Boy, it’s been windy in the afternoons here!  I was silly enough to travel to the bayside where there was nothing to break the wind! 

I was experimenting.  See, I usually just carry my camera (with massive, long lens and extender) and walk around taking pictures of whatever I happen upon.  I can move quickly and get bored much less often since I’m constantly on the move.  But I’d been a but unhappy with the lack of clarity of my pictures and wanted to see what I could do to remedy that issue.  So, this time I lugged my tripod along with me.  It stabilizes the camera, for sure, but it’s bulky and I have to actually *set up* the camera before I take any pictures!  Then once I do, I want to stay in one spot and take lots of pictures, but my target typically doesn’t cooperate. 

And the wind!  It was gusting at 30 mph at least!  So most of the birds were hunkered down somewhere not playing with me.  True to form, though, there were Great Blue Herons standing majestically for what seemed like hours on end.

The only other birds that were really around were swallows, and anyone who has tried to identify a flying swallow will groan in empathy thinking about trying to photograph one in flight. In the wind. Yeah, not gonna happen.

So I drove to a nearby park and was resigning myself to simply practicing on American Robins in the grass, when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. It was a Crow up in a tree, and it was making quite a racket. I looked over; there were a few more Crows in the same tree. What’s that on the ground?

Holy crap! It’s a hawk! It must have some sort of prey the Crows are interested in. She wasn’t really manteling, but was really just looking around for a few seconds before taking a few bites.

She soon had had enough of those annoying Crows and tried to fly away with her catch (which I soon saw was a squirrel), but didn’t get very far. Notice the tail isn’t completely red yet— a juvie!

WARNING! DISGUSTING MATERIAL IMMINENT!

And away she flew!

On my way out, I could not resist capturing this little fella… he stood so still for so long… what was he watching? Or was he being watched?

Since you readers are all so very astute, I assume you’ve realized that I’m having issues with the host of my pictures.  It is a temporary issue, I assure you.  So fear not!  They will be back soon!  Meanwhile, I’m going to use another host for my pictures. 

We are nothing if not adaptable!

I’ve been seeing so many cute little Goldfinches as I walk around my neighborhood, I went birding the other day with the intent of capturing some in the beautiful sunshine. Always a bad idea…

I went to the Shoreline Trail (also part of the Palo Alto Baylands), but a different area than I had birded before. It was getting later in the afternoon, about an hour or so before sunset, and the wind had picked up a bit of speed. I don’t often lug my tripod around with me because I prefer to stay mobile and walk around; thus I knew I had my work set out for me. My lens is rather large and likes to act like a sail when I’m trying to take pictures.

Regardless, I was able to stay still long enough to get some decent pics. The American Avocets are nicely showing off their breeding plumage, and I did stop for a while to watch them sweep their upcurved bills along the top of the water as they fed. Of course the best picture was of one who had been napping!

Speaking of napping, there were LOADS of Short-billed Dowitchers (and I’m sure some Long-billed as well, I just didn’t actually identify any of them) taking in an afternoon snooze.

Though they did take pity on me and exploded in a beautiful synchronous flight.

 Some other birds of note for the day: a pair of Gadwalls. 

A Western Grebe.  I need to find where I’ve misplaced it, but I have an awesome picture of my parent’s lab in a face-off with one of these guys in the ocean.  It’s really cool.  They look so menacing with that long sword-like bill and blazing red eyes!

 A Willet.  I remember back to when I was in college taking a field ornithology lab (one of my favorite classes EVER, duh!  Even though we had our field trips starting at 6am on Saturday mornings!  Totally worth it.), my instructor told us that Willets were rather easy to identify.  “They are pretty much nondescript!  So if you see nothing in particular that stands out, chances are it’s a Willet!”  I’m sure there will be some that argue with that logic, but it worked for me so far!

I love to watch terns hunting along the water’s edge.  This trip, most of them were being lazy bums and just hanging out.

This is fun.  When I was flipping through my pictures from the trip, I took one look and a song filled my head… One of these things is not like the other…

Can you find it? 

There is some structure along the trail that is the home to some Barn Cliff Swallows.  The eves are very low so you can almost see into their muddy nests.  I can’t help but think that some of them get bothered and gasp maybe even vandalized by hoodlums. 

Then, of course, just as I am resigning myself to go home without my planned pictures of those cute little Goldfinches, this beauty flits in front of me and feeds for a few minutes until another family travelling the trail scares him away.  But at least I got my wish! 

In my quest to find a picture or group of pictures that encompass what the Silicon Valley is, I couldn’t help but think of the fake cell phone trees…  They are a blend of the natural (the idea is, anyway) and the decidedly unnatural, but it’s a testiment to the constant attempts of Californians to preserve as much of “nature” as we can without sacrificing our technological comforts. 

As it happens, ever since I thought up getting a picture of the faux tree, it was nearly impossible to actually get one.  Isn’t it funny how often you see something only to not be able to find it when you want to?  I’m sure there are loads of them around me, but I either don’t notice them (good for you, designers!) or didn’t have my camera.   Regardless, at long last I finally got my picture!

 

Oh the lovely internet… you can find anything!