Still interested in following the progress of the nesting colonies of local Ibis and egrets, I drove on a Saturday to the San Diego Zoo’s Safari Park near Escondido. I visited briefly with the nesting colonies, but I spent a good deal of time capturing images of some amazing birds in the zoo’s collection. Birds … Read more
Low tide was early on this Tuesday morning. The mudflats at J Street were alive with waterfowl and shorebirds. I don’t get as many opportunities as I’d like to spend time with Blue-Winged Teals, but this morning I was able to enjoy their company. Red Knots are some of the most well-travelled birds in the … Read more
I took my camera into my yard several times over the course of the month of April 2012. Spring can bring me some extraordinary birds, though I don’t always have my camera ready when they make their appearance. I made a point to put in the effort and left my camera setup on my tripod … Read more
I spent Sunday and Tuesday mornings at the La Jolla Cove, with only Brandt’s Cormorants on my radar. These visits were part of my campaign to capture and document with images, the young birds growing up. These were the fifth and sixth of seven visits I made over the course of this spring in 2012. … Read more
Over the years I’ve had several friends who’ve lived along Mussey Grade in Ramona. When I was a boy, I can recall fishing trips with my dad to Lake San Vicente. We would drive down this road to where the road disappeared into the deep water of the lake and park, before renting a boat … Read more
I have mixed feelings about Wild Turkeys in San Diego County. Going back thousands of years, there is no historical or archeological evidence they ever lived here. They were introduced to satisfy the special interests of “sportsmen” who wished to have them here to hunt. Species such as lizards, and other reptiles, along with wild … Read more
My experience in my Poway yard with the woodpecker clan has provided me regular meetings with Nuttall’s and Acorn Woodpeckers, and sometimes the often shy Northern Flicker. Downy Woodpeckers are probably in my neighborhood more often than I see them, as there is a dense riparian corridor a stone’s throw from the hillside property I … Read more
Swainson’s Hawks are long-distance migrants. They spend winters in Argentina, but travel to Western North America to breed. Until 2003 it was believed that all Swainson’s Hawk migration was through Texas and the mid-west, but Hal Cohen, a recent migrant from the mid-west himself, was studying Turkey Vulture movements through Borrego Springs and discovered these … Read more
This Monday was my third trip following up on the nesting Brandt’s Cormorants at La Jolla. Most of the eggs I’d seen under brooding adults in February had turned into strange looking alien creatures. During feeding time for the young birds, there were elements of a horror show. It seemed as if the parents were … Read more
California Gnatcatchers are listed as threatened due to habitat loss. It has been their bad fortune to depend on a few locations lusted after by developers eager to make a buck by scraping out a flat spot and sticking on a building to house some rich fool, or to build a shopping mall to sell … Read more