Birding Luck

Snowy Egret
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.

Some days you have bad luck -- I'm thinking back to my pictures of where the cormorant was last week -- and other days, you stumble onto cooperative, thoughtful birds who pose beautifully for you and make you look skilled in bird photography even when you are birding with your mother-in-law carrying a large, colorful umbrella, your 8-1/2 year old daughter, and your silly Rat Terrier puppy. Some days you couldn't take a wrong picture if you tried because the birds are just there, demanding that you take their photograph, insisting that it be as beautiful as they are. Some days, you are lucky and the birds are as photogenic as they are beautiful. Some days it is all crystal-clear why you love your camera so much!

At the little pond in my in-laws' community, I found the requisite ducks but also saw this beautiful Snowy Egret with juvenile legs but the plummage of a breeding adult. It's hard to be an adolescent in any species, I guess.

Trying out a punk 'do for the effect on the ladies (only there weren't any)

When he flew away, my camera didn't focus fast enough but still . . .

I like where he ended up even better. Look at that reflection.


And then the Double-crested Cormorant was also enticing me to photograph him.


In an effort to make up for last week's diving photos, he put on this display for me . . .






Feel free to click on the images to see the larger versions on Flickr.


This female hummingbird is probably an Allen's Hummingbird. She's smaller than an Anna's with a thicker bill. She could be a Rufous but is probably an Allen's. Whatever she was, she's incrediably lovely.

Some days you don't even mind it when the birds stick their tongues out at you because you saw it, you had your camera, and you got the shot. "Nyah-nyah-nyah back at you birdie!"

Google Video Thursday

Let the Rain Pour Down . . . the movie:




Feeder Frenzy in the Rain:



And, for my raven loving readers, Noisy Raven:

Let the rain pour down

Driving in the rain 1
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.

Our local weather report says:

Today: rain becoming likely. Highs in the 50s to mid 60s. South winds 5 to 15 mph.

If rain is just now becoming likely, I'd like to know what the previous 24 hours of non-stop rain have been . . . other than very welcome to our plants and reservoirs of ground and drinking water.

I took the above picture to show you what rain is like in the mountains. And, then I took this one just to scare you with what driving in rain is like in the mountains.

Actually I took a bunch of pictures and some video (which I haven't had time to make into a movie yet) to share the whole experience. Guess we've been missing the rain, huh?

The birds were somewhat less than impressed with the rain. There was a general air of irritation and nervousness around the feeder today. I put out a lot of seed to soothe them . . . it didn't work. But I did enjoy watching them flit about irritatedly.

In that last photo, you can see the water beading up on her feathers -- click on it to see the detail. Have I mentioned lately that I love my camera? Kamerageliebterblogunpfaffers! These pictures were taken at low res because I was taking some shots for stuff to sell on eBay and I forgot to change it back . . . they are still great shots and show a lot of detail when you look at the larger sizes. I've started reading the manual to my camera -- it's overwhelming but I think it will encourage me to play a little bit with the settings.

In other news, I'm still not feeling great. But I'll live and I doubt I'll get much sicker, thank goodness! I'm trying to contact the other two breeders that we want to visit this weekend and it's not proving easy to manage that. I am leaning more and more towards Ruby but would really like to see some of the larger Ratties before I make a decision. We're getting ready for our camping trip and I'm excited about that but I wish that it would be a drier trip. I went shopping for food last night and bought a big box of hot chocolate. We haven't camped in the winter since before we had kids so it should be different. Long damp walks, card games, books, -- it'll be fun though. We're excited!

What are your plans for the weekend?

Another Raven Good Day

Raven Courtship
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.

Got back to school to pick the kids up early today . . . wow! Had my camera and these two ravens were showing off. Flirting, like mad with each other.

The sounds they were making was amazing. I got a bunch of photos of them (BURST MODE!!!) but also got some video. If you listen carefully, you'll hear an odd hollow clicking or knocking sound.

No . . . it's not evidence of Ivory Bills in Boulder Creek! The ravens make this sound. It's amazing. She clicks and then he puffs up and clicks and clacks.

Kamerageliebterblogunpfaffers*

Fox Sparrow (Sooty)
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.

How much do I love my new camera? I love it this much!

This is a life bird for me -- Fox Sparrow (Sooty). I'm 90% sure that this is the bird I caught a fleeting, blurry, hopelessly useless shot of in October and wondered what it was. Look at THIS shot!

I thought -- at first glance -- that it was my Hermit Thrush from last year and I didn't give it much look but I snapped a couple of shots of it. Then I'm looking at it on the computer thinking, "Wait a minute! That's not a Hermit Thrush!" Spent a little time looking and voila! Fox Sparrow (Sooty). How cute is that -- I have a pair of them under my front feeders.

Here are other birds that like my front feeders . . .

Chestnut-backed Chickadee with a yummy sunflower seed!


Spotted Towhee -- also with a yummy sunflower seed


California Towhee -- again, with a sunflower seed

Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon) -- but NO sunflower seed!

And, last, look at this unusual Chestnut-backed Chickadee that I spotted. It took me a long time to get some shots of this flitty bird that showed it's unusual coloration.

It appears to be a Chestnut-backed Chickadee but it has a LOT of white on it. I have seen a couple that have one or two extra bits of white but this is really noticeable. There are more photos {here}.

edit: I checked it out with my local bird group and one of the experts emailed me back to say that it is a leucistic bird -- partial albino. He said that he gets at least one report a year (he keeps the county records) and about 5 years ago, we had a huge rash of them in the county -- 30 reports in one season. So, there you go. Leucistic Chestnut-backed Chickadee. That probably explains the couple of others I saw with tiny white patches that just seemed like odd bits of feather -- relatives! If you follow the link above to my other pictures, I linked to some other chickadees that are almost completely white -- very beautiful, very otherworldly.

Oh, and to end off my day, I walked out my front door and flushed two birds who were nibbling little somethings from under my lavender bushes. They went into a tree in my front yard and I could see that they were my Hermit Thrushes. I thought it was quite thoughtful of them to show themselves when I was wondering if I'd really seen them or if I was just hopeless at IDing birds and thought Fox Sparrows were them last year. Thank you , Birding Gods!

(Deep dark confession time . . . I shot 359 shots today -- seriously! -- I kept 22 of them. So, how much do I love my new camera? A LOT -- especially since my husband ordered the 2GB card for it!)

*Means "Bloggers who crow about their cameras" -- coined by Julie Zickefoose.

Test shot with the new camera

Hummingbird through screen
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.

12 x zoom. 16+ feet away. Through window and screen! If you look at the big image, you can see the screening.
Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna) sipping hummer juice!

Do I need to say that I LOVE it? :)

My New Camera

my_new_camera
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.

In honor of my finishing my credential program (and for Christmas, birthday next year, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, Groundhog's Day, St. Patrick's Day, etc..), my wonderful, loving, fantastic, stupendous husband has just ordered me this spectacular camera.

If you are interested, you can read all about it here! It gets rave reviews and the photos I've seen from it online are wonderful! Sure, it's not as nice as the Fz20 or the Fz30 but it also costs a WHOLE let less! I'm happy!

Here is why I want this camera . . . .

• 12x optical zoom -- I can get up close and personal with birds and kids and whatever.
• Image stablization -- no more blurry pics when zoomed in
• 2.5" screen with a bright mode -- being able to see the images, menus, etc. better.

Counting the seconds until it arrives (Friday!) . . .

What the heck is this?

Spotted Towhee (juvenile)
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.

My fans are going to start recognizing my unique photographic style (ahem) but still this is a mystery bird.

In my yard for about a week now. Could NOT figure out what it was. Poured over the internet, Sibley, Peterson . . . no clues. The best I could come up with was Fox Sparrow but I was NOT happy with that. It would have had to be a weird fox sparrow -- just not right! Look at all the white spots all over it. It's weird.

But, today, I got a clue!

The little darling was in my front yard . . . for just a second. It was hanging with two California Towhees and a Spotted Towhee.

I mulled over it all day (I'm sure my boss is glad to know that while teaching math, I'm mulling over odd birds in my yard). Finally, it dawns on me . . . what if it's a juvenile Spotted Towhee. So, I google "juvenile spotted towhee" and voila . . .

link
link
link
link
link (this one in particular cracks me up -- I'm thinking I'll know soon if my bird starts looking absolutely BIZARRE that I'm spot on (get it!).
link

So, what do you think? Am I right? Can you even tell with the horrendous quality of my photos? Comments? Ideas? Opinions?

First Thirteen Birds on my Year List Red-tailed Hawk Acorn Woodpecker Western Scrub-Jay Dark-eyed Junco California Towhee Steller's Jay Chestnut-backed Chickadee California Quail Great Blue Heron Sharp-shinned Hawk Turkey Vulture American Crow Merlin

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The State of my State

My afternoon went a little something like this . . .

came home from work. While heating up leftover spaghetti, I noticed that there was a LOT of action at my kitchen window feeders. I stopped and watched as the Chickadees went nuts over sunflower seeds and Julie Zickefoose's Suet Dough. As I watched two Pygmy Nuthatches flew in repeatedly for snacks too. Delightful. An Anna's hummer came in and sat and drank and drank and drank some more at the feeder. I grabbed my camera and snapped several pictures (through the double paned windows that are spotted with water on the inside and outside). They were not great pictures to be sure -- or at least I don't think so. Something messed up though and the pictures were not really there. My digital camera card had files but they were all 0K. Sigh. And, when I went back to snap more . . . the wind had come up and there were no birds in sight. I'm pretty sure I could hear a Pygmy Nuthatch sticking its tongue out at me and saying, "Nyeh Nyeh" but I'm not positive.

Then, I got busy and decided to make our reservations for Thanksgiving. We are going up to visit my folks in June Lake, California. This heavenly place is in the Eastern Sierra at 7000 feet. Usually, Thanksgiving is just before the snow flies but not always. We're planning to take the FMC up but if it's snowy, we're taking the truck and planned to stay in a motel. It's a resort town with fishing all summer and skiing all winter. So, I called the motel that is within walking distance of my mother. Imagine my surprise when I discover they are closed that week. Yup. Closed. A motel. During Thanksgiving. Seriously. In a resort community. My mind boggles.

So, I start checking for viable options. My parents are on one side of a very polarizing community issue up there which the next nearest motel owners are on the other side of. So, staying there would cost us an arm and a leg and might get us dis-invited to Thanksgiving dinner. Missing my stepfather's smoked turkey is not part of my plan! Sooooooo, I keep looking. Another nearby place is owned by an extremely religious family with 13 children. They state on their rates page of their website that only married couples can stay at their cabins -- unmarried couples can burn in hell (okay, that's not what they said but the implication was clear). Well, I'm all for airing your own opinion and mine is that they won't get any of MY money even though we are married. Although, I'm tempted to recommend that my sister-in-law and her boyfriend stay there . . . just to mess with 'em. Last on my list of hilarious resort town motels is the place called The Four Seasons. Now, first of all, that's a mighty auspicious name for a motel/cabin place in June Lake. It's not a high-falutin' kind of town. But, best of all, they are only open between April and October. Arguably that is three seasons but no way is it four. Hilarious. Add to that the fact that the motels all want a 30 day cancellation notice for holiday weekends and I think we'll be figuring something else out. Sheesh!

So, imagine that there is a lovely picture of a Pygmy Nuthatch noshing at my feeder and I'll imagine that I'll have a place to sleep Thanksgiving Night when it's snowing at 7,000 feet in the eastern Sierra Nevada mountains!

While I was studying . . .

steller's jay
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.

I also kept my camera with it's telephoto lens in my lap. I'm not a good photographer but I still had fun playing with it. This gorgeous and sassy Steller's Jay came to visit.

While Greg was chatting with me, a group of chickadees flew into the feeders and started squabling over position. One was so flustered that it flew over and landed on Greg. I don't know which of them was more surprised. Brazen things!

It is lovely to do my schoolwork out on my deck in the dappled sunlight with birds lighting around me for company.

There are more pictures up at Flickr -- they aren't great but still they are there!