Hike to Sierra Vista

On Saturday we headed out to Sierra Vista to take the camera out for a hike. It was a beautiful day. The weather was perfect. After a couple of weeks of cloudy and cool days it was good to have the sun back!

We had headed out there as we wanted to see if the White-tailed Kites (hawks) were still there. When we had been out there on October 10th they were massing in a couple of the trees there. There were about 20-30 on that day. I had read on the message board that someone had seen them in the past few days so we were hopefully. When we were there we could only see about 8 so don't know if they have moved on or if we just didn't find the right area. It was midmorning by the time we got there so they might have been out hunting further into the park. As you can tell the oak tree they were sitting in was a ways away so the picture isn't very good. Think you can see three or four of the 8 that were sitting there. They spent the whole time preening so was hard to get a picture with their heads up!

The highlight of the hike was a Red-Shouldered Hawk. (Thank you Steve for getting the correct ID!! I knew I liked having smart kids!!) She was sitting on a post right next to the road with people walking and riding bikes right next to her!! We couldn't believe that nothing was bothering her! Paul was able to get several great shots of her. The first picture is to show how close she was to the road. Lots of people were going by her. A couple of people were asking Paul what kind of bird it was as they were right next to her. Didn't bother her at all. She finally flew off when Paul got a little too close to her while he was taking pictures. Either that or she just figured with him there she wouldn't find anything to eat!!






Short list of birds but we didn't stay out long and we were working with the camera most of the time.

Blackheaded Phoebe (lots and lots of these)
Roadrunner
Crows
California Towhee
Mourning Dove
House Finch
House Sparrow
White Crowned Sparrow
Western Kingbird
Scrub Jays
Becwick's Wren
Yellow-rumbed Warber (lots)
Northern Mockingbird
American Coot
Bushtit
Anna's Hummingbird
Cooper's Hawk
Redtail Hawks
White-tailed Kite
Nuttall's Woodpecker
I think I saw a couple Common Yellowthroats but they were backlite so couldn't be sure.




The Nuttall's Woodpecker was busy catching bugs in the tree. I was surprised how great a picture Paul got of him.

All the pictures are Paul's with our new Canon EOS20D with the 70 - 300 lens.

Couple more birds from the back yard

The hummers are still around in force. Most of them like the front yard but there are still several that use the backyard feeders. This was taken from the yard looking up to the oriole feeder on the hill. Both of the pictures today were taken with the 70-300 zoom lens. Think I'm going to like this lens.



This is a male House Finch that was very helpful in staying still and showing me all his different poses.

New Camera

We just got a new camera and guess what I went out and took pictures of. You guessed it, The Jays!! They are so easy to take pictures of as they are always begging for more peanuts. These are the picture of one of them when he found the swarming flying ants. He just sat there and had a feast!
Hopefully we will get out this weekend for more pictures. That is if the weather clears up a little.

They are back!

For two days there were no scrub jays around! Now everyone that has been here lately knows that they are always around begging for peanuts. My question is where do 7 scrub jays go for two days? Think there was a Jay convention that they all went off to? What is everyone else's guess?

Guess the important thing is that they are back!!

Snapple fact #11 & 48 & 126

#11: Flamingos turn pink from eating shrimp.
What color would you be?

#48: Cats can hear ultrasound.
Ever have a Cat Scan?

#126: A piegon's feathers are heavier than its bones.