Last week I nearly missed this Great Blue Heron at the Sacramento Wildlife Refuge. #Birds #BirdWatching #GreatBlueHeron
Birds
Snow Geese from last weekend. #Birds #BirdWatching #SnowGeese
I spied a Spotted Towhee today by the Sacramento River. #Birds #BirdWatching #SpottedTowhee #Fujifilm
The Western Blue Birds have already discovered the new piles of grape vine trimmings that still have clusters of raisins. And one of the Mockingbirds got really intrigued about the newly pruned grapevines. #Birds #BirdWatching #BlueBirds #Mockingbird #Fujifilm
Finally pruned the bird feeding native California grapes (cultivated of course). Only had a few more weeks until they woke up! Always quite the puzzle pruning two intertwined grapes. #CaliforniaNativePlants
Western Blue Birds have been in the neighborhood for a while now. Today they finally found our desiccated grapes! #Birds #BirdWatching #WesternBlueBird #Fujifilm
Black-necked Stilt near the City of Burlingame Shorebird Sanctuary. What a pose! 
Great Egret on the San Francisco Bay Trail just south of The City Of Burlingame Shorebird Sanctuary. #birds #GreatEgret #Fujifilm
Indisputably confirmed Yellow Rumped Warbler at yesterday’s visit to the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge. They were everywhere but it’s rare to have one facing away for more than a split second 😍#birds #YellowRumpedWarbler #fujifilm
What luck today. Photographed a juvenile Bald Eagle (second year?) at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge. #birds #BaldEagle #Fujifilm
My partner only looked at cat, bird, and wildfire posts on Twitter using Tweetbot. Its permanent chronical timeline was key. Now that Tweetbot appears to be banned, that’s it. No more Twitter. Fortunately Mastodon is maturing quickly.
Red Tail Hawk from yesterday’s bird watching at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge. It’s not surprising that they’re not easy to spot. Even rarer is the one that won’t fly off if you get within 100 yards. #fujifilm #birds #RedTailedHawk
While bird watching yesterday, a M5.3 earthquake occurred south of Rio Dell. My RaspberryShake felt it but I sure didn’t https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/nc73827571/executive #RaspberryShake #earthquake
Spotted a Belted Kingfisher today! #kingfisher #birds
Yesterday: Red-winged Black Birds at the local wildlife refuge. Likely some Starlings in there too.
A ravenous Yellow Rumped Warbler visited our grapes again. Eat up, little bird!
This Yellow Rumped Warbler (Audubon’s) is yet another bird feasting on our raisins. Yesterday’s Ruby Crowned Kinglet might actually be an Orange-crowned Warbler. No bars on its wings! 🤷♂️
Ruby Crowned Kinglet (update on 12/17: more likely a Orange-crowned Warbler, as the Kinglet has bars on its wings, this one — the Warbler — does not). Such a lovely chirpy & frenetic bird.
Wednesday, December 14, 2022 →
I am super excited to now have the XF70-300mm telephoto lens. I’ll no longer feel crazy constrained taking pictures of birds and aircraft (mainly). Bonus that it is rather good at close range for macro.
Wednesday, December 14, 2022 →
Western Mockingbird foraging for raisins in our backyard.
Got a Kinglet in one place for a few moments!
Some kind of Kinglet, maybe a Ruby Crown Kinglet, in the grapes this time. Was moving fast as birds do.
Western Mockingbird enjoying a desiccated grape in our backyard.
Backyard House Sparrows - 84mm equivalent & cropped to zoom, using those X-T5 40 Megapixels! I am planning to get a 200 mm lens in a few months & really start birding.
More signs of Fall with flocks of birds migrating overhead.
The very first storm of meteorological Fall and White Crown birds have already descended upon our backyard. It’s cool that they prefer our warmer backyard to cooler stormy mountains. We’ll see them consistently until June. Welcome back!
Eurasian Coots in the Pagodenburger See at the Schloss Nymphenburg in Munich.
A very comfy Eurasian Collared Dove. Glad our backyard can be a refuge from the neighborhood outdoor cats
Spotted a Hooded Oriole in the front yard as we we started an after lunch walk. What luck. A first!
Mockingbirds are going to have an amazing late summer of grapes from our cultivated California grapes. These have an amazing assortment of bugs too. Still have ladybugs in them. 🌱
