Western Scrub Jay photo by William G. Mancebo
The warm autumn days we have been experiencing here in Northern California have made for some great bird watching! We have Scrub Jays here year round but the Steller’s Jay you will see below is a bird we don’t see all that much. I have posted them both here so you can see the difference between the two.
Western Bluebird photo by Walter Ammann
The gentle and beautiful bluebird was once very common in North America. The bluebird is a beneficial bird, eating many insects that ruin our crops and gardens such as cutworms and grasshoppers. Today, the number of bluebirds has diminished due to habitat loss, overuse of pesticides and predators. [continue reading…]
Golden Eagle juvenile photo by Hans Nydahl
I was driving home this afternoon in northern California and saw a large bird soaring fairly low over a very large grassy field off the road. I thought at first it was a Turkey Vulture, as they are abundant in our area, but I noticed it had a definite white tail with a wide black band. I had to pull off the side of the road and watch it for awhile to make sure I could identify it once I got home. [continue reading…]
American Kestrel (male) photo by Clive Emary
Yesterday my wife and I were relaxing on the back porch, as we like to do whenever we get the chance, listening to the myriad of songbirds in our backyard. Out of nowhere, I see out of the corner of my eye, a medium sized flash of a bird, rolling and tumbling with the greatest of ease across my pond. I saw the flash of a striped tail and barred under-wings as she banked before my eyes and disappeared into a smallish scrub oak next to my pond in the midst of my feeding stations.
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