Sunday, February 13, 2011

Northern Shovelers in the rain



Today I had a chance to stop in at Basket Slough National Wildlife Refuge near Dallas, Oregon. It was raining, but the ducks seemed to like that, and it created an excellent opportunity for watching these Shovelers going about their business. To see them in action just copy and paste the following link into your browser:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5gimdWIedg

There were also several Northern Pintail ducks nearby, and a big congregation of American Coots in the water, in the shoreline vegetation, and even up on the gravel road picking up something, maybe small pieces of grit to improve their digestion.


Saturday, February 12, 2011

Red-tailed Hawk near Willamina

I was surprised that this Red-tailed Hawk allowed me to approach so closely today along a road near Willamina, but now looking at the photo, I think he might have a damaged wing. So maybe he's having some trouble catching mice, and is conserving energy.

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Some bay-area birds

I have not had time for much real birding recently, but I did go to Los Gatos, California, in late January, and I was somewhat surprised at how "birdy" the place was. There is a wonderful natural area with hiking trails in the hills just south of town. I recommend that any birder visiting the area take a hike up there.

Lots of Northern Mockingbirds in the residential areas.

A Cooper's Hawk in one of the canyons

Chestnut-backed Chickadees were in both forested and residential areas.