Lilac

Every Day Birds

Here's some pictures of some every day birds. It's all I got right now. Robin (whoa!) with his worm prize, Red-winged Blackbird nestlings. Hungry babies. (both from the 2 day trip to Nashville) Great Egret. (from Noxubee, MS) Hopefully I'll get some good photos around here sooner than later. The weather is finally bearable in the late mornings/afternoons so I can go outside without getting frostbite or hypothermia. I have such a low tolerance for cold.

Speaking of birds, I found 3 Willow Flycatchers today - YAY! They are late this year because of the insanely cold weather. So I was pretty pumped to get three of them today.

So happy to be back in the field work swing of things, it's been too long. Too long. To clear up any confusion, we're currently in Truckee, CA and will be until the end of August. (working and playing). Internet connection at the field house doesn't exist just yet but hopefully we'll get it soon. Bird Photography Weekly, My World

Noxubee

Noxubee NWR in Mississippi last week...we only had a couple hours to play around the area but ohhhh, I liked what I saw! 50,000 acres of good stuff. I'll be spending an excessive amount of time there, that's for sure.( Big 'ol gator (actually, not that bit, probably about 6 feet long) and Rough-winged Swallow above. )

Nevada, I Think I Like You.

These photos are from day 2 of the 3,000 mile drive. We were trying to make good time but this spot (Walker Lake in Western Nevada) was too damn beautiful not to stop. So that's what we did. It's another example of why Nevada (minus the Vegas and Reno areas) just plain rocks. Possibly my favorite state. Scenic Sunday

We've now driven every major road across the state of Nevada. Loneliest Road is my favorite but this drive (95) offered some excellent stuff also.

Some Gators, a Few Snakes, P-Dawgs and Some Birds

(Dowitchers from the Arcata Marsh a couple weeks ago..still can't upload new stuff)

Some highlights from the past week:.. (Keep in mind, the vast majority of this time was spent driving 3,000 miles, so there was birding-from-the-car happening. Totally dorky!)

On the drive bird highlights:

Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, Gambel's and Scaled Quail, Mississippi Kite, Swainson's Hawks, Lark Buntings, Bullock's Orioles, Yellow-billed Magpies, White Pelicans (LOTS!), Eared Grebes, Black-throated Sparrows.

Also saw lots of Pronghorn, lizards, Prairie Dogs (P-dawgs!)

When we got to Mississippi, all we really had time to do was eat, unload the truck and get an apartment. Luckily, this all went swimmingly and Friday morning we were able to check out Noxubee NWR for a couple hours in the a.m.

Some good bird stuff from there:

Red-headed Woodpeckers, Eastern Kingbirds, Orchard Orioles, Prothonotary Warblers, Tree, Cliff, Northern Rough-winged and Barn Swallows, White Ibis, Little Blue Herons (hundreds!).

Other cool things - 3 alligators and one cottonmouth!

While home for the past two days in Nashville, neat-o stuff seen around the lake/yard:

Great Blue Heron nest - with one older nestling, 5 Green Herons (two pairs nesting nearby we think), Red-winged blackbirds (two nests- one with eggs, one with 4 nestlings), Baltimore Orioles, Worm-eating Warblers, Pine Warblers, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker,

Also -

Snapping Turtles, Soft-shelled Turtle, 2 baby sliders and about 20 adults, several Brown Water Snakes, and and a young buck sleeping in the shade under the bridge in the backyard.

Back to Truckee in the morning! Weekend Reflections

Could You Pass the Millipedes, Please? Thank you.

Well. I can't upload any new photos these days but I took these off my facebook page. They're from a few weeks back while hiking at the Tall Trees grove in Redwood National Park.

The millipedes were out and about (we're talking hundreds). At one point I found this banana slug gorging on one of the arthropods. Yup, and some photos to prove it. I did see one eating a dead nestling this fall but am sort of glad I didn't have the camera on me then. Mildly disturbing? Perhaps. Banana slug teeth are so weird but kind of fascinating...i mean, really, look at 'em. Huh. Mellow Yellow, Macro Monday, My World, Face of the Week

Dear Tornadoes, leave me alone.

~3000 miles. Through snow, sleet, torrential downpours for a straight 10 hours, tornadoes, 65 mph winds, an awesome rainbow and some sun too. We made it to the new place in m.i.s.s.i.s.s.i.p.p.i.

In east Texas yesterday, there were some of the scariest storm clouds I've encountered. Ever. I was pretty sure we were going to die because the clouds directly above us were swirling into what appeared to be a tornado. It was bloody horrifying. I've been through, seen, and heard tornadoes in the past and this was scarier than any of those times. I had the camera set on video and was pretty sure I was about to get a torando forming on video. Luckily, a funnel cloud did not decide to destroy us but those 10 minutes are up there (next to one of the mountain lion encounters) on my 'I almost shat myself' moments.

Speaking of tornadoes, we got stuck in the lame city of Jackson, MS last night because of them. Otherwise, we would have gotten here sooner. Anyway...

Thanks to my parent's scouting, we already have a place to move into in a few months and when the rain finally stopped today, we were able to unpack the truck and unload our crap into the storage unit.

I have a few photos from Nevada (hot damn, I do love that state) but we no longer have a computer of our own and that kind of sucks. So it might be a while til I get to those.

We're still in MS, we left the North Coast Monday at noon so we made pretty good time. If we weren't on a time crunch and didn't have a moving truck with us, obviously we would have been playing along the way. No cigar. But I'll get to do that in September.

We're headed to Nashville tomorrow and then fly back out to Truckee, CA on Tuesday for a few months. There's still feet of snow there. That scares me. Despite the rain here, I do love the HEAT! Give me warmth or give me...I dunno, not death, but maybe hibernation?

Hi Bye

Quick! Zac graduted! He's officially a Master in Biology. Yay! Quick! Here's a Pacific Tree Frog adult and a very young one - hardly the size of my ring. Super cute. Starting the drive from the North Coast to Mississippi on Monday. Egads. My World

The Headless Ardea alba

The Great Egret, a vicious fisherman.

Monochrome Weekly Weekend Reflections

More Friends

Holy crap, packing is making me iiinnnnssaaannne! I just wanna go play outside. Being rather nomadic, I should be a packing pro. Alas, that's not the case. However, I am a stuff sack master.

Yup. On a different note, here's some other recent sightings. None are excellent photos, but whatever. The tadpoles are my new best friends. What? Something like that...there are a few gigantic puddles where they are thriving and the other day I watched them for a good 45 minutes. (the few people who walked by looked at me kinda funny) There were tons of insect eggs (the two yellow dots next to it's head) that they were feasting on. A lot of them had back legs already and were itty bitty miniature froglets. I'm hoping to go back tomorrow and try for some more photos. I think the majority of them were Pacific Treefrog tadpoles.

The Western Skink (top photo) is from a couple weeks ago. What a fancy fellow. The River Otter above was at Patrick's Point a few days ago. I mentioned him in the anemone post. He came out of the ocean (yes, he's a river otter, not a sea otter) and started rubbing his face on a rock like a rubaholic. It was cute. i think I love him. He didn't stay long though. Nature Notes

Dragonflies are from the other day, with the tadpoles. I'm not an odes person and therefore not sure what these are. Perhaps I'll access later.

Marsh Friends

(a chatty Willet and some Dowitchers buds above)

We've been going to the marsh just before sunset the past few days. The rain has finally died down so there's been some nice light lately. And the timing had been pretty ideal, with high tie coming an hour before sunset or so.

(Short-billed Dowitcher below)

So here's some marsh bird friends! There's been about 10-12 Ruddy Turnstones (bottom photo) hanging arund lately, which doesn't happen too often around here. Usually you'll just see one guy passing through, not a group of them, so that's kinda cool. This Great Blue was posing so nicely in some beautiful light, but he was a bit too far away for the picture I wanted. Either way, he fits nicely in that composition. (as common as GBHEs are, this is the only photo I've gotten of one...that's weird) Watery Wednesday

California Quail

Abc Wednesdsay (Q), Wordless

Be My Anemone

I had to get my anemone fix recently since we'll soon be moving from the coast (sigh...). I realize there is other cool stuff in tide pools too, but hey, this post is dedicated to the giant green anemone/Anthopleura xanthogrammica (the ones that um, look like giant green anemones), the Aggregating Anemone/Anthopleura elegantissima (the ones all clumped together), and the Moonglow Anemone/Anthopleura artemisia (the other ones). Hmm, okay, so I'm no expert when it comes to anemone identification, so I apologize if that last one is wrong. My World

Enjoy the pictures. They're really fun organisms and pretty challenging to photograph. Yesterday high tide was coming in with a vengeance, so I had to keep jumping off the rocks to dry areas and swinging the camera up so it didn't get sloshed - all part of the fun! Most of the time they are a few inches to a foot or so underwater, so you have to wait til the water rushes out for just a split second if you want to get them in all their glory. And then 90 percent of the time, there is seaweed and other tidal stuffs in front of them...you get the point! (Still easier than photographing birds, though)

Some of these pictures are from two weeks ago, the others from yesterday, both at Patrick's Point. I'm really, really, painfully, going to miss this particular spot.

Yesterday we saw hundreds of seals and sea lions - they were all too far away for photos, but man! SO many of 'em. And they all had something very important to say (holy loud chatting!). As we headed back up from the tide pools, we saw a solitary river otter. He actually came really close to us and started rubbing his head on a rock. Umm..adorable! I had to switch lenses and blah blah blah so the 2 photos I took were really rushed and not excellent, but still...he was so much fun to watch.

Anyway, back to the anemones. My title, by the way, is in regards to The Waterboys song, "Be My Enemy." Dammit, I love The Waterboys. Macro Monday

Things that Go BLOOM! II

The columbines are out and about! Found these yesterday off the trail - only 4 of 'em. Pretty photogenic flowers though, I'm a fan! Today's Flower, Mellow Yellow,

Oh and hey! some little forget me nots, because they begged for a photo also. Blue Monday, Ruby Tuesday