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?

We are nothing if not adaptable!

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! 

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!

 

Napa was easy… a shady road with vines on it.  Simple.  Descriptive.  It portrayed a natural setting where one would be able to find birds.  What about my new home, a typical suburban city smack in the heart of the Bay Area… of Silicon Valley.  What does a person think of when they hear Silicon Valley?  Big corporate buildings… cars stuck in traffic… the Golden Gate Bridge maybe (for those who immediately associate the Bay Area with San Francisco)?  These are certainly what immediately come to my mind.  As I look out my window, I see just roof tops with a smattering of tree tops sprinkled throughout. 

Well, perhaps I should have a picture of that then, eh?  It’s a true-to-life situation for those living around here.  Or, do I pretend I am actually up in the foothills where there is actually ample greenery (well… it’s really only really green for a few short months of the year, now being that time)? 

Aha!  I’ll take a panorama of the Valley from a hillside!  That way I’ll have greenery AND the trueness of the setting with the buildings included.  Hmm… without being a wizard at Photoshop, how do I get around the omni-present smog (by the way, happy Earth Day everybody!)?  After a rain?  Sunny California doesn’t lend itself to many of these opportunities (and, after raining the trails can be horrendous). 

How about just a collage of bird photos then, like some other birding blogs?  Um, precisely that — it’s been done by other blogs.  I would really like to be more creative than that… at least be able to come up with my own scheme or something.

Sigh.  Disappointed by my innate lack of creativity, I wailed about my predicament to Phatty Tuna on the treadmill at one of our gym dates.  She’s got a degree in graphic design and excitedly offered her Photoshop expertise to hone the one idea I had floating around in my head that I was halfway happy with.  Still working out the details, but rest assured, it will appear soon. 

There were loads of California Towhees along the path making quite a ruckus (it’s amazing how loud one little bird can be). I love to sit and watch them scritch the ground with their cute little hop-hop forage dance. Of course then I get distracted and not actually take a picture of them until they are up in a tree. :-)

Much quieter but equally as fun to watch forage are Black Phoebes. They are very common around here, and yet I still pause to watch them sally from their perch to snatch insects right out of the air.

Just then a big shadow crosses my path and I look up to see a Red-tailed Hawk fly into a nearby tree. She didn’t turn around to face me, but rather just let her beautiful red tail gleam in the sunlight.

And then she found something more interesting to do elsewhere.

Another neat sighting was this Nuttall’s Woodpecker. Did you know that the male Nuttall’s does most of the incubation of their clutches, including all of the nocturnal incubation and brooding duties? What a man! :-)

Speaking of nests and clutches and the like, I had a grand time watching Bushtits foraging for nesting supplies! I bet that green rope looked like great material for him… but a bit rough for my taste! What thread count do you think it is? I can’t sleep on anything less than 600. :-)

He eventually found some softer material that was suitable.

He then proceeded to pop into this nest and dance around a bit. It’s hard to convey motion in these pictures, but I assure you that pendant nest was bouncing around!

Bushtits will very frequently abandon nests (and eggs for that matter) if they are disturbed, so I didn’t want to push my luck and walked on. I read also that they will even change mates if they do desert their nest, they will also change mates before building a new nest. The nest was actually hanging over the path and was almost within reaching distance, so I don’t have high hopes for this one. But here’s hoping!

I birded the end of the Stevens Creek Trail at the so-called Crittenden Site, which butts up against a business park.  It’s a popular site, and there was a pretty constant stream of walkers, joggers, and some bikers.  A bit unfortunate since it took a while for the shy birdlife to come back out from hiding after each encounter; but that’s not to say I didn’t still see some special things!  One of the more incredible sights was this Cooper’s Hawk checkin’ out the scenery.

After a brief stare-down, she started doing this crazy dance around the branch before flying into a nearby bush.

Once in the bush, she just skulked about before flying down the path to enchant someone else.

The actual creek (Stevens Creek) in this area isn’t very spectacular.  It’s pretty muddy right about now, and the level isn’t what it could be, either.  There were some dabbling ducks roaming about (though they seemed more skiddish than usual).  Tis the season for the Green-winged Teals! 

I just love seeing a family eating breakfast together!  Hehe, actually I liked this picture particularly because the green speculum on the female is especially noticable.  

Speculum… who named it that, anyway?  I have such a hard time not associating it with the medical instrument.  And yet the two meanings couldn’t be more different!

SURPRISE!  This little devil came bounding down the path practically fearless, and passed me within inches!  Only fitting since it was  just a few days before easter!

There were of course a plethora of sparrows around… Here’s a neat shot of a Golden-crowned.

And then once again, my sparrow karma ran out… here’s this neat picture of a sparrow, and I can’t decide if it’s the common Song Sparrow (which is truthfully more likely simply given the odds) or a Lincoln’s Sparrow.  The dark barring on the back and roufous detail on the wings leads me to want to call it a Lincoln’s…  

And what’s with holding his tail up so wren-like?   

Anyway, I thought I’d end this post with the same ending I had to my birding trip… the sun peeked out for a few minutes and I had this lovely ball of energy following me along the trail.

Seeing these pretty Common Yellowthroats always makes me smile!  Hope your day is a bright as this guy! 

Anyway, on a recent trip to the Marsh, I was rather pleased with the weather as it made for some pretty good photos.  First, the ubiquitous Song Sparrow:

And same Sparrow attempting to scare me away with his Evil-eye!

It didn’t work.  :-)  I was distracted by a nearby Savannah Sparrow posing gorgeously on a —- (oh who am I kidding, I have no idea what kind of plant that is!) 

This fellow obviously saw something more intriguing off to the right there, and took off almost immediately after I spotted him.

A little blurry, but neat nonetheless.  Savannahs were by far the most common bird I photographed that day.  They were all over the trail, bobbing in and out of bushes, and even having a grand old time preening in the sunshine!

Now, back to my aforementioned issues identifying Sparrows… I believe this to be a Lincoln’s Sparrow, but I’m not going to bet my life on it (not even $20 for that matter).

Other species of note were a Belted Kingfisher (I think I was so excited to see this guy I was actually shaking… hence the awful picture);

And a Western Meadowlark.  I usually see these guys all over the ground… I found it ironic the only one I saw within photographing distance was on a telephone wire!

Those guys have such a beautiful song, I could listen to them sing for hours!

Anyway, I hope you all are enjoying any sunshine you may still have.  Since it’s not officially Autumn, we can expect chillier mornings (hello hot chocolate!), greyer days, and maybe even some raindrops.  But then again, this is Sunny California!  :-)