Sunday, February 28, 2016

Birding the OC: Eurasion Widgeon at Tewinkle Park and swallows at San Jaoquin wildlife refuge.

A Eurasian Widgeon had been reported at Tewinkle Park in Costa Mesa and that would be a life bird for us. Mike had to fly out of John Wayne so he stopped by before his flight. The bird was easy to spot in the "cement pond" and easy to photograph.
Eurasian Widgeon
Eurasian Widgeon

American Widgeon
American Widgeon

There's not much to do at Tewinkle other than see the Eurasian Widgeon, so there was a little time to drop by San Jaoquin Wildlife Refuge where the tree swallows were out in force.

Tree Swallow
Tree Swallow

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

More at the Palm Tree

When we lived on the east coast we never imagined that Robins or Waxwings feasted at Palm Trees.

Robin at the Palm tree
Robin

Cedar Waxwing at the palm tree
Cedar Waxwing


Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Birdy Weekend

On Saturday, we noticed some rare visitors, bluebirds and cedar waxwings, coming to our bird bath. So, on Sunday we took the camera out with us.

Western Bluebird and Cedar Waxwing

Here's a photo of this unusual pair, a Western Bluebird and a Cedar Waxwing.

Cedar Waxwings at the birdbath

Cedar Waxwings usually travel in large flocks. Here's three at the bath.

Scrub Jay bathing

The Scrub Jay is also a infrequent visitor to our yard.

Nutmeg Mannikins at the bird bath

The Nutmeg Mannikins have been making nearly daily, often brief visits. We are hoping for a nest somewhere.

Dark-eyed Junco

We're not sure how much longer the Dark-eyed Junco will stay before heading to Oregon for the summer.


Western Bluebird eating from a palm tree.

We eventually found the reason for the Waxwings, Bluebirds (and robins). A nearby palm tree was providing them with food.

A Clean Clapper Rail

We went to Bolsa Chica in Huntington Beach. The most interesting find was a light-footed clapper rail bathing in front of the footbridge.

Light-footed Clapper Rail

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Light-footed Clapper Rail

Light-footed Clapper Rail

Light-footed Clapper Rail

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Yucaipa Regional Park

Female Hooded Merganser with a fish.

Red-breasted Sapsucker

We dropped by Yucaipa Regional Park on the way to a nursery. We got some good views of red-breasted sapsuckers. The female hooded merganser eating a fish was interesting too.

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Saturday, February 6, 2016

Irvine Lake: Painted Redstart


We went to Irvine Lake to find the bald eagles that had been reported. No luck there, but the painted redstart was nice. We would have gone just for that if we hadn't seen some in Arizona recently.
Painted Redstart

The western bluebird was nice too.

Western bluebird