birding, photography and living with pet birds
Posted in warbler on Dec 10th, 2011
During our trip to Arizona, our guide Matt Brown took us into the mountains near Fort Huachuca. The trip up was nerve wracking because the turns were tight and the elevation was very high. The view from the top was pretty spectacular. Up in the mountains is the American Redstart. They require an elevation between [...]
Posted in warbler on Oct 9th, 2011
Yellow-rumped Warblers are beautiful birds. They’re often overlooked because during certain times of the year they’re everywhere. During our Arizona trip, we started saying “Oh, I see something! Wait, it’s just a Yellow-rumped Warbler.” The Yellow-rumped Warbler is a combination of two species that used to be considered separate species. The way to tell the [...]
Posted in warbler on Sep 16th, 2011
I’ve seen a lot of warblers. Many, many yellow and brown warblers. Arizona had a black warbler. Or to be more specific, a Black-throated Gray Warbler. He really is black throated! Oh my goodness, he’s cute. He has two little yellow spots near his eyes. Here is a side view. And here is a dead-on [...]
Posted in warbler on Aug 28th, 2011
During our trip to Arizona, I probably saw 20 different warblers. A lot of warblers and flycatchers aren’t particularly remarkable because their feathers are grey and they don’t even have distinctive eye rings. But they sure are cute. This is a Lucy’s Warbler. He’s completely unremarkable except for a tawny crown. I was a little [...]
Posted in warbler on Jul 10th, 2011
Yesterday we went to my favorite birding spot in Heber City. The water levels are incredibly high because we’ve gotten so much rain this year. The trails were a bit wet, especially towards the end of the trail. But what I want to show you today is quite fantastic. First we’ll start with a great [...]
Posted in warbler on May 1st, 2011
I’ve seen a lot of Ruby-crowned Kinglets in the past six months but I could only post one blurry picture before. I finally gotten some decent shots of them while in Arizona. They’re very busy little guys. Their eyes look huge because of the white eye ring. I didn’t get any great pictures [...]
Posted in warbler on Jan 2nd, 2011
I have now seen two kinds of kinglets! I saw the Ruby-crowned Kinglet back in October, but the picture wasn’t good enough to warrant its own post. You see, the Ruby-crowned Kinglet is named for this red patch on the top of his head that rises when he’s displaying during mating season. My picture doesn’t [...]
Posted in warbler on Sep 18th, 2010
The first level of taking pictures of birds is to get an identifiable picture of the bird. This is a Yellow Warbler. The males have red lines on their breast. The next level of photography is to take a picture where the bird is doing something interesting. Here, he’s bathing and he looks so happy! [...]
Posted in warbler on May 30th, 2010
The last day of the Great Salt Lake Bird Festival, Jon and I went on a 6am to 6pm birding trip of Deseret Ranch. This ranch is enormous. We took a bus that drove 200 miles on the ranch. It was amazing, I saw antelope, a moose, jackrabbits and a badger. For lunch we stopped [...]
Posted in warbler on Oct 17th, 2009
Northern California have tons of warblers. So far I have seen Wilson’s Warblers, Yellow-Rumped Warblers, and Townsend’s Warblers. The Townsend’s Warblers are distinguishable by their raccoon eyes. These guys are very shy. I saw them several times before I could ever capture a picture. The picture above was the only picture that I captured for [...]