Bird Trip'n #13

Before we left I witnessed a couple of things that really bothered me. One being the poor gang rape of a female mallard duck. I have posted pictures of the victim and suspects. Another being a dead cormorant that was murdered by an inconsiderate human fisherman. I actually asked a man what he could possibly be fishing for in the pond and he said bass. Really? He then told me he would never eat anything there because the water was so nasty. WHY FISH AT ALL IN A POND ASS WIPE? GRRRRR No I didn't say that to him but I sure asked myself? At the very least I would think fisherman would be polite enough to clean up after themselves and take their fishing line with them!!!!





March 23: Later in the day I decided to take the kids to see a movie, so we headed to Temecula. We had over an hour until our movie so we decided to feed the ducks at the duck pond in front of Oscars Restaurant. To my surprise there were ducks that I have not taken pictures of. So all in all this day was a great bird day.

Bird Trip'n #12

March 23: After Easter with the kids I decided to go back to the Wilderness Garden Preserve. I was able to catch two of the three birds I needed to re-shoot. Its the oriole that is giving me trouble. There is actually an orange and a yellow colored one but they wont let me approach too close. I think they are both Hooded in different phases...but time will tell

Update on Bird Trip #7

What I thought was a ruby-crowned kinglet may in fact be a pacific-sloped flycatcher or a willow flycatcher. I am sending the photo out to Cornell Lab of Ornithology in New York. I have sent them a photo before and they were kind enough to write back so I will give it a shot again. I would hate to work so hard and have my birds labeled wrong in my book!!

Cornell is a great resource for bird identification
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/

bird Trip'n #11

March 21:I decided to go to the WIlderness Garden Preserve located just 3 miles past the Pala Casino on the the 76 highway. If you have never been and you enjoy the great outdoors you would love this! Not too many people know of it so it really is peaceful. If I would have thought about it I would have brought a lunch and had a picnic. I have been here three other times last year and at that time there was no water flowing in the creek. This time the creek had a pretty good flow and the wildflowers on the meadow trail were just beautiful. I am not too sure I would go alone however, its pretty isolated and there are wild cats in the valley. I brought my camera helper (mom) this time, she wanted to see what I was bragging about. Thanks for your help mom! I took pictures of two or three new birds so that is exciting. I plan on going again soon because the pictures didn't turn out.

bird Trip'n #10

March 14:Had a great time in Rainbow Valley. Saw many birds and one that I cant positively identify. I would love to check out this area early one morning when the birds are just waking up. Its such a beautiful area.

Bird Trip'n #9

Back to the Eagles...(March 12) I went in the early morning so that the light was in eagle's faces. I got there before they were even out of bed, so while I waited I shot the turkey, several mule deer and a scrub jay. About an hour later the eagles woke up and popped right up from the center of their nest...who knew they would both sleep down in the nest? Now remember these animals were over 500 yards (this is my non mathematical mind estimating a distance ) away and I was using a 600 mm lens so the images are not perfect.

Bird Trip'n #8

After class today I decided to run to Lake Henshaw to see the bald eagles that are nesting there. I couldn't stay too long and didn't go at a good time of day, but the sight was amazing. I had a local Indian stop and ask me to please respect these wonderful birds and asked me not tell too many people about them. I promised I wouldn't and as I had this conversation with this man the eagles took flight right over me. GRRRRR I was trying to be nice and missed my shot. I will go back In the morning. Oh and the hills on the way there are beautiful. I only had my 600 so the picture of the hills didn't turn out to good but you can see how amazing the wildflowers are this year.

Bird Trip'n #7

Monday I took my mother to San Elijo Lagoon. I never really want to go into an isolated area alone. We spent three hours there, which was a total shock because it seemed like half that time. I took the 600 and 100-400 lens. My mother was a great help holding the little camera while I lugged around the big monster. I was in search for a orange crowned warbler that I saw last week, however I couldn't locate the bugger. I did spot a Bushtit nest in the middle of a dead tree. This is the first time that i have seen one and it was pretty amazing, however the picture doesn't do it any justice. I did research on the nest later that night and found out that the Bushtit uses spider webs as glue to hold the nest together. AMAZING! My photo actually looks as if it does have spider webs in her beak. I will make another trip to see the progress this week end. The sun was not in a good position to get very good pictures. I also took a great picture of a Ruby Crowned Kinglet. It was so cute and seemed to be showing off just for me.

Bird Trip'n #6

Ok well my 600 came and I can say that I was much more comfortable with the 500. The 600 lens is so heavy that it took the fun away from going birding. Sunday we made a trip out to Joshua Tree. This was our first visit. The trees were amazing and the the wildflowers were beautiful. BIrding on the other hand was HORRIBLE! The ranger said the birds are found out side the park more than inside the park. GREAT! I gave the 600 lens to my husband, because I just didn't like it and I used a 500 lens and my 100-400 len. We only saw 4 birds the whole eight hours we were there and as much as I would like to take credit for the best shot of the day...it was my husband who captured it. We were on the way back home and I was driving when we spotted a Phainopepla. Kevan jumped out and grabbed the camera and snapped away. At least we didn't go home empty handed.

Bird Trip'n #5

This Sunday I went back to Lake Hodges and Dixon Lake. I keep going to these locations because they are easy to get to and I am not too far away from my kids who are staying home alone. My son is finally 12 and he can babysit his sister, however I still get nervous leaving them. So anyway back to the lakes...I rented a 500 mm lens for 80 some bucks for two days. I wanted to know what to expect when my 600 mm lens comes in this Monday. Well I can say that this lens is HUGE! I felt funny walking around with this thing. I can say that lenses this big are very hard to use and I admire anyone that can take bird pictures with them. It is so hard to find the bird in the tree with a fixed lens my favorite word for the day was F*@#! I went back and forth using the 500 to my 100-400 lens. The bigger lenses like this would be great for shore/water birds and that is what I will be using my 600 lens this week for. Anyway I took this picture of a Mallard and it just looks like he was laughing his ass off at me trying to maneuver this 10 pound piece of equipment.

Bird Trip'n #4

Back to Dixon Lake. I went Thursday of last week. I was still not feeling well due to a sinus infection but decided to go and just do some light walking...mostly sitting and hoping birds would come to me. The bird gods were very kind this day. I sat for two hours at a picnic table and about seven different birds came! Works for me

Bird Trip'n #3

This time I did a huge loop around the city. I started in La Jolla, saw some pelicans and seals and left when I couldn't find the oystercatcher that people have been blogging about. From there I went to Point Loma to a place called the "drip". Its located near the lighthouse. It was very cold and windy and just didn't see very many birds. I did find some lemonade bushes and took some pictures of those. The last stop was back at Lake Hodges.

Bird Trip'n #2

My second trip out was to Dixon Lake in Escondido. I took the whole family and just made a fun afternoon of it. We stayed a couple of hours and actually had a nice time. This was our first time to this Lake.