Birdchick Blog
While in a backyard in Los Angeles, we were watching Anna's hummingbirds zipping around. One bird landed and one of my colleagues said, "Oh hey, that's a nest." And looking closely, you could see that had a nest on top of a pine cone. Cute!
Also, this was a western scrub-jay visiting a feeder in the yard. I just liked this photo and wanted to post it.
Watching as much tv and movies as I do, I frequently find myself in places that are practically celebrities from being used so much as sets so much. My recent project was last minute and I didn't realize where all we would be working and one morning as I was being driven to my daily office, I gasped when I saw something familiar:
Any Star Trek (original series) worth their salt knows exactly what this is and perhaps even hears music. For those who do not, here's why it's iconic:
It's the set of Arena or as many know it as: the famous Kirk vs Gorn battle! Lots of other movies have used Vasquez Rocks, check out what's on its Wikipedia Page. But the birds were off the hook on this spot. Also, note the little cave directly above Captain Kirk's head? Check out what's really in there:
It's a raven nest! I know for sure because I saw ravens in there several times, but every time I aimed my scope at them, they took off. Clever birds.
But Vasquez Rocks has some classy looking birds. Up until last year, this was a bit of a nemesis bird for me, but now that I've seen it, it has since been very obliging every time I visit its habitat. As if this silky flycatcher didn't have a cool enough name, you can add some colorful metaphors right in the middle of its name making it cooler. It think that's my new favorite profanity now. I did manage to digiscope it with my iPhone and one of my colleagues asked, "So is that an iPhainopepla?" So much fun wordplay with such a great bird.
But I loves me some brown birds and Vasquez has those in abundance. This California towhee was a treat, lovely dull brown with a few splashes of pumpkin coloring to add a bit of snazziness. These birds were tucked all over around the rocks and they lacked color wise compared to some of the other snazzier towhees, allows them to blend in well with the terrain.
There were some splashes of color like this male Lawrence's goldfinch. I got a female at a bird feeder in Las Vegas a few years ago, but to get great views of a male was a real treat. Another fun thing about visiting different parts of the country is that you get to see different versions of common birds. I'm used to the American goldfinch and though that is an uber colorful bird in breeding plumage, there's something classy about the minimalist use of yellow on this particular goldfinch.
We found a homestead at Vasquez rocks and that allowed me to get views of a lot of backyard birds like the goldfinch abut also Anna's hummingbird.
And here's a western bluebird...hm...do you think this bird likes to perch on this roof a lot? Who knew such a small bird could accumulate so much poop?
All in all a great time full of western species and fun to get to bird around a former Star Trek set.
The beauty of bird watching is that you have something to do, no matter where you go, no matter how urban.
I had a project in Los Angeles to work on and time spent on a beach is never wasted and there always birds...though many of them were gulls (not my favorite). But I thought I would use it as opportunity to focus on the super common gulls I rarely get to see rather than trying to tease out something rare, hybridish or just odd as--gull experts are want to do.
Here's a nice comparison of a western gull (biggest gull) and a California gull (smaller gull in front). But the beach was a great time.
I was excited to pick out this guy, a young Heermann's gull! I've seen the adults before in San Francisco and though this bird wasn't in breeding plumage, I felt it was a triumph of the human spirit that I was able to pick it out. I'll never be a true laruphile, but I'm better than I was.
Even more exciting than the beach was all the fun stuff floating just off the shore. At least exciting to a usually land locked girl like myself. I have a tendency to take my spotting scope out more than the average birder (yes, that will be me at Biggest Week with a scope on the boardwalk) but spotting scopes are perfect for sea watch birding. There were some loons right off the shore, here's a red-throated loon, but even more exciting was a Pacific loon, that's a life bird for me. I wasn't able to digiscope it but fun to add a bird to the list.
The best part of the day was getting up close and personal with a surf scoter. These are crazy looking sea ducks to begin with. This particular bird was living up to name by coming in on the surf and then actually landed on the beach. It tried eating whatever is behind it...sea crap? But the bird is quite awkward out of the water...walking doesn't come naturally to these birds.
I think when the bird noticed we were watching it thought it best to sit so as not to embarrass itself any further. Those feet, so perfect for swimming, so not meant for walking on land. But what fun to get such great looking birds so close to the Los Angeles airport. This was my first trip to LA and I cannot believe how everywhere you turn, somebody is filming something. At one point there was a small two engine plane with a helicopter right next to it racing past. Was it a high speed chase? No, one of my colleagues pointed out, "They're just filming that plane."
But a fun way to spend the day and to get some more birds for my Big Half Year challenge.