In Focus Daily

At last! After three years, the Western Bluebirds have nested in one of my nest boxes! I am thrilled. And it seems that I overlooked a previous clutch. While this Dad was feeding Mom in the box, two youngsters were begging for whatever he had to offer Mom. He shooed them away but they didn’t go far. I did some quick research in my copy of “Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds“ (sometimes I actually have the answer at hand without resorting to Google AI) to discover that Dad is left in charge of the fledglings when Mom prepares for a second clutch. I have no way of knowing if they used the box for the first clutch. I have to admit that between traveling, preparing two photography presentations and printing for exhibits, both of which kept me inside, and the ridiculously hot weather, I haven’t paid much attention to what was going on in my garden. When I first saw this bird at the nest box late the other day, the nearest camera already had the 600mm lens AND the 2X teleconverter attached. I just grabbed it and didn’t take the time to switch lenses so I even though I stepped back inside the patio door, as far as I could without losing the view, the bird really fills the frame. I’m looking forward to sharing more images as my little backyard family drama progresses.

“Stop the car!!” The other evening, I was with friends leaving a meeting in Davis just as the sun was going down. As we turned west, one of the most spectacular sunsets I’ve ever seen here lit up the sky. We weren’t the only ones pulling over. It’s not often that we have great sunsets, especially this time of year when cloudless blue skies are the norm. The sun radiating against the unusual cloud-filled skies threw god-beams that stretched far into the heavens, well beyond the clouds. Another rarity, for me anyway, is the fact that I have to admit that I took the first image of the setting sun with my iPhone 16. 😳 We left the first spot to find a better vantage point. By the time we found it, the sun had dipped to the horizon and most of the god-beams above the clouds had disappeared. I took out my Nikon Z8 with the 180-600 already attached (it was the only lens I had with me) and focused on the colors and the clouds and what was left of the god-beams. I was glad we stopped the car.

As I headed home the other morning, the Marsh Wren was singing up a storm. I heard him but didn’t see him at first. The breeze was quite stiff and the reeds were swaying in the breeze. This bird is so small that the see clusters at the top of the reeds camouflaged him. When I finally saw him, he was clinging to the top of a reed, as if hanging on for dear life. He stopped singing as I passed by but posed for me with that typical tail up wren pose.

The goats are doing their thing along the Ferrari Pond Trail. There are 470 of them corralled by temporary electric fences and as they mow down an area of drying vegetation to prevent wildfires, the goatherds move them to the next area. One of their favorite treats is Chicory. It is in full bloom now and the goats nibble the blue flowers and the leaves leaving mostly bare stems in their wake. The other morning, as I passed by the herd, the newly bared area had what remained of numerous Chicory plants that had been almost entirely stripped of leaves and blue flowers. A lone male Lesser Goldfinch clung to one bare stem, searching for what was left over for him to eat.

Esperanza means “hope” in Spanish and that’s one of the many names that this colorful plant goes by. It’s also known as Yellow Bells and Yellow Trumpetflower. Whatever its name, its magnificent display of yellow-orange flowers offers hope that the Anna’s Hummingbirds will find it. It is drought tolerant, thrives in full sun, and in the kind of summer heat we have here. I took this shot of a female Anna’s Hummingbird in my friend Truman’s garden the other morning. I was surprised when I looked at my images later because the hummingbird’s wings are frozen in place, something I usually avoid when I’m taking photographs of hummingbirds in flight because I prefer to see their wings blurred. I was shooting in the bright late morning light and I neglected to change some settings in my camera from earlier in the day when the light was much dimmer. I did like the image despite the frozen wings but I will make sure I pay better attention to camera settings next time.

The Common Yellow-throat shows up often when I have my Merlin Bird ID app set to sound but it has not been a common sight for me. In the almost three years I’ve lived in Lincoln Hills, I’ve seen it only one other time before yesterday despite its calling just overhead but out of sight. Finally, yesterday, I managed to photograph it in the reeds and I caught it singing its tantalizing song.

When the water is still, reflections in it are almost reversible.

After you’ve seen a Great Egret gulp down a frog or a large fish, it’s always surprising when they gulp down a guppie sized fish. They must consider it an appetizer.

One of the five Coyote pups from this year’s litter realizes everyone else is somewhere else and heads out to look for them. I could see that at least three of the pups were nestled in some deep grass a fifty or so feet away. The rest were out there, I’m sure, but most of the time they blend in with their surroundings and it takes a while of staring out into the grasses before your eyes accliamate and discern them. The family group has nine members, the five pups, the parents, and two yearlings from last year’s litter that are helping out with the pups.

This morning at the Salt Pond, I realized that love is still in the air even though it is almost summer and the temperatures here are in the triple digits. At least love is on the minds of the Black-necked Stilts. The male kept swishing the water with his beak while she waited patiently. After mating, they caressed affectionately before going their separate ways in search of breakfast.

There’s not too much bird activity at the Salt Pond these days but this Snowy Egret managed to find a little something to gulp down.

Breeding season is over so the tutu is mostly gone from this Great Egret but the ballet moves continue.

When the gorgeous Rufous Motmot appeared near the Hide, there was palpable excitement among our group of photographers. The Rufous Motmot is the second largest and perhaps the most spectacular of the motmots. The only other Motmot I’ve seen is the Lessons’ Motmot in Costa Rica which is gorgeous too but doesn’t have the rufous coloration. The other thing I noticed is that the eye of the Rufous Motmot is black while the Lesson’s is red. The Rufous’s black eye clearly reflects the bug tarp at the Hide and the Hide is also there so I guess technically, so am I, hence, the title of this post, “Me and the Motmot.”

The Long-wattled Umbrellabird was one of the clowns of the Cloud Forest in Ecuador. The male’s umbrella headdress was an amusing feature that as I mentioned in a previous post, reminded me more of Moe Howard of the Three Stooges, than of an umbrella. The female, on the right, had more of a 50’s pompadour, kind of an Elvis look. Whenever they arrived at the perches near the Hide, they made quite a commotion, sometimes causing the perches to fall down. They were always a welcome sight, hairdos and all.

A fledgling Ecuadorian Thrush begs for some banana as its parent prepares itself to feed the begging chick. The Ecuadorian Thrush is mostly endemic to Ecuador although its range extends slightly into Peru. It is closely related to the American Robin. Unlike the Robin, it is a relatively drab bird with no brightly colored feathers like its cousin. It was, however, quite entertaining to watch how the adult reacted to the chick’s demands. In this image, it almost appears to be deciding whether to give the banana to the chick.

Another Tanager? Cornell Lab Birds of the World states that recent research reveals that the Buff-throated Saltator, once thought to be related to grosbeaks, is more closely related to Tanagers. So, add another tanager to the long list from Ecuador. And although it is one of the more widespread of the genus, I saw and photographed it only once when it made a brief appearance at the fruit feeders. I think this Saltator has some attitude!

A juvenile Double-crested Cormorant stands on a piling near the Dupont Nature Center just off Delaware Bay. Its teal colored eye is prominent in the midst of the orange facial skin of the young bird.

It turns out the Golden Bellied Flycatcher catches more than flies. A moth attracted to the light at the hide at Sachatamia Lodge in Ecuador fell victim to the Flycatcher. It’s scales, falling off as the bird shook its prey, fill the air.

The Pale-mandibled Araçari was my second favorite bird in Ecuador, after the tiny, charming and adorable Booted Racket-tail. The Araçaris were gregarious, raucous, and voracious eaters, consuming great chunks of banana when they arrived, often in twos and threes, dominating the feeders. Bananas were always on the menu. Their long, serrated tongues helped maneuver the huge chunks of fruit down their gullets, usually after they’d flipped it up in the air to reposition it.

Slaughter Beach in Delaware was a bit rocky and the peeps had lots of stones and crevasses to check out as they searched for Horseshoe Crab eggs, the seasonal delicacy. Most of the peeps I photographed the day we went beach panning there were Semipalmated Sandpipers, small shorebirds on their spring migration north. I was disappointed to see that, according to Cornel Labs All About Birds, Semipalmated Sandpipers have been added as an Orange Alert Tipping Point species, birds that are showing long-term population losses and accelerated recent declines within the past decade. I was glad to be able to photograph so many of these adorable little peeps while I have the chance.