Quail in the rain

A male California quail watching over his family group near the Bear Valley Visitor's Center in Point Reyes National Seashore. This is a fun time of year to see quail (although they weren't too keen to see me), since the family groups are really quite large. I would guess there were at least 25 birds in this flock that was scouring the grounds near the visitor's center parking lot. As soon as they saw me from across the road though, they disappeared into the shrubs. It was pretty amazing how easily they faded into the landscape that was just in front of me. This lone male was watching over the proceedings from a high perch (a fence post in this case), which I have often seen them do. Perhaps it is a trait of nobility evident in our state bird.

As for the shot, the conditions were clearly not ideal for photography, with heavily overcast skies and even some drizzle. I was happy to get at least this sharp frame out of the bunch though, since I'm a big fan of birds sitting on cool old fenceposts. I also love having some of the drizzle visible in the frame, although my camera may beg to differ. It's interesting to see how far a tiny raindrop can fall in 1/125 of a second!

Semipalmated plover

Before I saw the huge flock of sandpipers flowing along the beach at Limantour Spit in Point Reyes National Seashore, I had a wonderful encounter with 15-20 semipalmated plovers on that same stretch of beach. It was a great time of day for shorebird photography -- mid-morning with a rising tide. All of the shorebirds were more interested in napping and preening than running around and feeding. They likely spent the early hours feeding on the estuarine mudflats during low tide, and then were ready to rest and digest on the beach.

Incoming

A group of shorebirds lands while a second wave approaches the runway. This is just a portion of the large flock of western sandpipers, sanderlings, and dunlin that I saw along Limantour Spit in Point Reyes National Seashore this day.

View more photographs of sandpipers.

Late light, tall grass, and a burrowing owl

These shots are from March of this year at Cesar Chavez Park in Berkeley. By this late in the spring, the grass had grown high, and the burrowing owls seemed to enjoy the extra cover. Thankfully there was a narrow tunnel through the grass that stretched from the bird to the trail, and I was able to get an unobstructed shot. I've been sitting with the images from this series in my queue for quite some time, and today finally felt like the right day to post some. I'm not sure why I passed them over for so long.





Shared as part of World Bird Wednesday -- click here to check out the other posts for this week

Sleeping sandpipers in Point Reyes National Seashore

For me, there is no greater photographic pleasure than spending a quiet morning with a group of shorebirds. My most recent trip to Limantour Spit in Point Reyes National Seashore was one of my best encounters ever. It included some snowy plovers, a few dozen semipalmated plovers, and the biggest flock of sandpipers I've ever personally seen. I had the opportunity to take some shots of the flock moving in amazing unison, and hopefully at least a few of them will turn out (check back again soon -- hopefully I'll have a chance to get through all of the images in the near future). For now though, I've decided to post one of a more relaxed variety.

Here's a look into a small part of the much larger flock -- a group of western sandpipers gathered around a dunlin. Something about this moment really caught my eye. Perhaps it was the pattern of the smaller birds gathered around the edges, or the fact that all of the westerns had their eyes closed while the dunlin kept watch. And I just love how with seven main birds resting in the frame, there are only seven spindly legs touching the ground.