This month has seriously been crazy. In addition to going to Georgia for Camp TALON, I also went to Santa Barbara to tour the Reagan Ranch. While there I was able to do some sightseeing and birding. At the Beverly Hills Hotel we saw lots of lifers Mitred Parakeets: Then we went to the Chinese Theatre and that area to see the Hollywood sign: At our hotel there was yearbird Hooded Oriole: As we drove around we saw lots of yearbirds Band-tailed Pigeons: Then we went birding up by Ojai. I spotted a decent rarity, an American Redstart: Then found a pretty California Sister: After a small issue with getting trapped behind a private gate, we drove to Las Casitas lake, where I saw yearbirds White-breasted Nuthatch and Cassin's Kingbird: As well as yearbirds Great-tailed Grackles: Adorable baby Western Grebes and baby Pied-billed Grebe: Lifer Oak Titmouse: Yearbird Phainopepla: After spending some time in Santa Barbara (and finding lifer Scaly-breatsed Munia in the process) we drove to find some Yellow-billed Magpies: Adult and Juvenile lifers Yellow-billed Magpies (the young one was the only one who would let me get close enough for a decent picture): We also saw yearbird California Scrub-Jay: Yearbirds Acorn Woodpeckers were everywhere: Then we went to the Santa Clara River Estuary and got some pictures of American Avocet: Lifer Snowy Plover, which were nesting in the area: Least Terns were nesting and dive-bombing every bird that came near their territories: Least Tern egg! We also saw yearbird Western Sandpiper, my first one in breeding plumage. The poor bird had an injured wing. Heermann's Gull: Then we went to look for White-tailed Kites and saw them hunting! Then, of course as the highlight of our trip, we took the ferry out to Santa Cruz island to see the Island Scrub-Jays which inhabit only that island. Song Sparrow: Juvenile Spotted Towhee: The gorgeous lifer (obviously) Island Scrub-Jay: Island Fence Lizard: Woodland Skipper: Male Red-shafted Northern Flicker: Echo Azure: Skipper sp.: Loggerhead Shrike, island subspecies, the grayest version of this bird: Lifer Hutton's Vireo: Santa Cruz Island Fox: Western and California Gulls: California Gull: On the way back we got a great show by a ton of Common Dolphins: Lifer Sooty Shearwater: Humpback Whale: On our way back to LAX we stopped to look one more time for Rufous-crowned Sparrow. Didn't see the Sparrow but the guide ahead of us on the trail found a Western Patch-nosed Snake: And we also saw yearbird California Thrasher: Well that was an amazing trip! It was beautiful weather and LA traffic wasn't that bad. Overall another successful trip!
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Where do I even begin with this one? This trip was absolutely amazing. The opportunity provided by the Georgia Audubon Society, Bob Sargant and Julie Duncan is just unfathomable. The last day of May I left to fly from Twin Falls to Salt Lake City to Georgia, nearly 9 hours of travel time. Some incredible people housed me for the night and the next day we drove off to Macon where I met the group of 15 people I would be with for the next 6 days. We hopped on a bus and drove off to Saint Simons Island, where we stayed at an incredible place whose staff woke up half an hour early to serve us an early breakfast. Many thanks to them for amazing food for every meal! Since we visited so many places and I find it hard to remember where things are, especially with a group, I figured I'd go about this trip report with my best photos first, and then the best birds but maybe not so good photos, and then the photos of birds that meant something to me particularly. Especially since there are 163 photos here to go through, so you don't get bored looking at bleh photo after bleh photo. I won't label which ones were lifers for me since most of them are. Also, I will probably squish two or three photos together in a line so it may be hard to see the photos. If you'd like to see all of the photos in full, they are all in the gallery along with some I didn't include. Here goes! I'll start off with the amazing Roseate Spoonbills, by far one of the coolest birds we were able to see. These were taken at Little Saint Simons Island: At the same location, we saw some beautiful White Ibis: Boat-tailed Grackles were everywhere, but we got the best photos at this location: Mottled Ducks and a female Painted Bunting, same location: A little farther along on Little Saint Simons Island, we visited an amazing rookery full of Great and Snowy Egrets, Wood Stork, and Anhinga. Alligators at miscellaneous places around Georgia: That's a young one. This is a 9 ft adult: The largest one we saw, an 11 ft one: Broadhead Skinks (top and middle left) and a Six-lined Racerunner (middle right and bottom): Green Anoles: Eastern Fence Lizard and a Brown Anole: Interesting plant and insect life: This is a Pitcher Plant, a carnivorous plant much like the Venus Flytrap: Common Buckeye: Imperial Moth: Weird bug: Crazy looking Caterpillar: Assassin Bug: Blue Dasher: A largus beetle: A tiny scorpion: Black-necked Stilt: These are Least Terns. We saw tons of them and also got to see them nesting! Wilson's Plover. We also got to see adorable baby plovers, but the photos aren't very good so they're coming later. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher: Osprey on a nest: Yellow-throated Warbler: Cumberland Wild Horses: Sandwich Tern: Black Skimmer: If you're scared of spiders, avert your eyes! We saw tons. A massive Wolf Spider and Orb Weavers: A Water Snake: Slider: Can't forget the beautiful Northern Cardinal: At our last stop we were able to see a beautiful Prothonotary Warbler, and then a second showed up! Female Boat-tailed Grackle: Now we're moving into the not-so-good pictures of good species! Here are the incredible Red-cockaded Woodpeckers we were privileged to see: They were checking nests. Here's the camera they used, and the picture of the eggs inside: Here's the habitat we were in, with those really crazy Longleaf Pines: At the same location we got to hear lots of Bachman's Sparrows, but they're so hard to see in the open that this is the best photo I got of one: Gull-billed Tern: Tricolored and Green Heron: We heard lots of Clapper Rails, and at one point we actually got to see one! Beautiful male Painted Bunting... darn bird wouldn't turn his head! Another female Painted Bunting: Barred Owl: Beautiful Red-headed Woodpeckers: Incredible Swallow-tailed Kite, eating on the wing as well! Black-bellied Whistling Duck: Yellow-crowned Night-Heron flying over: These are definitely the world's best photos of a Least Bittern and American Oystercatcher: Wood Stork flying over: Another Laughing Gull: Marsh Rabbit: A really stunning Summer Tanager! Black-necked Stilt with an adorable baby: Black-necked Stilt and a Glossy Ibis: Common Gallinule: Wilson's Plover with chick: Common Ground-Dove: The rarest bird we saw was this Blackburnian Warbler. They are normally in higher altitudes with pines and other coniferous trees, but we found this one on Little Saint Simons Island, almost right on the ocean! You can see she's panting. Fiddler Crabs: Blue Crab and Hypanus-type Ray: A pair of Gray Kingbirds, known to nest in this parking lot: Tiger Beetle, very well camouflaged against the sand: Manitees and Bottlenose Dolphins: Ruddy Turnstone with a Willet: Blue Grosbeak: Armadillo! Finally, the not-so-good ones that I care about: Carolina Wren: We heard tons of Northern Parula but this is my best photo of one: White-eyed Vireo: Pileated Woodpecker, a species I've been looking for forever! Sandwich Tern and a Forester's Tern in the same photo: Black Skimmer with a fish: Brown Thrasher: A Fuzzybean flower: My first Ruby-throated Hummingbird and my only photo of an Orchard Oriole the whole trip: There were lots of butterflies(left column down, then right column down: Spicebush Swallowtail, Carolina Satyr, Phaon Crescent, Queen, Palamedes Swallowtail, Little Yellow, Eastern Black Swallowtail): The last thing I want to cover is the landscapes we encountered: Phew! If you made it to the end, congratulations! That was a lot to go through. The trip was incredible and everyone who worked on making it possible deserves a huge thank you. Thank you Camp TALON for being an amazing experience!
The past few days I've been enjoying some relaxing birding. I saw a Sora for the first time: Side-blotched Lizard and Great Basin Fence Lizard: Common Nighthawk: Yellow-breasted Chat: The sun today: Finally, a Violet-green Swallow:
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Youtube:The first Kestrel chick fed!
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