The Last of the California Photos

Osprey carrying a fish

Say's Phoebe

Black Phoebe

California Towhee

Bushtit

White-tailed Kite

White-tailed Kite



Another bird from California. This time from Ballona Creek in Marina del Rey.

Orange Bishop

Orange Bishop


We went out to Los Angeles to visit our daughter and got some birding in as well. Orange Bishops had been reported in the Sepuleveda Dam area and we were lucky enough to find one.

Bushtit

BushtitOne more from San Diego

Audubon's Warbler from San Diego

Audubon's WarblerOne more from San Diego: An Audobon's Warbler. This is a subspecies of the yellow rumped warbler or a distinct species depending upon who you talk to.

Summer Tanager

Summer Tanager
Frequent readers of this blog will be familiar with the story. Mike had a business trip, this time to San Diego, and got up early to go birding before his meeting. With a little advance planning and internet search, he found a location where an interesting bird had been spotted recently. This time, the bird was a summer tanager.

A special thanks to SDBIRDS and Wendy of San Diego for describing the location of this bird.

Male Common Goldeneye trying to get the attention of a female

Mike returned to the area of the Palo Alto Baylands where he saw the female common goldeneye a few days prior. This time, he also saw a male trying to get the females attention.






It worked for a while, but soon another male goldeneye arrived. They got into a dispute over the female. Eventually, a canvasback duck came over and chased the males away and he pursued the female for a while.



At the end, everyone was more interested in food.

Canvasback and Lesser Scaup from Baylands Preserve, Palo Alto

Canvasback


Lesser Scaup

On the way to the airport, Mike stopped one more time at the Baylands in Palo Alto. It was a little rainy, but the sun came out a few times.

Birding on Sand Hill Road In Palo Alto

Western Bluebird



Black Pheobe


Red-tailed Hawk

Mike had a little extra time after his conference and went birding on Sand Hill Road in Palo Alto, CA. While none of these photos are worth a million dollars, he thinks the new camera was a good investment. There are supposed to be vultures on Sand Hill Road, but he only saw a hawk.

Baylands Nature Preserve: Palo Alto, California

Female Common Goldeneye


Long-billed Curlew


Northern Shoveler


American Avocet


Another American Avocet

Mike took a business trip to Silicon Valley and had time to stop at the Baylands Nature Preserve in Palo Alto. The highlight was a Common Goldeneye. We've seen them occasionally in NJ and once on Lake Nelson but never got a good photo before. A better camera helps but there's nothing like sunlight.

Yellow-rumped warbler: Veteran's Park in Sylmar, CA

Williamson’s Sapsucker: Veterans Memorial Park, Sylmar, CA

We like when there are clear directions to see a rare bird. We use BirdsEye on the iPad that collects information from ebird. When we were in LA, there was a report of a Williamson's Sapsucker, so with a bit of searching on the internet we found these directions:

The Williamson's Sapsucker was present late this afternoon at Veteran's Memorial Park in Sylmar. It spent a lot of time on the fourth pine tree south/east of lamppost #20.

Now, to be honest, we saw it on the first and fifth pine tree, but it was nice to have such clear directions. It was a really pretty bird to see and shows a bit more detail and color than our yellow-bellied sapsuckers.

Nuttall's woodpeckers

We also saw a Nuttall's woodpecker at Veteran's Memorial Park in Sylmar, CA. The top two are of a male, the bottom is a female. Although it looks a bit like a downy woodpecker, it's a little larger and there is more red on the head.

Cedar Waxwings: Lacy Park in Pasadena

We are pretty happy with some prior cedar waxwing photos we've taken in NJ, but these with the berries we like just as much if not more. We had never actually observed the waxwings eating berries like we've read they do until we were in CA. It was a very large flock, and they were having what seemed to be a really good time with an abundance of berries.

Townsend's warbler: Lacy Park, Pasadena

While out in Los Angeles, we did have some time for birds. Here's a Townsend's warbler from Lacy Park in Pasadena. In the top photo, it's eating an insect.

Acorn Woodpeckers: Lacy Park in Pasadena

We visited Lacy Park twice. The first day it was cloudy and one area of the park was full of acorn woodpeckers, but we saw few other birds. The second day it was sunny and there were warblers and waxwings out, but we didn't see the woodpeckers.

Acorn woodpeckers store food in repositories, holes they peck in trees. We've seen oak tree repositories before but never palm tree repositories.

Hermit Thrush: Lacy Park, Pasadena

Here's a hermit thrush. At first, we thought it was an ovenbird, but when we checked on ebird, we saw that there hasn't been an ovenbird within 200 miles of Pasadena but a hermit thrush was sighted in the park the same day we visited. Some day we'll get better at making the ID between the two.

Northern Mockingbird and California Towhee

We just got back from a trip to Los Angeles helping our daughter and son-in-law move into their new house. Here's a photo of a mockingbird in their lemon tree and a towhee in some shrubs.

California Towhee

Birding in Wine Country

View from Bella Vineyards


Western Meadowlark in Sonoma


Pacific Loon in Palo Alto Baylands Preserve


American Pipit in Petaluma


Oak Titmouse in Geyersville


Says Phoebe in Petaluma


Mike had business in Palo Alto, CA, last Friday, so Chris came along to make a long weekend of it in Sonoma County wine country. Chris got to see the endangered California clapper rail (not pictured here) at the Baylands at sunrise Saturday. Although most of the time was spent in wineries and restaurants, there was still time to spot a few birds on Sunday AM and on the way back Monday. We got to add the oak titmouse to our life list, but he doesn't have the fancy colors or eye makeup as does the tufted titmouse we see at home in New Jersey.