Posts tagged as:

Birds

Redondo Pelicans

August 20, 2010 Pelicans

On a last-minute work detour through Los Angeles (en route to the Northwest), I caught my favorite group of Redondo Beach pelicans waiting for fish scraps to drain into the harbor.

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Scrub Jay Way

July 14, 2010 Corvids

This Scrub Jay came to us as a tame and inquisitive interloper. He landed on the bannister, then sat and looked in our kitchen window all morning. He’d obviously done this before. But … he’d landed at a kitchen fresh out of peanuts. He gave up. True to jay form (persistence and sweat), he showed [...]

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Up On the Roof

June 6, 2010 Pelicans

Hugh and I traded lenses for this casual shoot several months ago. He took the E-520 and the 70-300, and I went wide with the 14-54mm on the E-3. I thought I’d capture scenery against a mackerel sky. I wasn’t expecting to get this perspective on pelicans. In fact, I admit handing over the 70-300 [...]

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Nest Bound

April 25, 2010 Perching Birds

This Robin was building a nest, low in a trellis at a public park. I kept my distance while shooting this image, but kept wishing she would reconsider the positioning of the nest.

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Bird Bath Bliss

February 18, 2010 Animal Behavior & Characteristics

I’ll never forget the experience of Mikiko and his bath. He was a hospital rescue, a Japanese Quail with no verifiable background. Most likely, he was being raised for food, for eggs, for hunting or for dog training, and the lucky little guy escaped into the arms of a good samaritan. Dust Baths I had [...]

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Super Raven

December 7, 2009 Corvids

I took this shot the day after Thanksgiving — just getting around to posting it. The 25-foot swells off Ocean Beach were camera worthy. But I found myself swiveling with lens toward the cliff’s edge, where ravens were striking these comical poses in the headwinds. I captured several such raven moments, but this was my [...]

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Tussle on Mountain Lake

November 21, 2009 Animal Behavior & Characteristics

This was a first for me . . . witnessing a down and dirty fight between American Coots intent on keeping each other off coveted turf. Neither bird was hurt. Well, maybe emotionally. The loser scrambled across the water to escape the victor. American Coots can drown in territorial battles, although it’s not common. They [...]

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Return of the Waxwings

November 19, 2009 Perching Birds

It starts with a whistle, but a whistle so faint it’s a whisper across the leaves. And then the sound of raindrops, but it’s not rain. It’s the patter of falling berries, pyracantha and holly, dropping into the blanket of debris below the trees.

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Pigeon Masters of Culinary Adaptation

November 13, 2009 Doves & Pigeons

Refined carbs aren’t any better for pigeons than they are for us. But urban birds, used to groveling for handouts, will take what they can get. This mottled pigeon person stumbled upon a bounty in Mission Bay. We could hear a gang of gulls on the approach so the pigeon was in his own Amazing [...]

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Sunday in the Park With Pelicans

October 18, 2009 Pelicans

Always my favorite SF Bay residents . . . photographed from Tiburon this afternoon. Related posts on pelicans: Miss Them Already: California Pelicans | Pelicanorama | The Flight of the Pelican | Mixed Use, Pelican Style | Up on the Roof

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Black and White

October 15, 2009 Peninsula & South

I almost expected Man-Thing to come crawling out of the mud this morning. The humidity evoked spirits of the bayou: moss, mosquitos, mint juleps. The only time California resembles a swamp is in the wake of a tropical storm, the same wake which pummeled us with record rains a few days ago. We did about [...]

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Just Flying: Some Pictures

October 12, 2009 Animal Behavior & Characteristics

We cancelled our cable service . . . again. I’m not sure what our longest stretch of cable t.v. access has been, but, it always comes to this eventually: we look at the 100+ dollars we’re pissing away each month and surrender our cable box the next day. Here’s our cable substitute this time — [...]

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Reclaimed: Las Gallinas Wildlife Ponds

October 9, 2009 Birds

Reclamation is among my favorite themes — especially as it pertains to nature. I root for the vines overtaking fire hydrants and windblown seeds germinating new habitat in former refuse sites…

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Mute Swans . . . Not Really

October 2, 2009 Sonoma County

We call them “mute” because they’re comparatively quiet. If you’ve ever experienced the clamor of Tundra Swans banking toward the wetlands, “mute” will seem an appropriate designation for these travelers. But they’re not silent as the name suggests. They’ll hiss and utter caw-like calls. Overhead, they render melodies, pushing air into songs and squeaks with [...]

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Secret Digs of the Great Horned Owl

September 15, 2009 East Bay

Photos of a Great Horned Owl perched in Strawberry Canyon in Berkeley.

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The Flight of the Pelican

August 31, 2009 Pelicans

A title inspired by a recent viewing of Jimmy Stewart and The Flight of the Phoenix . . . a photographic tribute inspired by one of my favorite birds: the Brown Pelican. California Brown Pelican Recovery The Brown Pelican is not quite a Phoenix, raising itself from metaphorical ashes. But it has mythological parallels in [...]

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Learning From a Racing Pigeon

August 28, 2009 Doves & Pigeons

I think the pigeon people are trying to tell me something. Late last year, I had an overnight pigeon guest, awaiting transport to a wildlife hospital. In April, I drove two [very] baby pigeons to the same hospital. I’m always snapping pigeon photos even when other photographers sweep their lenses right over the pigeon landscape. [...]

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Visiting Hours Over

August 26, 2009 East Bay

A male Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) roots around just before dusk at the Nature Center in Tilden Park.

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“Chance”

August 15, 2009 Doves & Pigeons

A fellow volunteer at the wildlife hospital found and housed Chance — the homing pigeon who didn’t find his way home. Homing and racing pigeons are banded with traceable numbers. But the problem with Chance’s band is that it was applied more than ten years ago. And between then and now, Chance has changed ownership [...]

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Things to Know (and Love) About a Japanese Quail

August 6, 2009 Quail and Pheasants and Grouse

He was misidentified but not forgotten — this lone Japanese Quail who fluttered his way into a wildlife hospital and then, into our hands and hearts. We gave him an appropriately Japanese name: “Mikiko” which, loosely translated, means “child of the tree.” A fellow volunteer pointed out that he is not, in fact, a child [...]

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