4_4_to_7_2013 Birding in the LA area, Part II

Here are more photos from out trip to the LA area. We saw many new places and new birds. We birded at the Trump Golf Course, Botanic Gardens, Madrona Marsh, Sand Dune Park, LA Arboretum...and one last place I can't recall now. Great fun!  Our first bird in this post is a California Towhee foraging in the grass.
  Northern Mockingbird singing and singing and singing and singing...
 Beautiful Hermit Thrush came by for a drink in the heat of the day.
 A male Golden-Crowned Sparrow enjoying an exhuberant bath. This was my first Golden-Crowned Sparrows ever!
 Just when I didn't think it could get better, the male and female Golden Crowned Sparrows posed for a cool bathing photo!
 A wet and happy female Golden Crowned Sparrow.  This Allen's came in and hovered before settling in for a refreshing bird bath.
 LOVE this photo! This is an Allen's Hummingbird enjoying a batch at the Botanic Gardens. I just love the colors in this photo!
 Very pretty female Western Bluebird.
 This Red-Tailed Hawk had just dined on something. All that remained were some glossy innards on the ground below him!
 A Black Phoebe hanging out in some pretty ground vegetation.
An American Crow busy  building  a nest to raise this year's clutch of babies!
This male Townsend's Warbler was belting out his song.
Good-looking male Western Blue Bird chilling on a fence.
 For a while, all this Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher did was hide in the bushes making his squeaky little call.
 Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher. This squeaky little guy taunted Dave from the brush for a while. He finally gave Dave a nice view.
 Male Mallard. Though common, I really like these ducks. This one is enjoying some time in the grass in the sun.

The next blog entry is related: Birders looking at birds! :)

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4_4_to7_2013 Palos Verdes Birding Part I

Dave and I flew to LA to spend a few days birding. We met up with Steve Wolfe as well as several climbing buddies. We saw over 70 species and some were life birds. This is a good-looking Snowy Egret with breeding plumage moving in the wind.

Male Peacock. These guys are some major show-offs!
 Cute little Allen's Hummingbird. This is one of the best looking Yellow Rumps I've ever seen. He was simply magnificent!
We saw several very healthy and colorful Yellow-Rumped Warblers.  Beautiful!
 What a beautiful photo of a female Western Blue Bird foraging on the ground. The ground cover here was really striking.
 Perhaps the  best birds of the trip were the wild Mexican Red-Heads and Lilac Crowned Amazons. To see our birds out in the wild, calling, flying and interacting with others was beyond cool. I couldn't get enough of it!
 Another gorgeous Mexican Red Head aka Green Cheek aka Red-Crowned Amazon.
Handsome Lilac Crowned Amazon giving the threatening eyes to some other amazons taunting her nearby.  She had a next above where she is pictured here.
 This Common Yellowthroat came out and gave an excellent show as he posed for photos.
 Gorgeous Common Yellowthroat. The Common Yellowthroat is always a treat. Dave got several beautiful shots of this hansome male.
 The elusive (to me) Red-Whiskered Bulbul.
Handsome Song Sparrow
 The Red-Whiskered Bulbul was a bird I really wanted to see. I'd searched for these in Miami years ago but was thwarted.  Steve Wolfe mentioned he knew where some were and he was correct! We got to see many Bulbuls which was super cool!
Bulbuls everywhere!
 A Bushtit on a tall bloom. Love the texture in this photo.

More photos on the next blog entry...

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4_15_2013 Birds in the Winter that Won't End!

It really is the winter that won't end. We have been vacillating between 70 degree beautiful days and snow storms. Yesterday, it was sunny, windy and 70 degrees. Today it is snowing. We had about 14 to 15" of snow last week. Great to have the moisture, but enough!  The birds have been slow to start migration. Happily, we have lots of beautiful resident birds to watch. The first bird is our resident Sharp Shinned Hawk. He uses the bird feeders like a fast food drive through.  Here is a nice shot Dave got of the moon setting a couple of weeks ago.
  And a photo of the ubiquitous Red-Shafted Northern Flicker. I love these birds.
 A Junco. Some call these Snow Birds for obvious reasons.
 About a week ago, we were thrilled to have flocks of Mountain Bluebirds on our street! They and their relative Thush - Robins - were busy eating berries. Really beautiful!
 Mmmmm. Berry!
A very Audubon-esque photo of an American Robin. Love it!
 Robin foraging in the snow.
 A Mountain Bluebird finds a treasure on the sidwalk!
 It was hard to capture the numbers of bluebirds. It was so cool to watch!
 Mtn Blue Bird. You can see why these birds are favorites of so many people.
 Love love love this Mtn Blue Bird photo!

Gorgeous Mountain Bluebird photo!

Another beautiful Sharp-Shinned Hawk in the back.
 Another gorgeous Flicker.
 Finally, we found this little Red Fox sleeping in our front yard on a recent afternoon. Cute, but poor thing had some mange. Hope he is doing okay.

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