Geotripper's California Birds

Sometimes the unexpected happens. I was a little frustrated with daylight savings cutting into my evening walking time between classes, b...

The college campus where I work is not the best environment to watch birds, but it's certainly not the worst. There is a sheep pastur...

I admit it. Sometimes when I'm out there looking for birds, I'm watching for the rare and unusual species. I have a tendency to ig...

The Red-tailed Hawk babies have hatched! I've been watching the activity around the nest since late February when I first noticed the...

I was walking the perimeter of my workplace, the West Campus of Modesto Junior College, when I spotted the fourth hawk species of the new...

I've been at this birding thing for about five years now, which marks me as a rank amateur, but by now I've started to recognize t...

Cedar Waxwings ( Bombycilla cedrorum ) always strike me as quiet unassuming birds. I've had flocks of dozens in my flowering pear tree...

Things have been afoot at MJC's West Campus over the last few weeks. A lot of birds have been agitated by the presence of some Red-...

I sometimes have to remind myself that I'm privileged here in California to see a rare bird on a regular basis. There are hundreds of...

You just never know. It's been a heck of a weather day with heavy squalls and wind lashing at our campus while I've been teaching....

There's something I've learned with fossil and mineral hunting. If you haven't seen the thing you are looking for, you won...

You just never know. One of the joys of my new hobby (well, four years now) is the possibility that any day there can be something new and...

Red-tailed Hawks ( Buteo jamaicensis ) have a rather strained and tenuous relationship with the other birds on the West Campus of Modesto ...

We have a particularly beautiful bird inhabiting our campus, but unless you live here in California, you don't get to see it except i...

I'm a little behind on bird updates, as these pictures are from April 17. I'm not happy with the them, but then again I was lucky ...

Before I  became a geologist, all rocks were gray, and there were a few crystals, but all of them were quartz. Then, a small bit of educat...

In the days of my ignorance (actually not a thing of the past), all small birds were sparrows of some kind. Imagine my surprise when I sta...