Alameda / Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline

Just a few odds and ends from around the neighborhood over the last month or two.  Nothing too exciting, just some birds and things.

Ring-billed Gull -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

San Francisco, CA

USS Hornet, Alameda, CA

American White Pelican -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

American White Pelican -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

Great Blue Heron -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

Marin Headlands & Lake Merritt

March 23, 2014

I didn't have the opportunity for a big adventure this weekend.  I was able to get away for a few hours, though, so I headed over to Marin to visit Rodeo Lagoon.

Rodeo Beach, CA

I read that there are often a lot of birds on the lagoon.  Not so, at least not when I got there.  There were a few canada geese and mallards.  A common merganser made an appearance at one point.  I saw a few surf scoters out on the ocean, but they were too far out to photograph.  So, I just spent a little time relaxing on the beach.  I watched the surfers.  The waves were big and they seemed to be having a great time out there.

Great Blue Heron -- Rodeo Lagoon, CA

I decided to stop at Lake Merritt on my way home.  I was in the mood for getting some bird pictures and Rodeo Lagoon had proven to be something of a disappointment in that regard.  It was a lovely day at the beach, mind you.  I just wanted more birds.

Hank -- Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA

Hank was there, of course.  He's a white pelican from Klamath Falls, OR.  He was injured up there a few years ago and sent down to the lake to live.  I wasn't aware of this until recently, but Lake Merritt is the oldest wildlife reserve in the country.  The folks there take good care of him, feeding him fish, which you can witness first-hand if you're lucky.  I get the impression Hank is pretty happy, all things considered.

Greater Scaup -- Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA

Lesser Scaup

I've gotten better at telling greater scaups and lesser scaups apart.  Greater scaups always look angry.  Lesser scaups usually look either a little dopey or "cool" in an Arthur Fonzerelli kind of way.  Simple, right?

Black-crowned Night Heron -- Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA

Eared Grebe

A horned grebe and an eared grebe were sporting breeding plumage out on the lake.  They'll be heading off North soon, I suppose, along with most of the other waterfowl.  Not Hank, of course, he can't fly.

 Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge & Silver Lake

Day Three

February 23, 2014

Soundtrack:

• The National -- High Violet
• Bob Dylan -- The Rolling Thunder Revue

Sunday.  My parents attend church regularly.  I avoid church regularly.  I was on my own for the day.  So, I planned to head up to Rainier.  It's about three hours away from my parents' house.  That's a reasonable day trip distance for me.  I've never been there.  It should be fun.

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, WA

I didn't make it to Rainier.  I got distracted.

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, WA

Pied-billed Grebe

When I saw the sign along I-5 for Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, I immediately changed my plans.  Well, not quite immediately.  I thought I might have time to do both, but if not I would fall back to plan B, which was to see how close I could get to Mt. St. Helens from the North (suspecting that the Johnston Ridge Observatory would be closed for the season).  One of the great things about travelling alone is that plans can be just rough sketches that are tossed out on a whim if something interesting comes along.

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, WA

Nutria

I began with the Ridgefield auto tour.  I saw three bald eagles on the drive.  They sure have made a comeback.  I grew up in Salem and spent plenty of time going up and down the stretch of I-5 between Seattle and Salem.  I never saw a bald eagle when I was a kid.  Now they're downright common in Washington, and almost as common in Oregon.  If you need proof that taking environmental action can have a positive impact, look no farther than our national symbol.  Nice to see the bald eagle isn't going the way of California's official animal the grizzly bear, which can no longer be found in the state.  There is hope for the future.

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, WA

I enjoyed the auto tour.  There wasn't a huge number of birds and animals to see, but there was enough to keep it fun.  It's a beautiful area.  I'm going to have to visit in the summer.  I suppose there won't be a lot of birds, but I'd like to see how this place changes through the seasons.

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, WA

There's a nice walking tour at Ridgefield as well.  It winds through both forest and wetlands.  I didn't see a whole lot of animals, but it was the middle of the day so that wasn't too surprising.  There was a beaver lodge in one of the large ponds.  Beaver have made a big comeback, too, at least around Salem.  That's another animal I never saw as a kid.  We spent a lot of our summer days on the Willamette River, too.  I went canoeing with my brother a few years ago and they were all over on the river.

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, WA

After wrapping up the walking tour, there was no chance of making it to Rainier with any amount of light.  So, I headed toward Mt. St. Helens.

Silver Lake, WA

There's a visitor's center at Silver Lake.  It has a nice one mile trail that makes for an easy, peaceful hike.  Don't bother paying admission to see the visitor's center's exhibits, it's a half-assed experience.

Hoffstadt Bluffs, WA

I continued up 504 toward St. Helens until I got to the forest learning center.  It was raining and I was entering the snow zone and it was starting to get dark, so I decided to turn around and head back.  For the second visit in a row for me, I'd made a trip to Mt. St. Helens without getting a single photo of the mountain.  At some point in the early afternoon the clouds had come in and completely obscured the damned thing.  I'm sure I'll get another crack at it someday.

Hoffstadt Creek, WA

Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline

The Old and the New

January 6 & 7, 2014

Black-necked Stilt

I went to the estuary Sunday morning to take some pictures.  I had both cameras with me, but since I ended up mainly shooting birds and my zoom lens hadn't arrived yet I used my old camera a lot.  My new lens arrived on Monday so I went back to the estuary to try it out.  This new camera is definitely a game changer.

Again, I've got no real complaints about my old SX40.  I captured some images that I really like on Sunday, including the snowy egret and black-necked stilt photos here at the top of the page.  The funny picture of the white-crowned sparrow was also taken with my old camera.  Such a tough guy, that sparrow.

White-crowned Sparrow -- Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

The old SX40 couldn't have captured these Cooper's Hawk images, though.  It's good with stationary objects, but was never fast enough for moving targets.  There's also a delay of about a second between when the shutter button is pressed and when the picture is actually taken.  So, if it's not the shutter speed burning you it's the delay.

Cooper's Hawk -- Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

This shot of the hawk sitting on a fence?  The SX40 would have handled it fine.  I couldn't have gotten those shots of the bird landing, though.

Cooper's Hawk -- Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

I think that's a cooper's hawk, anyway.  I can't really tell the difference between a cooper's hawk and and a sharp-shinned hawk.

American Avocets -- Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

The 250mm zoom doesn't have the reach of the SX40's zoom.  The pictures are sharper, though, so even though I'm cropping more than before I think the pictures are still crisper than what I was getting with my old camera.  I can only imagine what this thing would do with a nicer lens.

Great Blue Heron -- Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline, CA

Thanksgiving 2013: Birds, Birds, Birds . . . and a Nutria

Birds, Birds, Birds . . . and a Nutria

November 30, 2013

Soundtrack:

• Wire Train -- Between Two Words

Saturday was the day for the long drive home.  Not before taking in some of the local wildlife, though.

Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Great Blue Heron

I've driven by Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge countless times.  It's on the way to the coast and the casino from my parents house.  There are few trips I make to Oregon where I don't end up going to one of those two places.  I'd never stopped at the refuge before this visit.  I had no idea there was so much wildlife so close to my childhood home.

Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

I visited Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge a couple of times in November.  There are some interesting similarities and differences.  Sacramento has a lot more ducks.  The selection was exactly the same, though.  In both places I saw mallards, northern pintails and northern shovelers.  Both places have a lot of coots.  I didn't notice any grebes at Baskett Slough, there are plenty in Sacramento.

Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

The goose populations were very different.  In Sacramento, there are snow geese, ross' geese and white-fronted geese.  It was all canada geese and cackling geese at Baskett Slough.  I read that the Willamette Valley is the exclusive wintering home for certain types of canada geese.  The goose populations were a lot closer in size between the two refuges than the duck populations.  

Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Red-tailed Hawk

Both refuges attract a large number of northern harriers and hawks.  I guess they hang around to eat the ducks and coots?  I saw a harrier buzz over the ducks and geese a couple of times and the waterfowl scattered when they saw the harrier.  The northern harriers I saw in Sacramento all seemed to be interested in the critters in the fields, mice and snakes I assumed.  I saw a  couple of american kestrels at Baskett Slough.

Northern Harrier Buzzing the Geese -- Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

After visiting Baskett Slough, I went back to Salem to have breakfast with the family before heading South for the winter.  Before I left the Salem area, though, I stopped at Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge.  It was a different experience.  There were still a lot of canada/cackling geese (they sure are hard for me to tell apart unless they're right next to each other), but there was a wider variety of other waterfowl and there were bald eagles.

Canada Geese (or Are They Cackling Geese?) -- Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Nutria

 Like Baskett Slough, Ankeny didn't have a lot of ducks.  It had a wide variety, though.  It had mallards, pintails and shovelers, but it also had canvasbacks, buffleheads, hooded mergansers and scaups.  I saw a couple of tundra swans at Baskett Slough, but at Ankeny I saw at least a dozen.  I also saw a nutria.  It's basically a giant South American water rat.

Why do I find this picture to be so funny?  Tundra Swan -- Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Canvasback

I always think of swans as being graceful, elegant birds.  These swans?  Not so much.  These swans spent a lot of time with their asses in the air feeding on something beneath the water.  Awkward.  They were always surround by small fleets of ducks.  I suspect the ducks were hoping to grow up to be big and beautiful like the swans some day.  Isn't there a story about that?

Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge, OR

I saw a juvenile bald eagle in a tree as I was leaving the refuge.  He posed for a while, and then he was joined by another bald eagle.  They flew off together, wrestling in the air as they flew.  It reminded me of our dogs.  So silly.

Bald Eagle -- Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge, OR

After that I headed home.  I took the back way through Oregon, cutting over to Highway 97 at Eugene.  It was an uneventful drive.  Pretty, though.  As always, it was good to get back into California.  For the first time, I think I had an appreciation for the beauty of California's Central Valley.  It's so different from the forested land I'd been driving through for the last week.

Mount Shasta, Highway 97, CA