Taken the day after Christmas near Lake Sonoma.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Saturday, January 05, 2008
JANUARY 2008
ANOTHER RED-SHOULDERED HAWK
This New Year is starting out the way the old one ended with Dickie and me visiting our favorite wetlands area in Petaluma. We managed to get down there on January 3rd before the weather took a turn for the worse and all this rain started.
Sometimes you get lucky. On a day when nothing special seems in store, just the right situation develops and you get a shot that you weren’t expecting. That’s how I got the picture below. As Dickie and I were walking around the perimeter of the artificial lake area, a young woman approached us. She noticed my camera and mentioned that a hawk was sitting on one of the swallow boxes that we were headed toward. Alerted to its presence, we walked up more carefully so as not to frighten him off. He waited while I took a dozen or more shots of him, then flew off to the next box, so we followed and I took more pictures of him. All in all, I probably took 40 or fifty different shots to come up with this one that eventually won me a “Picture of the Day” on Azcolt (http://www.azcolt.com/january032008.asp) .
We had the added benefit of bumping into Bob Dyer, a veteran docent at the park, who informed us that this was apparently a young juvenile red-shoulder who seemed to be trying to take a nap. I later found that in quite a few of the shots I took, this hawk’s eyes were closed. Fortunately, there were also many like this one where his keen eyes were definitely focused on me:
The hawk was only one of many interesting birds that we saw that day. There was the mandatory turkey buzzard:
There were a flock of green-winged teal on the small pond in the adjacent meadow:
There was a kestrel in the meadow, too. He was so far away that I had no idea it was a kestrel until I got home and put the enlarged picture up on my computer screen. I had taken for granted that he was the same red-shoulder that we had seen earlier. Kestrels are a prettier bird in my opinion. I love their markings:
Of course, there were coots. This particular wetlands area is almost always full of them. They’re fairly tame and don’t usually scatter like most other birds when you get close to them. Coots aren’t very pretty in my estimation, except that they have a rather neat red eye. These birds were feeding just next to where we parked our car:
At one point I heard a sweet sounding bird. Then I saw it. It was this song sparrow. He was relatively close to me and before he flew away I managed to get this shot of him which turned out well, I thought:
A few minutes later a flock of Canadian geese arrived. As they zoomed over me, I picked off these three:
There is a small canal bordering the wetlands area. The canal is a feeding place and a nesting area for many different birds. I didn’t know what this bird was until I asked some birders who were also interested in him and his mate. They informed me that it was a pied-bill grebe. My Audubon guide book appears to confirm that, so I’m taking their word for it:
Still walking along the canal, I spotted this bird soaring overhead. I think it’s a northern harrier. They’re famous for their owl-like face:
Back on the lake side, there were a couple of wild swans mingling with some coots. This swan gave me the best pose:
There were a number of other birds around. One of the flashiest was this stilt. I love their coloring:
AND NOW IT’S RAINING!
The winter rains have arrived with a vengeance here in Northern California. Heavy winds have made for considerable difficulty. In fact, the wind broke down a wooden fence on the west side of our house today. It’s still raining as I write this. This was the scene out the front door of our house this morning. You can see the water running down the street:
What you might not notice is that our Julia Child yellow rose is drowning in the water. Here’s what it looks like up closer:
This New Year is starting out the way the old one ended with Dickie and me visiting our favorite wetlands area in Petaluma. We managed to get down there on January 3rd before the weather took a turn for the worse and all this rain started.
Sometimes you get lucky. On a day when nothing special seems in store, just the right situation develops and you get a shot that you weren’t expecting. That’s how I got the picture below. As Dickie and I were walking around the perimeter of the artificial lake area, a young woman approached us. She noticed my camera and mentioned that a hawk was sitting on one of the swallow boxes that we were headed toward. Alerted to its presence, we walked up more carefully so as not to frighten him off. He waited while I took a dozen or more shots of him, then flew off to the next box, so we followed and I took more pictures of him. All in all, I probably took 40 or fifty different shots to come up with this one that eventually won me a “Picture of the Day” on Azcolt (http://www.azcolt.com/january032008.asp) .
We had the added benefit of bumping into Bob Dyer, a veteran docent at the park, who informed us that this was apparently a young juvenile red-shoulder who seemed to be trying to take a nap. I later found that in quite a few of the shots I took, this hawk’s eyes were closed. Fortunately, there were also many like this one where his keen eyes were definitely focused on me:
The hawk was only one of many interesting birds that we saw that day. There was the mandatory turkey buzzard:
There were a flock of green-winged teal on the small pond in the adjacent meadow:
There was a kestrel in the meadow, too. He was so far away that I had no idea it was a kestrel until I got home and put the enlarged picture up on my computer screen. I had taken for granted that he was the same red-shoulder that we had seen earlier. Kestrels are a prettier bird in my opinion. I love their markings:
Of course, there were coots. This particular wetlands area is almost always full of them. They’re fairly tame and don’t usually scatter like most other birds when you get close to them. Coots aren’t very pretty in my estimation, except that they have a rather neat red eye. These birds were feeding just next to where we parked our car:
At one point I heard a sweet sounding bird. Then I saw it. It was this song sparrow. He was relatively close to me and before he flew away I managed to get this shot of him which turned out well, I thought:
A few minutes later a flock of Canadian geese arrived. As they zoomed over me, I picked off these three:
There is a small canal bordering the wetlands area. The canal is a feeding place and a nesting area for many different birds. I didn’t know what this bird was until I asked some birders who were also interested in him and his mate. They informed me that it was a pied-bill grebe. My Audubon guide book appears to confirm that, so I’m taking their word for it:
Still walking along the canal, I spotted this bird soaring overhead. I think it’s a northern harrier. They’re famous for their owl-like face:
Back on the lake side, there were a couple of wild swans mingling with some coots. This swan gave me the best pose:
There were a number of other birds around. One of the flashiest was this stilt. I love their coloring:
AND NOW IT’S RAINING!
The winter rains have arrived with a vengeance here in Northern California. Heavy winds have made for considerable difficulty. In fact, the wind broke down a wooden fence on the west side of our house today. It’s still raining as I write this. This was the scene out the front door of our house this morning. You can see the water running down the street:
What you might not notice is that our Julia Child yellow rose is drowning in the water. Here’s what it looks like up closer:
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