Bird of the Day: Snowy Egret at CSU Stanislaus

There is a Snowy Egret (Egretta thula) who hangs out near the pond outside my office at CSU Stanislaus. Though not at all tame, it tolerates the presence of people (and people with cameras) pretty well, so I got some close shots while out walking today. The egrets are such graceful and elegant birds!

Their beautiful feathers were almost their undoing as a species, as they were widely used for fashion accessories in the 1800s. Early conservation efforts allowed them to thrive and expand. They are found all over North and South America today.

It's such a privilege to see such a beautiful bird so close (with a zoom lens of course)!

Bird of the Day: Return of the Western Bluebirds to the Campus and the Pasture!

One of my favorites seems to have returned to the region, presumably coming down from the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. I haven't seen the Western Bluebirds (Sialia mexicana) in a couple of months, but yesterday I saw the one in the picture above down the street from my house, and this afternoon I saw a bunch in the agriculture area of our west campus. It's a delight to have them back! As they get used to the student traffic on campus I expect to get less fuzzy shots in coming weeks.

Birds of the Day: Sandhill Cranes at the Merced and San Luis National Wildlife Refuges

These beautiful birds have been spending the summer in the far north, but they have been arriving in the Great Valley to take up their winter residence at the Merced and San Luis National Wildlife Refuges a few miles south of Modesto (These pictures had their first appearance yesterday at Geotripper). The Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis) would be at home on the prairies and wetlands of the Great Valley, but most of their habitat has been co-opted by agriculture.

The string of wildlife refuges up and down the valley provide a safe place for them to survive the winter (at least outside of the hunting areas of the "refuges"). Around 20,000 of them will be spending the season at the Merced unit.

We paid what we thought was an early visit to the refuges on Sunday, but found that the wetlands had just been flooded, and that many birds were already in residence, including several hundred of the cranes. Dozens more were arriving for the evening every minute. I shot a few videos of the graceful birds coming in to land for the night.
It was a beautiful day and a beautiful evening!

Bird of the Day: Red-winged Blackbird in the Mini-wilderness

Back to a "normal" life after three straight weekends on the road. I've had a tiny bit more time to wander the outer reaches of the west campus and "mini-wilderness". With the beginning of the autumn season, more birds have been showing up. Today's guest is a Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) roosting on the tree above the pond in the mini-wilderness. Although there is a nice cattail thicket by the pond, it's been several months since I've seen any Red-wings on campus.

I've found it difficult to photograph the Red-winged Blackbirds. Their absolute black color trips up the auto-focus on my camera, and they tend to be very active and a little restive if I get too close. This one was being cooperative, mainly because I was probably 200-300 feet away using my most extreme zoom!

Bird of the Day: American Robin at Zumwalt Meadows, Kings Canyon National Park

Among the quickest lessons I learned as I set out to learn about birds is that the species that were most familiar to me turned out to be more beautiful than I ever thought. There is hardly a bird more familiar than the American Robin (Turdus migratorius), and I enjoy seeing them around here, but last weekend I was walking quietly around Zumwalt Meadow in Kings Canyon National Park and I saw a colorful bird flit through the tree branches. I crept slowly forward, saw it, and thought "Oh, just a Robin".

What do you mean, "just a Robin"?

But it didn't startle and sat watching me while I tried to snap a picture or two. They were fuzzy and I gave up and wandered along the trail a few yards, but then I decided to step back and see if I could do better. It was still there, so I started snapping from just 20 or so feet away. I could swear it was posing, because after a moment it turned around so I could see it from the front and side.

The American Robin is familiar because it has one of the widest distributions of any bird in the hemisphere, being found from the tundra of Alaska and Canada to the tropical rainforests of Mexico and Central America. There are some regional differences; I had always wondered why they were called "Robin Red-Breast" when they were clearly orange, but I find that the western race of Robins is paler in color than the ones in the eastern United States.

The Robin at Zumwalt Meadow seemed pretty fearless. It stayed right there on its branch until I walked away. It has to put up with a lot more in this area than the occasional house cat. There are foxes, bobcats, coyotes, hawks, and who knows what else. I imagine it will start moving down into the Sierra foothills before long. The leaves are turning up in Kings Canyon and the snows will be coming soon, assuming and hoping that the drought breaks.

Really? Just a Robin?

Bird of the Day: Red-shouldered Hawk on West Campus

Birds seem to be coming out of the woodwork in these last few days. My walks for weeks now have involved few sightings of any birds at all, but as the fall season sets in, many more species are showing up. Today's bird is a Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus) that I saw hanging out near the ag compound on our West Campus. I saw the same species a month ago, the first time I've seen one in or around the West Campus "mini-wilderness".

Red-shouldered Hawks have an odd distribution, with populations in a strip along the west coast of North America, and widespread populations in the eastern United States, but with a gap of 1,000 miles between them. How did that happen? Perhaps same way birds got to Hawaii, getting blown way off course in storms. Or maybe the populations were connected during an earlier climate regime, such as the ice ages.

Bird of the Day: Nuttall's Woodpecker in the "Pasture"

I was getting back into my habit of morning walks today and noticed a lot of racket from some Mockingbirds in the nearly dead oak tree next to the pasture I walk around. I looked up expecting Mockingbirds, but instead just twenty feet away there was a Nuttall's Woodpecker (Picoides nuttallii) in the same tree. I got the camera on and snapped two quick shots before it wandered off.

Nuttall's Woodpeckers are pretty much an Alta California endemic, with a bit of their range slipping south of the border into Baja California. They hang out almost exclusively in oak woodlands but don't eat acorns. They are after insects and other arthropods and occasionally some fruit. I've seen the Nuttall's Woodpecker in my neighborhood a few times now, and it was one of the biggest surprises since I started exploring the blocks around my house.