13 March 09
Yellow-billed Magpie (Pica nutallis)
12 March 09
After They Cut the Grass
American robins, foraging. They dart and then listen, then pounce.
11 March 09
House Wren
Now a singing house wren is checking out this nest box… The hole in the pole, which had been the focus of the bluebirds for weeks, has been heavily prospected by starlings.
5 March 09
Double-crested Cormorant
Another Thursday at the Arboretum. The crests are now clearly visible on these cormorants.
4 March 09
After the Rain Shower
Lots of intermittent rain, still. The stone fruit are all in blossom, now, pretty much. Lurid greens and yellows punctuated by pinks and the payne’s gray of another shower on the way… This scrub-jay was pouncing onto something — worms? — from the peach tree outside the kitchen window at lunchtime.
2 March 09
American Coot
I took the train on Saturday to Santa Clara for Stitches West. They were doing track work and we stopped on the Suisun Marsh, so I was able to sketch this coot in between eating, knitting, and laughing.
26 February 09
Displaying Red-Shouldered Hawks
Lots of calling, swooping around, then it came: the tucked dive. The female followed after. It is such a joy to have these birds within ear and eyeshot…
18 February 09
16 February 09
American Robin
There are tons of worms for these guys with all the rain…
13 February 09
Albino Herring Gull
I went on a short jaunt at lunchtime today with a colleague to look for a reported lesser black-backed gull just north of Davis. We didn’t find it, but we found a group of birders on this spectacular white gull with a startling yellow-orange bill. The experts pronounced it an albino herring gull. I’m not sure I could ever come up with something like that… But it was a gorgeous bird in the field gently flooding in the rain.