Random Recent Photos

I've managed to get behind with blogging recently. I've got a lot of stuff going on, my school load is crazy, and I'm also trying to go birding as often as possible. That doesn't leave a lot of room for blogging, so I apologize for my lack of good posts the last couple months. I thought I should at least post up some photos from some of my unposted birding jaunts this month.


Wrentit at Peters Canyon Regional Park, 10/15/08. This little guy was obliging enough to hop out into the open, which is a very rare thing for Wrentits to do; they really like to stay berried under cover.


Townsend's Warbler in my neighborhood, 10/17/08. Yes, this photo is right side-up, and no, it is not cropped at all.


Osprey at Peters Canyon Regional Park, 10/15/08.


Western Fence Lizard at San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary, 10/20/08. Almost scary!


Cooper's Hawk at Mason Regional Park. It blasted in right over my head when I began "squeaking", and landed for several seconds just about a dozen feet away.


Lesser Goldfinch at Peters Canyon Regional Park, 10/19/08.


Ah, the worst photo of the lot. Eastern Phoebe in my neighborhood, 10/20/08. This species is quite rare in Orange County (only one or two per year), so I was really surprised to come across it. Thirty seconds after I found it, it flew off never to be seen again.

Well, that's it folks. October has been an interesting month, though the migration has been really weird. There seemed to be very, very low numbers of all migrants except Yellow-rumped and Orange-crowned Warblers. In the entire month, I saw only a handful each of Black-throated Gray and Townsend's Warblers, two Western Tanagers, and zero Western Wood-Pewees around my local patches, but certainly not for lack of trying. I'll be out looking the rest of the month to see what else I can turn up!