Northern Shoveler Pair

There is such a great duck diversity around here -- much more than I ever saw growing up on the East Coast, and its fascinating to observe how different they can be. One that has always stood out to me as among the most beautiful and most interesting is the northern shoveler. For my first few years of bird photography I really wanted to get some nice shots of these ducks, but getting close to one had always alluded me. However, after I finally made a few trips to the Radio Road Ponds in Redwood City last fall -- I have more shots than I know what to do with!



And while not nearly as stunning in coloration, the hens are still quite pretty.

Standing out in the crowd

A sequence of images from a few trips to the Radio Road Ponds in Redwood City last year. There's an area where the dowitchers like to congregate on an underwater ridge, and occasionally a larger bird will hang out there too. I enjoy seeing different species mixed together, and this provides a nice opportunity.

Dowitchers relaxing with an American Avocet:


With a Northern Shoveler, and their reflections:


And with a Marbled Godwit:

Western Burrowing Owls at the Berkeley Marina

After spending an hour or so around sunset the night before at Cesar Chavez Park on the Berkeley Marina (see the post), we came back the next day to try our hand again at spotting the western burrowing owls that winter there. I've read that there are five individuals there this winter, and we spotted only two of them on this trip.



These guys are actually quite small (not all that much bigger than the ground squirrels that were so abundant in the area), and were really hard to spot initially. They blend in perfectly with the area around their burrows.



Mostly they spent their time squatting in or right by their borrowed burrows, and we only saw this one fly once over a short distance. Unfortunately, it was due to a human visitor who decided it was pertinent to make hooting sounds and lean over the protective fence towards it. This spooked the poor little guy and it flushed back to its further away hole. This was really a bummer for me, since this was the only time we found one of them close to the fence, and with a nice green area around it too.



Once back to the burrow, he stood outside of it, and we got to see all of him for a short time before he dropped back inside. Regardless of if it was inside or out of the burrow, those big golden eyes were always dancing about.

Quick Post - Wild Hummingbird at the San Diego Zoo

There were a number of wild birds taking advantage of the nicely kept grounds of both the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park when we visited last December. This hummer was flitting about between the flowers growing along the paths before stopping for just long enough to let me snap off a few frames.

Sunset over the Golden Gate

Over the weekend we headed out to Cesar Chavez Park in Berkeley to look for the small group of western burrowing owls that overwinter there. On Saturday, we didn't find the owls, but we were treated to a remarkable sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge.



I've often seen images from Africa where the sun looks incredibly huge while it sets over the horizon, and I've wondered why that happens and if it happens here too. It was amazing how large the sun looked, and it was a reminder of how quickly our planet rotates around its axis -- it only took a few minutes for it to completely pass behind the bridge and slip from sight.