Red-necked Grebe | Inca Dove | White-winged Dove | Pectoral Sandpiper | Solitary Sandpiper | Red-throated Loon | Brown Pelican | Western Cattle-Egret | CRESTED CARACARA | Tropical Kingbird | THICK-BILLED KINGBIRD | White-throated Sparrow | Green-tailed Towhee | Ovenbird | Northern Waterthrush | Black-and-white Warbler | Tennessee Warbler | Chestnut-sided Warbler | Palm Warbler | Pine Warbler | Black-throated Green Warbler | Summer Tanager | Indigo Bunting
We will be leading a Southern Sierra Nevada Owl Prowl July 3-6 Friday to Monday (departure day). Three nights of owling, (and days of birding) SWEEEETTTT!! We have been leading this trip for 20 years or so. If you can’t bear to stay up after midnight, or sleep in a bit, please reconsider.
John Schmitt, illustrator of the National Geographic Field Guide will join us as a co-leader.
February and early March offered typically pleasant weather, with many continuing rare birds and a handful of new ones, as well as the arrival of a few Neotropical migrants. By late March these migrants were becoming more obvious and widespread, with some already on territory. Breeding activity for resident birds was underway well before that.
With the onset of spring, rainfall remained sparse, though this was hardly unexpected. With precipitation at about twenty-five percent of normal, we are now past any chance to make up the deficit. Much of the western United States is in the same situation, or worse. Thankfully, plants and animals are fairly well-adapted to deal with these conditions- at least in the short term. Humans, with their voracious appetite for water, are less so.
Common Goldeneye | Red Knot | Neotropic Cormorant | Yellow-crowned Night-Heron | Zone-tailed Hawk | Tropical Kingbird | Purple Martin | Clay-colored Sparrow | Dark-eyed "Gray-headed" Junco | White-throated Sparrow | Green-tailed Towhee | Black-and-white Warbler | Palm Warbler | Black-throated Green Warbler | Summer Tanager | Indigo Bunting
Long-tailed Duck | Common Goldeneye | Common Ground Dove | Solitary Sandpiper | Neotropic Cormorant | Yellow-crowned Night-Heron | Broad-winged Hawk | Zone-tailed Hawk | Dusky-capped Flycatcher | Tropical Kingbird | Dark-eyed "Pink-sided" Junco | Dark-eyed "Gray-headed" Junco | White-throated Sparrow | Green-tailed Towhee | Black-and-white Warbler | Lucy's Warbler | Plam Warbler | Black-throated Green Warbler | Summer Tanager
Common Ground Dove | Solitary Sandpiper | Neotropic Cormorant | Yellow-crowned Night-Heron | Northern "Yellow-shafted" Flicker | Dusky-capped Flycatcher | GREATER PEWEE | Tropical Kingbird | Olive-sided Flycatcher | Hammond's Flycatcher | Dusky Flycatcher | Eastern Phoebe | Purple Martin | Dark-eyed "Pink-sided" Junco | Dark-eyed "Gray-headed" Junco | White-throated Sparrow | Green-tailed Towhee | Yellow-headed Blackbird | Black-and-white Warbler | Palm Warbler | Summer Tanager
"Eurasian" Green-winged Teal | White-winged Dove | Common Ground Dove | Lesser Black-backed Gull | Neotropic Cormorant | American Bittern | Yellow-crowned Night-Heron |Zone-tailed Hawk | Northern "Yellow-shafted" Flicker | Dusky-capped Flycatcher | Ash-throated Flycatcher | Tropical Kingbird | GREATER PEWEE | Hammond's Flycatcher | Dusky Flycatcher | Eastern Phoebe | WHITE WAGTAIL | Clay-colored Sparrow | Dark-eyed "Pink-sided" Junco | Dark-eyed "Gray-headed" Junco | White-throated Sparrow | Green-tailed Towhee | Yellow-headed Blackbird | Black-and-white Warbler | Palm Warbler
"Eurasian" Green-winged Teal | Spotted Dove | Common Ground Dove | White-winged Dove | Pacific Golden-Plover | Franklin's Gull | Neotropic Cormorant | Yellow-crowned Night-Heron | Swainson's Hawk | Zone-tailed Hawk | Dusky-capped Flycatcher | Ash-throated Flycatcher | GREATER PEWEE | Tropical Kingbird | Hammond's Flycatcher | Dusky Flycatcher | Eastern Phoebe | Cassin's Vireo | Bank Swallow | WHITE WAGTAIL | Clay-colored Sparrow | Dark-eyed "Gray-headed" Junco | Dark-eyed "Pink-sided" Junco | White-throated Sparrow | Swamp Sparrow | Green-tailed Towhee | Scott's Oriole | RUSTY BLACKBIRD | Black-and-white Warbler | Palm Warbler | Painted Redstart | Summer Tanager
My first close encounter with a whale was at SeaWorld in San Diego, California, currently home to many orphaned and injured ocean inhabitants. I took the back scene tour that raised funds for animal rescue and welfare including “Lunch with Shamu,” one of several generations of Shamu-named orcas. Seated at a table alongside Shamu, I bit into my peanut butter sandwich only to have Shamu leave the water and slide down our eight-person table to my sandwich. Whales have huge, muscular tongues they use to lick food off of their baleen, much as we lick peanut butter off of the roofs of our mouths. From the response of the trainer, this was an unplanned snack.
A black phoebe has taken a liking to our backyard, perching variously on the spent orchid stem, the tomato plant cage, the long slender stem of the Agapanthus, and the telephone wire. She visits often throughout the day, feeding on the small yellow moths she spies in the grass, swooping down to snatch them and gliding back up to her perch to swallow them.
Sign up to join our mailing list to receive our newsletter and updates on upcoming events.
