at the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary. We had a pretty birdy day, with high-lights being all three local Teal species together in one place, Northern Shovelers feeding in their circles, an escaped exotic Weaver species, a female Phainopepla, and a Peregrine Falcon. We walked downstream on the trail toward the UCI Marsh, too, and saw lots of White Pelicans, egrets, herons, lots of White-throated Swifts and some Northern Rough-winged Swallows, and loads and loads of Red-tailed Hawks. One field showed 5 in one binocular view, with one more sitting about 2 degrees to the right!
After that, Libby and I headed off alone to chase down some Wilson's Snipes reported further upstream in San Diego Creek. That was a successful chase, too. After a little head scratching and intensive scanning of every little bump in this little urban run-off channel, we came up with 10-15 of the funny looking birds. So, that was our last lifer of the year, on the last day of the year. As we were watching, we also had a White-faced Ibis fly in, and out again, which was just a nice touch.
That afternoon we installed Microsoft Office on my parents' computers and a router, before going off to watch the new National Treasure movie (silly, but fun), and have a delightful fast food dinner. We got home and were in bed by 9:30 so we could get up early the next day for Disneyland!
Christmas Eve was spent with at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and that was a lot of fun, and so was Christmas at the Mootharts. Libby put up some pictures in an album on Facebook.
On the 26th, we headed off to Bolsa Chica with Bill and Becca, and we saw 65 species for the day. Nothing really out of the ordinary, but lots of fun looking at all the wintering water fowl. I was pleased we were able to find the resident White-tailed Kite for them, though we missed the resident Reddish Egret. The tide was really high, so we didn't do much shore-birding at all. A real highlight was a very confiding Brown Pelican sitting above a tide gate that let Becca get almost within arm's reach of him before flushing!
On the 27th, we visited the San Diego Wild Animal Park (photo album here). It was a real blast to see all the neat African animals. Of course, we really enjoyed the aviaries. Golden Orioles are beautiful anywhere, and so are Golden-headed Quetzals! There were also a good number of native species hopping in the bushes or flitting about. Bill and Becca got to see Say's Phoebes, Nuttall's Woodpeckers, and Cassin's Kingbirds. Libby and I got our binoculars on a beautiful soaring dark-morph Red-tailed Hawk - which was our first of that color morph for Red-tails. It was very striking.
Oh, and it turns out we saw a semi-wild Wood Stork that lives at the Wild Animal Park (but isn't an exhibit bird). We saw a stork flying between exhibits, but I just thought it was an escapee. It did occur to me that it looked just like a Wood Stork - white body and wings, with dark head and black flight feathers - primaries on down - but as I'm unfamiliar with the family in general, I couldn't eliminate other options. But I just read on a birding blog - 10,000 Birds - that there is a wild Wood Stork living there. I don't think we'll count it, though. On the one hand, I'm sure that we saw one, but on the other hand we didn't know what we were looking at, and I'd like to appreciate it better. Kind of like how we've held off on counting Varied Bunting so that we're sure to find it again and appreciate it in color (rather than in a distant silhouette).
We spent the last few days of that week relaxing! But on Monday the 31st, we went birding/walking with Mom and Dad at the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary. We had a pretty birdy day, with high-lights being all three local Teal species together in one place, Northern Shovelers feeding in their circles, an escaped exotic Weaver species, a female Phainopepla, and a Peregrine Falcon. We walked downstream on the trail toward the UCI Marsh, too, and saw lots of White Pelicans, egrets, herons, lots of White-throated Swifts and some Northern Rough-winged Swallows, and loads and loads of Red-tailed Hawks. One field showed 5 in one binocular view, with one more sitting about 2 degrees to the right!
After that, Libby and I headed off alone to chase down some Wilson's Snipes reported further upstream in San Diego Creek. That was a successful chase, too. After a little head scratching and intensive scanning of every little bump in this little urban run-off channel, we came up with 10-15 of the funny looking birds. So, that was our last lifer of the year, on the last day of the year. As we were watching, we also had a White-faced Ibis fly in, and out again, which was just a nice touch.
That afternoon we installed Microsoft Office on my parents' computers and a router, before going off to watch the new National Treasure movie (silly, but fun), and have a delightful fast food dinner. We got home and were in bed by 9:30 so we could get up early the next day for Disneyland!
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Happy 2008!
Jonathan got me Disneyland for Christmas. Well, two annual passes. Which is a lot of potential Disneyland fun! We went for the first time yesterday, to start the year off right. We had a great time, despite the large crowds (a lot of people had the same idea about starting the year off right). We took it easy, and didn't stress about having to see this or that attraction. After all, we've got a whole year!
You can see more pictures from our trip to Disneyland here.
You can see more pictures from our trip to Disneyland here.
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