FEBRUARY 9, 2021. QUINCY, CA. A Cloudy Day. Ping.
It’s kinda like “winter ping-pong”; back and forth, back and forth, cloudy then sunny then cloudy then sunny. Ah, but the referee is tossing in new balls, changing colors. Makes the game interesting.
I’ve started an actual list for 2021, keeping track of bird species that I’ve spotted and photographed and the photograph is good for unquestioned i.d. The Cassin’s Finch is #24. Not a very large number, of course, but this is something I’ve never done before, and I’ve set myself the mentioned specific criteria; I’ve already missed a couple that I know exactly which specie but didn’t get the photo so they don’t count yet. Yesterday, the 10th, I picked up #25 which I’ll show down below.
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February 9th was a very cloudy day. Cool, but not too cold, and very little breeze. Still, amicable enough to transfer my butt from my armchair to my bicycle seat. If I make a full circuit of my usual haunts I can put in over ten miles, easy going because there’s stops along the way. First stop, good ol’ Dellinger’s Pond, about a mile from the house. What’s there?
Huh. Not much. Lots of water, but few birds, which I find strange. I really expected that there would have been a lot more water fowl taking advantage of the place.
You can get an idea of the cloudiness of the day.
Besides a couple of American Coots (which are almost always here) I did see one other duck, all by itself. I sort of felt sorry for the lonely gal:
Common Goldeneye, female.
So, on to the “sewer ponds”. Anything new to see? Well no, but, the Snow Geese were on the water this trip so I now have a nicer photo of them.
Is that Bufflehead playing shepherd?
Every time I approach the pond there are lots of birds near the near shore, but the instant they spot me (and I do try to approach stealthily; there are some trees that somewhat hide my approach) they move off in a hurry. This time I was prepared and caught ‘em on the wing:
The water action turned out nice.
No species new that I could see, so just a few more photos for the record. Here’s one, and then it’s off to make a flank of American Valley.
American Wigeon
The clouds do not deter the raptors. Lor’ bless ‘em for that.
Here one second,
and gone the next.
My favorite is still in the neighborhood:
Ferruginous Hawk
Five more miles and nothing else except a missed “good” shot just at the end of the trip. So we settle for the mediocre. Tomorrow’s another day.
FEBRUARY 10, 2021. A sunny day. Pong.
Back to Dellinger’s Pond to start out. Reference photo if nothing else. And, nothing else.
But you can see that it’s sunny this day.
Skip going to the wastewater plant. Back on the bike path the Cassin’s Finch appears; first I’ve seen of them this year. One thing I’m doing a bit different these days is keeping my camera attached to my monopod. This means I don’t have my camera ready in its case at my hip, but rather it’s in my backpack, so getting it out and set up takes a few seconds. I was rather surprised the Cassin’s Finch didn’t fly off before I was ready, but sometimes you get lucky. Here’s the first photo. The title photo was the third snap, zoomed in. Incidentally, there were several others in adjacent trees.
Thank you for posing nicely. You’re quite the star in my book.
Just a bit further down the path and I spot a Red-tailed Hawk with its back to me. I can see the red tail feathers so go for a shot.
I’m happy with this. Time to move on.
Out on the “the ranch” a big hawk swoops down and lands, about 75 yards off. With heat shimmer I know this might be a futile endeavor, but ya might get lucky. And lucky I get. Not a “first-photographed” because I did get a crummy but identifiable photo of this bird in flight a couple of weeks ago. So here’s the first fairly decent shot of a Rough-legged Hawk:
Rough-legged Hawk (Buteo lagopus)
This sunny day is turning out pretty darn nice. A Red-tailed Hawk in flight:
Four shots taken, one presentable.
And another Prairie Falcon, so this makes twice for the year:
Stands approximately 10” tall, by my eyeball and the comparative diameter of the telephone pole.
I’ll toss this earlier one in, for comparison. Obviously not the same bird.
February 6, 2021. The two photo locations are approximately 1.7 miles apart.
Finally, bird specie #25 for 2021. The suspense has been thrilling, hasn’t it? An ubiquitous bird for this area, but seeing them does depend on location and time of year. There were several others in this location. They are the first ones I’ve seen this year.
California Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma californica)
What’s next? Only the future will reveal. Tennis, anyone?
Now It’s Your Turn
What have you noted happening in your area or travels? As usual post your observations as well as their general location in the comments.
Thank you.
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