DAILY PICS VOL. 28

Great pics everybody! :)

Yes, nice virtual bird walk!

YES!
Here's my surprise catch of the day! A lovely little Gold-crowned Kinglet!

A Ruby-crowned in mid air.

OMG Congrats tiger! They are so cute!!

Thanks! It does remind me of white oak, with chestnut oak acorns. Here's a picture of a nuthatch on a nice flaky white oak from today.

A couple days ago I saw a red-breasted and white-breasted nuthatch on my feeder at the same time. Go get the camera, come back to take a picture and there's a house finch instead. s i g h ...

So, claypa, do you keep the camera by the feeder window now?

Aren't those nuthatches wonderful to see?

I'll probably start to do that for this winter. There were quite a few nuthatches in the park today, most of the year you wouldn't see any. They sound so funny, too. reeent... reeent...reent ...

I'm seeing them every day now. One was on the apple tree just outside the fence when I went out this morning. I followed it down towards the creek, hoping for better lighting.

Got a little better picture of my little hummer.

Good job Marilyn!!!

These cattle egrets are bountiful here around the lakes. Since they want to maintain their reputation of them being prefixed 'cattle', they are often found in agricultural fields where cattle are used. They eat the insects disturbed by the cattle in the grass. They are also fond of riding on their backs! You can also see a myna to see if it gets anything. This is s cropped pic of a lzoomed long shot.

Here is a shot with 3 different birds. Hope you can identify all of them! Easily, from their silhouettes. They were quite far for my cam to capture details.

Nice pic Dinu! (#1)

All the action is over head today. I spotted this Red-tailed Hawk.

=

He was joined by a second RT

ooops! should have been this pic.

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Then this? showed up

This message was edited Nov 1, 2007 2:57 PM

+

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Nice!

The '+' picture looks like a California Condor to me.

Wrong wing shape for CA Condor (they don't have that bulge on the secondaries), and they don't have yellow feet and bill either.

The more I look at the pics, the more I think it's structurally spot on for Golden Eagle, and the buffy under-tail coverts also fit. Maybe carrying something yellow in its bill?

Resin

Here's a pic of a California Condor I thought looked very similar:

Very short, broad tail, and slender head, in comparison. In Adelbertcat's pic, the tail length is equal to or slightly more than the width of the wing base; in the condor, it's barely over half of it.

Resin

This bird was a long distance off but it appeared to be a very large bird. My first thought when I saw it was that it was an eagle. I was hoping that he would come closer and turn into the sun so I could make out the color better. The brief looks at his under side hinted at a reddish brown color but not positive.. The belly seemed to be lighter.

I've seen Calif. Condors and this bird was big, but not that big..

I lightened one of the pics as much as I can to show the underside. Does that help?

This is a picture of a Horned Grebe in winter plumage. I was able to get close to one feeding near shore. I would only move forward to the next tree when the Grebe was under water on a dive. I was able to stand behind a tree at the edge of the water for several minutes before the Grebe noticed me.

Nice pic Gary!!

The Horned Grebe in winter plumage is a rather drab bird, but in breeding plumage it turn in to quite a dandy.

edited typo

This message was edited Nov 2, 2007 6:34 AM

To show the difference, this is a picture of a Horned Grebe in full breeding plumage, taken on May 1, 2007.

edited typo.

This message was edited Nov 2, 2007 6:36 AM

Fine pictures Gary.

Wow, what a difference! Thanks Gary!