Terns and swallows at Shoreline

Heidi and I re-visited Shoreline, Mountain View on the first of June. We had not been there since last fall. We had no idea of what birds we would see this time of year. So we were pleasantly surprised by what we ended up seeing. One of the birds we had fun watching as well as being challenged to photograph them in flight were the Forster's terns. They are loud and gregarious birds, and certainly a challenge to photograph. Below is probably my best shot of a tern in flight, flying over a flock of gulls. We think the gulls were California gulls. In the distance you can see what looks like a couple of white circus tents. That is the amphitheater where quite a few musical artists perform every summer.

Here's a second shot of a tern in flight.

While watching the terns we also saw a pair of gadwall swimming in the channel. From what I can tell, it looks like a pair of females. I think the males would be more "flashy" than this, and both of these ducks had orange and black bills, which is prevalent on the females, and not necessarily on the males. Besides, I would think that the males should have been in breeding plumage by the first of June. Anyone care to affirm this or correct me on this?

When the gulls got tired of the terns flying over them, they decided to "take off." Here's my shot of several of them in flight.

Shortly afterwards, Heidi and I decided to walk a little farther. And in another location that, at first, looked like there wasn't anything to see, she spotted in the distance a small "flock" of white pelicans. How cool! If you click on the photos you can probably get a larger image.

Shortly after the pelican experience, we thought we would head out. At first I was telling Heidi about barn swallows that have nested around a building there at Shoreline, and I was disappointed that I didn't see any flying around. Last year, my husband and I visited around this time of year and saw many barn swallows, all in flight. And I was never able to get a picture of them. No sooner I had mentioned this to Heidi, then we saw a few swallows flying over to a concrete wall, more like a culvert. The area had a large chainlink fence around it, to keep people out of it for safety reasons. Here are a few shots I took; you can see part of the chainlink fence in these two photos.

Ooohh! Love those wings!

There was a wooden stairway and railing nearby where more of the barn swallows were perched. I find these birds almost as beautiful as bluebirds. And I was certainly surprised that this many birds sat still long enough for me to get a photo of them.

On our way back to the car, we could hear a few song sparrows. It sure wasn't easy to locate them until Heidi pulled out her "trusty iPhone" (which has the iBird app on it) and called a song sparrow close enough that we could get a shot. How cool is that? Just an FYI: we don't do that very often. I'd rather try pishing before using the iBird to call the bird(s).

Needless to say, it was a good day for different species I hadn't seen in a while.

The smaller birds at the Coast Guard station

To see the Brandt's Cormorants and brown pelicans in Monterey was plenty exciting. I can't believe I was so close to the brown pelicans, close enough to zoom in on my little point and shoot camera and get good shots. My other experience has been seeing pelicans way out in the bay or ocean -- so far that the zoom on my point and shoot still couldn't bring the birds close enough to get a decent shot. Anyway, seeing these two species was so cool it was worth the trip. But I also got shots of other birds, and some I could not get. When we first walked on the pier I saw a black-crowned night heron perched on a piling. And by the time I got my camera out he flew off. That was another incident where the bird was closer than I have ever been to a BCNH. Another bird we saw, but was moving too fast for me to get any decent pictures was a swallow. What kind of swallow? Well, I'm not sure. But by process of elimination we think it was a northern rough-winged swallow. But because I'm not positive I won't count it on my life list. The other birds we saw but didn't bother to get pictures of were Canada geese. The geese were located between the parking lot and one of the historical buildings adjacent to the trail and Fisherman's Wharf.

Be sure to click on the photos to see larger images.

Now here are a couple of shots of a dark colored bird about the size of a mourning dove. Red and I have been trying to figure out if these were ruddy or black turnstones. But my Stokes guide says black turnstones have a white spot between their eyes and bill. The other marking that was noticed was the color of their legs/feet. Ruddies have yellowish feet, and black turnstones have dark colored legs/feet.
So now I can add another lifer - black turnstone. And just look at the photo below. This one took off as I was snapping the picture. Look at that beautiful pattern of black/brown and white. Now the crazy thing about this shot is that this bird's feet look more on the yellow side than dark brown/black. So now you can see how we have been confused as to which turnstone. But for now I'll still say they were all black turnstones.

Now here is another bird who was hanging around in the same location as the turnstones. And at first I didn't even realize it was a different species. But this one's head looked different. Its back looked so similar to a turnstone, but this bird had very yellow feet.
And this shot shows how speckled its head and breast are. So here is another lifer - a surfbird. I think both turnstones and surfbirds are really very pretty, especially when they are in flight.

While watching the pelicans in flight over the bay we also saw a few kayakers enjoying their time kayaking around the bay. And while we were watching the pelicans and kayakers we saw periodically something jumping out of the water. Eventually we realized it was a couple of dolphins putting on a show for the kayakers. Can you imagine the experience? Oh, if only I could have been out there on the bay in a kayak.

Festival of the Cranes, Thursday, Nov 15, 2007

As mentioned in a previous post, our first event for Thursday was the Raptors presentation held at the Refuge. This was a Power Point slide presentation along with several live education birds. These birds have been brought to The Wildlife Center for rehabilitation and it had been found that they could not be released back into the wild. So they are used for educational purposes. It was so exciting to see so many raptors "up close and personal." After the presentation and showing of the captive birds, along with time for questions and answers, we were then grouped to go over to the Refuge's observation decks. This is the field trip where Jeff Bouton and Julie Zickefoose accompanied the group and added so much more to the day's event. This is also where the Peregrine Falcon was released, and where Jeff Bouton found a Harlan's red-tailed hawk flying over us.

This event went from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Our next event we had signed up for was for 1:30 p.m. at the Macey Center (another 20-25 minutes away). So we hustled to get to our next event which was about Cave Swallows. It was presented by Steve West who is a cave swallow bird bander, and does much of his banding at Carlsbad Caverns. My husband and I were there to watch the bats at Carlsbad about ten years ago. That's another exciting thing to watch how the bats exit the caves enmasse. After the presentation we went over to the pond behind the Macey Center to see what birds (mostly ducks, etc) were there. Here are a few photos of what I saw there. So many of these species of ducks seem to interbreed, thus many strange looking hybrid mallards.

These are one of my favorites - the American Wigeon. They actually sound more like a passerine than a duck. I enjoy hearing and listening to them.

The photo above shows a female mallard behind a ?domestic goose?

Here is a male mallard.

And a female mallard.

And maybe someone can identify this bird. My husband and I think it is a "domesticated" type of goose. Is it? There are so many of these guys waddling or swimming around the pond.

And is this also a goose? Or is it some form of duck? A white form of a mallard? A hybrid duck/goose?

From Lodi to Alturas

Tuesday morning (Jul 10th) we headed out for Alturas and Modoc NWR from Lodi. We took I-80 east to Reno to catch US 395 to head north. Shortly after re-entering California on US 395 we saw several raptors at various locations. It was difficult to identify them from a distance, but I would make an educated guess that we had seen a couple of Swainson's Hawks, and a couple of red-tailed hawks. They are such fascinating birds to watch as they soar up over the drafts. Before we reached the Modoc overlook we also had seen a great egret and later saw a small flock of snowy egrets.

At the Modoc overlook I came across this wildflower. Sorry, don't know the name of it. Maybe someone
reading this can help me identify it.
Looking out in the distance we could see something white farther out on a tiny "island." At first glance I thought they were egrets, but then realized they looked "heavier" or "fatter" than an egret -- oh, they were American white pelicans. As we approached Modoc's "auto tour," we also saw many mallards, mostly mamas with their chicks. We also saw several shorebirds - but they were difficult to identify.
When we approached one of the drier areas, we saw two raptors perched on this "foot bridge." But by the time I got my camera focused only one of them was perched. Not sure, but I think they were both juvie red-tails. Photos were hard to take with only a 10x zoom. Most birds and waterfowl were quite "shy" of human presence. My husband and I had to chuckle that every time we stopped and I tried to get out of the car for a picture, the birds would take off, or at best would move farther away. I think you can click on the photo to see a larger picture.
In the course of the day, we managed to see (and able to identify) Calif Quail, more Am White Pelicans, swallows (I think they were cliff swallows), egrets (mostly great egrets), black neck stilts, red-winged blackbirds, white-faced ibises, double-breasted cormorant, American avocets, black-crowned night heron, and even a robin or two.
In the water, I also saw a couple of muskrats. Isn't this one cute?



Below, a silhouette of a red-tailed hawk. At least we thought it was a red-tail.



Wednesday's photos (Jul 11th) will follow in another post.