Posts in: Birds

Got out to the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge this morning. The White Fronted Geese are here (along with many small migratory song birds)! #WhiteFrontedGoose Five Greater White Fronted Geese flying in a clear sky. They have bright white chests and tails. Their belly is striped with black. Their wings are gray. The photo is very soft or slightly blurry.

We sometimes spoil our resident scrub jays with sunflower heads loaded with seeds. A juvenile Western Scrubjay looks down at a seed-filled sunflower head that’s on the ground. It is framed by a gravel pathway and some dry grass. Gray down is still on the bird’s back.

Today: A Coopers Hawk at the Sacramento Wildlife Refuge. #CoopersHawk #BirdWatching #BirdPhotography Coopers Hawk in a brightly lit tree. It is hunting up high. It has brown bars on its tail and brown stripes on its neck.

This morning, House Finches were breakfasting on ripe elderberries in our backyard. #HouseFinch #BirdsOfMastodon #BirdWatching #Fujifilm Two house finches are on top of two bunches of ripe elderberries, feasting on them. The upper most Finch has a Elderberry in its beak. The lower most finch is on a branch, reaching up into a bunch of berries. 

Delta 767 (N1604R) SFO-JFK and flock of Brown Pelicans. #AvGeek #B767 #PlaneSpotting #BirdsOfMastodon #BrownPelican Brown Pelicans flying over quiet bay waters in front of a Delta 767 that was preparing for take-off.

In more expected bird behavior, on the infill shores of the San Francisco Bay, here’s a Willet (a Sandpiper) snacking on a worm. #BirdsOfMastodon #Willet #SandPiper A Willet (Sand Piper) with mottled brown and white steps through the San Francisco Bay shore muck with a worn hanging from its beak.

I’m slowly getting the canopies of my shrubs off the ground. Mostly to reduce outdoor cats hiding under them. I’ll do a lot to keep their destructive, bird killing lot out of my yard.

Here is a Black-necked Stilt from the #SacramentoNationalWildlifeRefuge #BlackNeckedStilt #BirdsOfMastodon #Fujifilm
A Black-necked Stilt bird is waking through a shallow brown pond. Small forbs surround the pond, including low laying purple flowers and then, further in the background, yellow flowers. The Black-necked Stilt has a all-white underside and all-black back and top of head. It has long legs and a long black beak.

Ash-throated flycatcher was also a new bird for us at Pinnacles National Park. Ash-throated flycatcher looking toward the horizon! It is perched on a bare branch against a blue sky. It’s a slender bird with a gray chest and belly and a dark gray head. Its wings are brown with white bars that curve down. Its brown tail is very narrow.

Went to Pinnacles National Park on Friday and we were treated to soaring and resting California Condors. Amazing to watch these birds, not long ago nearly completely extinct, thriving here.

A California Condor showing it’s brown body, the underside of its half brown, half white wings, and it’s naked neck and head. The background is a blur of vegetation.

Mastodon.

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