12 January 10
Birds, Between Rainstorms
!(right)http://www.magpienest.org/images/1166.jpg (Bluebirds and scrub jays)!Lots of activity this morning when the sun made a brief and rare appearance. I saw several bluebirds, many robins, several scrub-jays. The rain’s returned.
7 January 10
6 January 10
What's Eleven?
Yellow-billed magpies in the field, chowing down on worms. There are worm castings everywhere I look. The robins seem pretty excited as well…
I can’t remember what eight is in the magpie children’s rhyme, and there isn’t an eleven. Oh well. Happy New Year.
18 December 09
Bedraggled Red-tail
Drippy fog yields not many birds. This young red-tail sat on a post for hours today…
17 December 09
Red-shouldered Hawk
Not much joy in and among the trees today, but noisy.
16 December 09
11 December 09
Young Red-tail with Squirrel
The young red-tailed hawk that’s been hanging around here finally caught a square meal, a squirrel. I saw it land, drag it up to this post, look around defiantly, and finally fly off with it in the direction of a tall pine.
We got quite a bit of rain today, a steady gentle drizzle. More rain’s expected tomorrow, and possibly thunderstorms. This is good for raptors looking for half-drowned rodents…
9 December 09
Black Phoebe in Cold
It’s been very cold here, not much insect activity. This phoebe was trying to get insects on the ground this morning from the top of ground-squirrel burrows.
6 December 09
Hermit Thrush
I led a gesture drawing workshop at Cold Canyon this morning. We were mostly working on plants, but I snuck in this hermit thrush…
4 December 09
American Crow, Dead
During our bird walk today we found a dead crow. There was still a little twinkle in the eye so it was newly dead. I brought it back to the Center for Vector-Borne Disease next door to my office. They conduct necropsies on corvids on campus to check for West Nile Virus. I interrupted a birthday party complete with cake…