Birding!

[The Masked Shadow]

Not really that good of pictures because they were with my phone, but I went on a boat out to international waters west of Tijuana, and saw a Black-footed Albatross among other unique pelagic birds!

 

[The Masked Shadow]

Here's a randomly selected photo dump of recent-ish photos (last few months)

Brant

2 male Buffleheads

Canada Goose Chick

More Canada Geese chicks

Chuckwalla (I think)
This One is kind of weird, there is a Clark's Grebe paired with a Western Grebe, I guess interspecies mating?

Coyote!

Double-crested Cormorants
Eared Grebe, creepy red eye

Forster's Tern hunting
Killdeer with a Song Sparrow behind, check out that eye!
LeConte's Thrasher
Weird looking Mallard

Reddish Egret
Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron, these guys are very recent residents of my area. There is one known roost along the Mexican Border as of a couple years ago, and they have been spreading to estuaries and lagoons ever since. Probably brought over by tropical storms at first.
Royal Tern
Savannah Sparrow sp. Belding's, which is an endangered subspecies that nests in marshes.
Snowy Egret

 

[jjohnwm]

You got the LeConte's! Congrats! Sounds like seeing one of those today is a real coup...

..."if you're telling the truth"...

Yes, sadly, I looked through the whole dang thread to find and be able to quote you directly...


Those are some nice pics; are they all done with a phone? The second albatross pic is a stunner if done with a phone. Once again, you are making me think I need an actual camera..."if you're telling the truth".

 

[The Masked Shadow]

Those are some nice pics; are they all done with a phone? The second albatross pic is a stunner if done with a phone.

The albatross one is done with a phone, and the others are done with an Eos Rebel SL1 with a 300mm zoom…i have no idea what any of it means but its an 18-year-old camera that isnt the best quality and is well loved, but it still takes good pictures!

And yes, I did finally get the LeConte’s Thrasher, infact I found a couple nests!

 

[jjohnwm]

And yes, I did finally get the LeConte’s Thrasher, infact I found a couple nests!

Outstanding!

I rushed out last week after receiving a phone call from a friend regarding my nemesis bird, the Yellow Rail. It was being seen in real time on and next to a gravel road, only about 20km from my home. I left immediately, got to the spot (which I knew well) and found my buddy and a couple of other people intently scanning the ground in the area. The bird had come out of the sedges, casually walked across the gravel, went back into the grass and then repeated this performance several more times, in broad daylight. Almost everybody had seen it and seen it well, sometimes from only 20-30 feet away.

We continued to peer into the grass for another half hour or so, and finally one of the others found the bird...squashed flat on the gravel road, apparently by one of the very few cars that had passed by.

I left just as the debate began about counting the bird...

 

[The Masked Shadow]

We continued to peer into the grass for another half hour or so, and finally one of the others found the bird...squashed flat on the gravel road, apparently by one of the very few cars that had passed by.

I left just as the debate began about counting the bird...

aw that sucks, those birds are so hard to find. Yellow Rails are so local and hard to see, little is know about them because theyre so secretive, pretty cool one was just out there, until…. I saw a black rail one time for about half a second, other than Ridgeways Rail and Sora’s, thats all my experiences with rails, very secretive birds!

 

[jjohnwm]

I've lived near Yellow Rails all my life; I've even heard them on my own property, right next to my mowed yard, during a few years when the water/moisture levels were juuuuust right for them. I don't consider them uncommon; I know for a fact that I could go out tonight and hear them calling within 20 minutes of my house. But...and it's a big "but"...I have never seen one, at least not alive and it's driving me crazy.

Soras breed every year on or adjacent to my property; I usually have black fuzzball hatchlings running around on the grass just before dawn in good years.

Ridgeway's Rail? Had to look it up, appears to be a recent split from Clapper Rail. Haven't seen either of them.

Black Rail? I am now officially envious. That one is not even on my bucket list; I travel less now than in the past, and I'm nowhere near an area that might have them. If I were in such an area...there would be so many other things to do I doubt I'd be slogging through wet grass in the dark looking for a tiny near-mythical bird. But I've been known to do some weird things, so...

 

[The Masked Shadow]

Ridgeway's Rail? Had to look it up, appears to be a recent split from Clapper Rail. Haven't seen either of them.

Yeah, hella local to certain locations, couple thousand in the USA. They are apparently rare, but I could always count on seeing them at a local lagoon, until a couple years ago when it crashed from eutrophication. Haven’t seen one since, but i haven’t really looked for them.

Black Rail? I am now officially envious. That one is not even on my bucket list; I travel less now than in the past, and I'm nowhere near an area that might have them. If I were in such an area...there would be so many other things to do I doubt I'd be slogging through wet grass in the dark looking for a tiny near-mythical bird. But I've been known to do some weird things, so...

Yeah, pretty weird! Saw one in San Pablo Bay, it was spooked by something - a frog im guessing but i haven’t a clue - and it darted across the trail. Got super lucky, there arent many, and the ones that there are, theyre hard to find!