Sunrise over Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge photos by Larry Jordan

Last weekend I reserved a photo blind (hide as it’s called across the pond) and got some pretty good photographs and also counted birds for the Great Backyard Bird Count 2011 (see previous post).

There are two blinds at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) and one each at Delevan NWR and Colusa NWR.  The blinds are all of similar size and functionality as you can see on their blind description webpage.  Blind #1 is pictured above (click on all photos for full sized images).

According to their website, the “Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex consists of five national wildlife refuges (NWR) and three wildlife management areas (WMA) that comprise over 35,000 acres of wetlands and uplands in the Sacramento Valley of California. In addition, there are over 30,000 acres of conservation easements in the Complex. The Refuges and easements are part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; they serve as resting and feeding areas for nearly half the migratory birds on the Pacific Flyway.”

I believe them when they say that nearly half of the migratory birds on the flyway visit the refuge.  Here’s a photo of probably 30 or 40 acres chock full of Snow Geese (Chen caerulescens) that I probably underestimated on my GBBC as 6,500 birds.  What do you think?

I was able to find a few “Blue Geese” or dark morph Snow Geese as well as the white morph shown here.

The reddish brown off-color of the head feathers is due to the stains the feathers acquire after digging through the mud for long periods of time

I saw hundreds of Greater White-fronted Geese (Anser albifrons) and probably underestimated their numbers also.

Then there were the ducks.  I don’t know about you, but I find it a bit challenging to identify female ducks.  A birding buddy of mine gave me a hint on how to ID females when I asked him he said, “just take a look at the male she’s hanging around with.”  This is great advise this time of year when they are pairing up.

Here are some couples, starting with the more obvious Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata) drake and his mate

Followed be the ever present Northern Pintail (Anas acuta).

There were several Gadwall (Anas strepera)

And a few American Wigeon (Anas americana)

You can see in-flight photos of these ducks in this older post.

There were several hundred American White Pelicans (Pelicanus erythrorhynchos) flushed from one of the ponds, some of them circling around and lighting back in the pond and some that took a different path and flew close enough for me to practice my in-flight digiscoping skills.  This was the best in-flight shot I had this day with the scope.

My favorite shots from the blind however, were the Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) that visited the snag you see in the photo of the blind above.

I had a group of Tree Swallows visit this snag on my first visit to this blind back in March of 2009 (you can see some of those images on this flickr page).  They exhibited the same behavior that appeared to be mock fighting or pairing behavior.  This photo shows two birds with mouths agape, one stationary on the snag and the other flying in.

This is many times followed by what would appear to be a food exchange if it were an adult feeding young.  I am inclined to think it is some kind of pairing behavior but I have found nothing in the literature on this behavior.  If anyone knows what this might be, please enlighten us all by leaving a comment.

Leaving the blind for the auto tour around noon, I took a few more photos while completing my trip.

There is a Snowy Egret (Egretta thula) that can sometimes be found at the far end of the auto loop, just before you turn back to head to the visitor center.  There is a dam on the creek there that seems to be a good place to catch fish.

Here is a video of the bird catching a fish from the creek

You can always find raptors in the cottonwoods on the edges of the refuge and this day was no exception.  After all, what would a day of birding be without seeing a raptor?

I took some shots of this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) as it looked over the refuge.

Finally, on the way out, a truck stopped in front of me and was looking down a long stretch of grass along the irrigation canal by the road.  I looked to my left to see two Ring-necked Pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) chasing each other up and down this pathway.  The pheasants scared up an American Bittern that was in the canal but I was unable to get my lens on it before it dove back into the bulrush.

I did get some photos of the Ring-necked Pheasants though, as they engaged in what appeared to be a cock fight.  I’m not sure if it was real or play (I’m thinking play), but they put on a great show.

The Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, and the entire refuge system, has got to be one of the premiere places in California to bird in the late fall, winter and spring.  If you visit California when the refuge is flooded, you are sure to see a myriad of avifauna.

I hope you enjoyed this brief trip through the refuge.  To see more birds, check out Bird Photography Weekly and World Bird Wednesday!

Ferruginous Hawk, 400mm, f/6.3, 1/1600 sec, ISO 320

Another year is coming to a close and I thought it would be fun to post some of my favorite bird photos of 2010.  It was not easy selecting photographs for this post.  I began going through my pictures and found some I had forgotten that I took!

Ferruginous Hawks winter here every year in the oak savanna along Oak Run Creek, about five miles from my home.  The photo above was taken on January 9th and I just saw my first Ferruginous Hawk of this winter today.  They feed almost exclusively on rabbit in the west, and east of the continental divide, prairie dogs and ground squirrels¹.

I also discovered that I was sometimes partial to the photo of a bird that I really enjoyed photographing or was surprised that I had been given the opportunity to observe, even if the photograph was not technically the best.

All photos were taken with my Nikon D90 unless otherwise stated and the camera settings are listed below each photo.  Click on the photos to see the full sized images.

This next shot was taken at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge on February 27th.  When I first began photographing birds, I was so excited to get a glimpse of a Marsh Wren, I never imagined I would one day be able to photograph the male building a nest.

Marsh Wren, 360mm, f/5.3, 1/500 sec, ISO 200

To make it easier to organize, I am posting a photo for each month of this year.  The photo I chose for March was taken in my back yard.  One of my first attempts with my digiscoping setup.  It is a male House Finch, one of the many that visit my feeders year round.

The digiscoping setup uses a 50mm lens and usually I use a 2.0 f-stop setting to allow the maximum amount of light through the lens.  You will notice that some of the shots taken through the scope will have a high ISO setting.  This is sometimes necessary in low light conditions to obtain a fast enough shutter speed.

House Finch, 50mm, f/2.0, 1/160 sec, ISO 640

April of this year was the first time I got a really good look at a Sora.  Lema Ranch seems to be a good location to observe this rail and some others you may have seen in previous posts.

Sora, 400mm, f/5.6, 1/200 sec, ISO 320

I take more and more bird photographs as we come into the spring and summer months and mating when nesting behavior reach their peaks.  May was a tough choice month but I decided on this male Western Bluebird that was watching me as I checked on his nest box at Lema Ranch.

Western Bluebird, 310mm, f/5.3, 1/250 sec, ISO 400

Every year, in June, Wintu Audubon schedules a camping trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park.  It’s a great place to bird with around 216 species of birds observed in the park, 96 of those species known to breed there.  I found this Pygmy Nuthatch feeding its nestlings at Manzanita Lake.

Pygmy Nuthatch, 50mm, f/2.5, 1/640 sec, ISO 3200

We have several Osprey that nest in Shasta County, mostly along the Sacramento River and at the many lakes that dot the northern California map.  This mother was shielding her young from the hot July sun as they waited for dad to bring them some lunch.

Osprey, 50mm, f/2.0, 1/500 sec, ISO 1250

One nice day in August I got out of work early and found a Green Heron fishing and preening at Turtle Bay, another great birding spot here in Shasta County.

Green Heron, 50mm, f/2.0, 1/125 sec, ISO 3200

I really enjoy being able to watch birds from my back porch.  I have several bird feeders set up and a water feature that attracts birds year round.  This entry of a juvenile female Acorn Woodpecker for September was part of a post titled “Portraits From The Porch.”

Acorn Woodpecker, 50mm, f/2.0, 1/250 sec, ISO 2000

October gave me several choices in my bird photo bank and I finally decided on this Western Scrub-Jay taken in my yard.  I really like the detail in this picture and it shows the birds color very well.

Western Scrub-Jay, 50mm, f/2.0, 1/80 sec, ISO 3200

I chose this photo of an American Kestrel partly because it is one of my bird photography nemesis birds.  Whenever they see me coming, they take off before I can even raise my camera.  The other reason I included it is because I love the beauty of this species and I get to see it perched on the wires nearly everyday as I drive to work.

This sub-optimal image was taken at Lema Ranch, high upon a prominent snag where you can almost always find an interesting bird perched.

American Kestrel, 50mm, f/2.2, 1/500sec, ISO 800

Since I haven’t downloaded any images from December yet, I will leave you with one of my favorite photos of my favorite raptor, the Burrowing Owl.

Burrowing Owl, 50mm, f/1.8, 1/100 sec, ISO 640

Please take the time to read my previous post and help us out by signing our petition to save this beautiful bird.

To see more great bird photos and read some excellent posts, check out Bird Photography Weekly.  On Wednesday, check out World Bird Wedneday, then on Thursday it’s I and the Bird at Peregrine’s Bird Blog.  Enjoy!

References: ¹ Birds of North America Online

Wilson’s Snipe Sitting On A Post photos by Larry Jordan

According to Wikipedia, a snipe hunt is “a form of wild-goose chase that is also known as a fool’s errand, a type of practical joke that involves experienced people making fun of credulous  newcomers by giving them an impossible or imaginary task. The origin of the term is a practical joke where inexperienced campers are told about a bird or animal called the snipe  as well as a usually preposterous method of catching it, such as running around the woods carrying a bag or making strange noises such as banging rocks together. Incidentally, the snipe (a family of shorebirds) is difficult to catch for experienced hunters, so much so that the word “sniper” is derived from it to refer to anyone skilled enough to shoot one.”

Fortunately, the hunting of the real shorebird, Wilson’s Snipe, Gallinago delicata (previously considered a subspecies of Common Snipe), has declined over the years.  “Harvests” of these little elusive birds (standing about 10 inches tall and weighing in at a tad over 3 ounces) has declined over the years from about 137,000 in 1992¹ to around 83,500 in 2009².

That still sounds like a lot of dead birds to me.

I was hunting this bird with my camera and digiscoping setup when I found him at Lema Ranch, hanging out with a Long-billed Dowitcher.  The dowitcher was out in the open but the Wilson’s Snipe was hiding in the bulrush.  Finally, reluctantly, coming out to forage for invertebrates on the mudflats.

These wading birds have a long bill with sensory “pits” near the tip allowing them to detect prey by touch as they probe the mud.  They also have eyes that are set well back on their head providing full vision to both sides and a binocular overlap to the rear. This arrangement enables a bird to detect the approach of a predator while its beak is fully buried in the mud¹.

These attributes seem to allow for very successful foraging as you can see in this photo.  This bird extracting what appears to be a worm.

Snipes also do this interesting bobbing thing and stamp their feet occasionally, apparently to startle prey into moving.  I caught a bit of it on video.  Notice the call of the Red-shouldered Hawk as well as the Canada Goose during the video.

As the Red-shouldered Hawk flew over, the snipe looked up, making sure he wasn’t on the hawk’s menu.

One of the things Wilson’s Snipes are famous for is their winnowing flights (which I would love to witness).  These are performed primarily at the beginning of breeding season and usually occur in the evening¹.  They use these flights to establish and maintain breeding territories, among other things.

This winnowing sound is produced by air flowing over the bird’s outstretched tail feathers.

[See post to listen to audio]  Sound credit to Andrew Spencer, file XC14873, Courtesy of Xeno-Canto³

Pretty cool if you ask me!  I plan on seeking out some Wilson’s Snipe breeding grounds next season to see if I can witness this phenomenon.  These birds can reach speeds of up to 60 mph!

For more great bird photos, check out Bird Photography Weekly.

References: ¹ Birds of North America Online , ² U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Migratory Bird Hunting Activity and Harvest During the 2008 and 2009 Hunting Seasons, ³ Xeno -Canto, file XC14873

I and the Bird is a “compendium of blog writing about wild birds and bird watching” according to its founder Mike Bergin of 10,000 Birds.  But it is much more than that.  It is a celebration of the best bird blogging on the net today.  A place where we can discover other folks that share our interest in nature, birds and conservation.

I think that many of us begin as bird watchers and nature lovers and grow into conservation minded individuals that can make a real difference in our environment.  I also believe that just as blogging, facebook and twitter have changed the political landscape around the world, these same entities can change the physical landscape we live in by bringing people together and motivating them to develop or support organizations that work toward saving our environment and the biodiversity it supports.

I urge everyone to support at least one organization that supports these concepts.  You can start with your local wildlife rehabilitation organization if you have one in your area.  These are people who work tirelessly to save many of our injured and orphaned birds as well as other wildlife that often are harmed by human activity.  Cases in point, a Great Blue Heron caught in mono-filament fishing line told by Michelle at Ramblingwoods.  And the release of a good luck Oriole by Amy, author of the Magnificent Frigatebird.

For literally pennies a day, you can join the 10,000 Birds Conservation Club supporting conservation projects and giving you back gifts in exchange simply for taking action.  If you want to make a huge difference in a global sense, you can look into Birdlife International, “a global partnership of conservation organizations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources.”

These are just a few suggestions and some of the organizations that I support for our bird populations.  At the end of this post I will ask you to help me and my friend (I met through blogging) Scott Artis as we try to save the Western Burrowing Owl through a new organization Scott founded, the Burrowing Owl Conservation Network.  It is a huge effort to educate the public about this beautiful, dwindling raptor and all I will ask is a little of your time and effort to pass along our message across the internet.

I think it is important to know something about our fellow bloggers and have added links to the “about me” pages of the contributors to this edition of I and the Bird.  I have set this post up so that if you click on a bloggers name, their about me page will open in a new window, click on their post and it will open in this window, making it easy to come directly back to this page to read the next post.  There are some great stories here and I urge you to share them on facebook, twitter or any other social media you regularly use.

Dawn Fine of Dawn’s Bloggy Blog, the person who has probably put more bird bloggers, tweeters and chirpers together for fun events than anyone I know, shows us how much fun it is to get together with fellow Birders who Blog Tweet and Chirp as they bird the Charlestown Breachway.

Amila Salgado of Gallicissa shares a trip to Sinharaja rain forest with the Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka.  If you’ve never seen a Serendip Scops Owl, you don’t want to miss this post.

Jill Wussow, AKA Johnny Nutcase (I think that tells us something about Jill right there) shares an absolutely amazing encounter with her good friends from her blog, Count Your Chicken!  We’re Taking Over!  I am green with envy!

Amber Coakley, who, among other conservation minded things, runs a Challenge for Charity on her blog, Birder’s Lounge (I happened to win the $10 prize for my charity this month!), has recently been watching Baltimore Orioles, and she’s not talking baseball!

Eva Matthews shares with us her recent participation in the North American Migration Count in Green Cay from her blog, The Flying Mullet.

David Ingram‘s Natural History Blog treats us to some beautiful photos of Red-necked (foul weather) Phalaropes while noting the importance of considering bird behavior when out photographing birds.

Mike Bezner points out the differences between the male and female Mallard this time of year as he astutely observes ducks on the pond from his blog, Slugyard.

Dreamfalcon, created by Natalie Raeber shares some interesting facts that this birder was unaware of in her post about a white (Mute) Swan.

Y C Wee, founder of the Bird Ecology Study Group of Singapore, brings us a post submitted by Tou Jing Yi revealing the sleeping behavior of the Common Tailorbird

Grant McCreary, host of the previous I and the Bird and author of Birds On The Brain delights in explaining his new birding superpower and gives a review of the Field Guide to the Birds of Columbia from his Birder’s Library.

You can get a taste of John Briggs‘ excellent bird photography at his blog, Birding In Maine, as he shows us a Chipping Sparrow feeding its young.

Eddie Callaway and Gang, authors of Birdfreak and hosts of Bird Photography Weekly share a review of Feeding and Identifying Birds from Peterson Guides and Bird Watcher’s Digest!

From down under, Mick gives us a look at mullens in sunshine from her blog, Sandy Straits and Beyond, getting some great looks at Red-capped Plovers.

Vickie Henderson is an amazingly talented birder who shares her talents from her blog Vickie Henderson Art.  For this edition of IATB she tells us about Ruby-throated Hummingbird migration.

The contribution from 10,000 Birds this week is from Corey Finger who witnessed an incredible feeding frenzy at Jamaica Bay.

Jan Axel, author of Jan Axel’s Blog, gets a bit of colour at the beach in Panama where Terns, Ruddy Turnstones and American Oystercatchers brighten up the day.

Rob Ripma of the Nutty Birder shows off the migrating birds and butterflies at Eagle Creek, including a Yellow-billed Cuckoo and a Black-throated Green Warbler!

We all know of the extraordinary number of bird species found in Costa Rica.  Well over 850.  Pat O’Donnell found the country so compelling that he moved there where he brings us updates on birding at the Quebrada Gonzalez ranger station.

Can you imagine coming home and finding a Green Heron sitting on your deck rail?  Wren, author of Wrenaissance Reflections, tells us her tale in my world surprise!

Not only does Ken Schneider show us his great bird photos on his latest romp through Rosyfinch Ramblings, he concludes his story with a three Bobcat morning.

It is always a treat to hear from the newly transplanted Bob Kaufman over at Two Birders To Go.  Having recently moved from southern California to the Philippines, you never know what he’s going to come up with.  This week the Eagle has landed.

Speaking to all of us about birding responsibly, the Zen Birdfeeder’s Nancy Castillo wonders, did she save the jay but hurt the hawk?

Ian Coleman is Quantum Tiger Wildlife Photography with gorgeous photos of Pembrokeshire birds of prey.

Almost last, but definitely not least, one of my favorite bird bloggers is Kelly Riccetti, author of Red and the Peanut.  She not only has a way with words but her photographs are beautiful.  Take a look at these Savannah Sparrows on Goldenrod and tell me what you think.

At the top of this post, I promised to ask you for help supporting our fight to save the Western Burrowing Owl,  Athene cunicularia hypugaea.

This is my “spark” bird.  The bird that got me into birding.  Here is my post from nearly a year and a half ago, will Burrowing Owls survive in North America?

We still don’t know.  Read my friend Scott Artis‘ most recent post, California’s Burrowing Owl Stronghold Witnesses Stunning Decline from JournOwl.

If you have a facebook account, please consider joining our cause to Save the Burrowing Owl and sending out invitations to all your facebook contacts to do the same. If you are a twitter user, tweet our posts on Burrowing Owls.  We need to spread the word about the condition of this species before they are so badly diminished that they are listed as endangered species.  For more information go to the Burrowing Owl Conservation Network and find out how you can help.  In the interest of disclosure, I am a staff member of this organization in charge of habitat management.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of I and the Bird.  The next edition, will be hosted by Rob Fergus at the Birdchaser.  Get your submission in to Rob by October 12th for the October 14th edition.

White-faced Ibis at Yolo Basin Wildlife Area photos by Larry Jordan

Last month when I visited the Yolo Basin (Vic Fazio) Wildlife Area it was yet to be flooded.  This last weekend, heading down to the bay area for the California Burrowing Owl Consortium meeting, I checked with the Department of Fish and Game and found that they had begun flooding the refuge.

Dave Feliz, the wildlife area manager, mentioned that part of the wetlands, East of the auto tour route, were flooded rice fields where he had seen quite a few birds recently.  He told me where to park to walk the closed road out to the fields.  That is where I found hundreds of White-faced Ibis and Snowy Egrets foraging, preening and relaxing in the shallow waters and atop the surrounding berms.

These beautiful iridescent wading birds travel the Pacific Flyway to and from their breeding grounds, seeking isolated reservoirs and irrigated fields as feeding and resting sites.  Here is a distribution map for the White-faced Ibis courtesy of Birds of North America Online.

It must have been a good breeding season for the White-faced Ibis in the west because, like I said, there were hundreds of adults and hundreds of juveniles gathered in the flooded fields.  Here you can see the juvenile on the left, still with the dark eyes and yet to sport the more colorful plumage of the adult on the right with the red iris.

A large number of Snowy Egrets

and several American White Pelicans were also enjoying the bounty.

The only family of birds I noticed in greater numbers were the gulls.  I took some in-flight shots with the digiscope set-up just to see what I could get, as the pelicans took off, and most of the other birds along with them.

Going through the photos I spotted what looks like a Caspian Tern flying with the gulls.  What do you think?

I enjoyed my time at Yolo Basin Wildlife Area and had a fantastic time at the California Burrowing Owl Consortium meeting (more on the controversy surrounding the California Burrowing Owl in upcoming posts).

In the meantime, here are a couple more shots of American White Pelicans I spotted right next to Interstate 5 on the way home Sunday afternoon.  It appeared that they were scooping up fish from a huge pond, separated from the main North-South thoroughfare in California by nothing more than a pasture fence.

If you want to see some more great bird photos, check out Bird Photography Weekly and don’t forget to visit the latest edition of I And The Bird over at Birds on the Brain!

I always keep a running link in the right hand sidebar to the “I And The Bird” carnival so you can get a head start on the upcoming edition.  You will note after Grant’s edition #134 comes out this Thursday, the next edition will be hosted by yours truly!  Get your submissions to me by September 28th for the 135th edition on September 30th!