Fun Times Part 1

    Currently in Almaty, Kazakhstan, looking out the window at the gorgeous Tian Shan mountains. However, before I get to all that fun stuff, have the first part of a not-so-brief recap of my fun early summer! What a fun life I live!

5/24/15

    Went to Big Sur. Fun day. Lots of water.

Sea Otter raft through scope

Breeding colony of Brandt's Cormorants. Really interesting how the nests are equidistant from each other to prevent the birds from pecking at their neighbors.

Breeding colony of Common Murre

The clouds just beginning to clear up at Hurricane Point. Crap this place is gorgeous

One of the majestic California Condors soaring by. This guy is yellow tag 51. According to a brief search, the bird is male, nicknamed "Crush", and just turned 14 a few weeks ago.

The sight of these enormous birds flying next to sheer cliffs and above roaring ocean is somewhat overwhelming.

Hoary Comma in the coastal forest

Wrentit being actually somewhat confiding.

Stinging Phacelia (Phacelia malvifolia)

Two color forms of the lovely Monterey Paintbrush (Castilleja latifolia) in situ

Pelagic Cormorant

Striking Western Thistle (Cirsium occidentale) growing in the salt spray.

Beach Evening-primrose (Camissoniopsis cheiranthifolia)

Orange-crowned Warbler being much more cooperative than usual.

6/3/15

    Foothills Park. Late wildflowers are cool.

Clarkias are pretty awesome. Ruby Chalice Clarkia (C. rubicunda) and Chaparral Clarkia (C. affinis), respectively.

California Buttercup (Ranunculus californicus)

One of the late stunnahs, I present the Mariposa Lily (Calochortus venustus)

Hello there Tiger Whiptail

6/3/15

    Went to San Francisco in the morning. Fairly uneventful but some decent-ish photos.

My first SF Acorn Woodpecker.

A surprisingly cooperative and not surprisingly stunning Wilson's Warbler.

At Fort Mason, I tried scoping Alcatraz for the continuing Northern Gannet but failed miserably. However, I did get to see this entertaining sight of many Western Gulls pursuing a fishing boat.

6/5/15

    Went to Pearson-Arastradero Preserve. Yeah late wildflowers are really cool.

Muehlenberg's Centaury (Zeltnera muehlenbergii), the first representative of Gentianaceae to arrive on my year lists

Skunkbush (Navarretia squarrosa), a lovely plant that lives up to its name in smell. Not sure why it's called skunkbush over skunkweed though as the plant was something like 4 inches tall.

Day-flying Moth (Heliothodes dimunutiva) nectaring on California Aster (Symphyotrichum chilense)

Harvest Brodiaea (Brodiaea elegans), one of my faves.

Sylvan Hairstreak

California Rose (Rosa californica), with a Flower Tumbling Beetle (Mordella hubbsi) and some ladybug larva on it.

6/6/15

    Joined Will Brooks and Gena Zolotar to participate in the Palo Alto Summer Bird Count. Fun. birdy morning at Stanford.

Dead toad covered in giant ants

Western Kingbird perched on the Dish itself

Stunning view of the Bay as the sun poked out of the clouds

Cooperative California Ground Squirrel. Then again, all of these buggers at the Dish literally give 0 shits about people.

Lovely Oregon Dark-eyed Junco

Grasshopper Sparrow in nice full view

Golden Eagle soaring overhead, always nice to see

Barn Owl pellet dump / boneyard at the Carnegie Institute. 

Recently fledged Dark-eyed Junco at Deer Creek. Also seen in this area but not photographed were my first Dusky-footed Woodrat (somehow Will was able to spot one in the midst of a willow after the branch shook) and a Coyote crossing the street.

To be continued...

Lucky

    Back on our lovely 2:45 excursion, Will told me about his experiences with "abundant Lazuli Buntings" at the Dish Trail. That combination of 3 words immediately got my attention. So a few days later, on the 12th, we planned to meet up and go look for said buntings. As Gunn and Palo Alto High Schools ended at different times, I had a good few hours to kill before he got out of class. Of course, I spent this time snooping around Stanford for bugs. For this trip, I only had my little point and shoot camera with not-so-great zoom as the DSLR was too hard to smuggle out of the house on a school day. The difference in photo quality definitely showed but the little camera's macro capabilities were pretty decent.

Campyloneura virgula, an introduced Mirid species from Eurasia.

Some spider I suspect to be a Dictyna sp. Both of these critters were found on a Hollyleaf Cherry buzzing with invertebrate life.

    Movin' on, I stopped by a puddle on the side of the trail in the remnants of "Lake" Lagunita, joking to myself that I might find tadpoles or something. I actually did find tadpoles. And some other things as well.

My first Echo Azure of the year

Western Toad tadpole.

Baby toad walking on water

In probably less than 20 gallons right next to a busy trail, an entirely new ecosystem. Weird how people don't notice these things.

I continued biking and where this pipe ended in another puddle, holy crap that's a lot of toads (all of those dots on the edge of the water).

    I arrived at the Stanford Dr. entrance to the Dish Trail and waited for Will to arrive. Short story shorter: our short hike was really productive.

Although this was my best shot of the Lazuli Buntings, I did get amazing binocular views. The mouthwateringly blue head contrasting with a warm orange breast and white belly filling up my 15x view is one sight I will not forget.

While ascending the slope, this beautiful Gopher Snake silently emerged from the tall vegetation and casually slithered across the trail.

Snake getting paparazzied by 3 parties. 

One of the unsquashed Coniontis beetles running across the trail.

The Grasshopper Sparrow was the most cooperative one I had ever seen, first singing clearly then landing on the fence. Like the Lazuli Bunting, I got amazing binocular views and really crappy shots. Here is Will's money shot with a better camera: https://www.flickr.com/photos/111721922@N04/17580215091/in/dateposted/

    After the exciting encounters with the two songbirds, we headed back down the hill and Will returned home. With some extra time to kill before needing to go back to school for science awards, I went through Frenchmans Park to look for migrants. And, again, I actually did, with nice views of a Warbling Vireo in addition to several Wilson's Warblers. An Alligator Lizard that slithered away into the tall grass before I could get a picture was also a very nice touch, being the second year reptile obtained in the day.

My shoes after walking through the overgrown trail. Although these seeds were annoying to remove, they were still much better than the abundant thistles that constantly stabbed me as I moved.

    With still more time to kill, I stopped by the Dish Trail again, coming in through a different entrance. There were many singing Lazuli Buntings on this side as well, and in addition, a Western Kingbird was a nice surprise in the chaparral. 

Coelocnemis californica with my hand for comparison.

Hello there.

Toad's eye view of the puddle as I biked back to school. Amazing how life is.

    Four days later on the 16th of May, I woke up at 6:15 and did one of my standard bayside birding trips with my usual camera, covering more local areas in search of migrants. That overcast morning would turn out to be one of the best yet in the year.

Striped Skunk seen at around 6:40. I first noticed this cute animal by a HUGE fluffy tail moving around in the tall grass. Interesting how even when the skunk was in full view, no runners seemed to take notice of its magnificence. Also interesting how people get up early to run. Gross.

Some of the remaining / summering Bonaparte's Gulls still at Pond A2E. The individual on the rightmost pillar is in lovely alternate plumage, with an all black head.

Laddy da photographing swallows at Sunnyvale WPCP. From left to right, Cliff Swallow, a tricky individual that seems to be a juvenile Tree Swallow with ruffled plumage creating the spot on the breast, and 

BANK SWALLOW. It's always nice when rare birds show themselves like this. A toast to my first self-found (county) rarity of 2015!

Lesser Flamingo. I last encountered this probable escaped fella during January at Alviso. http://insertcreativetitleheregkoprs.blogspot.com/2015/02/january-joys-part-2.html

Glassy waters

As I left the water treatment plant, I found a small flock of Yellow Warblers in one of the bushes. Such lovely lovelies.

15 minutes of standing around and manual focusing later, I managed these shots of both Vaux's and White-throated Swifts. Such badass aerodynamic shapes.

Barn Swallow in foreground and Green Heron in background

One of many Canada Goose families.

Western and Clark's Grebes at Salt Pond A3W as I headed back from Sunnyvale. If they were closer this would be a pretty interesting comparison shot.

One of several Western Kingbirds passing through Salt Pond A2E

As I saw a flycatcher pop out of the eucalyptus, I first thought Olive-sided. However, thinking it was really unlikely for the low elevation, I entered this bird in ebird as a Western Wood-pewee. Bird turned out to be Olive-sided lol.  

Stalking a Black-crowned Night Heron stalking whatever food exists in Stevens Creek

And a second Olive-sided, perched silently in the bare branches of the marsh by Charleston Road. The same situation with the previous individual also occurred with this bird.

Creeping on a creeping Brown Creeper

Swainson's Thrush, always a nice bird to see.

Pacific-slope Flycatcher peeping out of the eucalyptus in Shoreline. 

The eucalyptus grove was full of flies for the flycatcher to flycatch, including this beautiful, iridescent gold Thaumatomyia glabra. According to bugguide, this species feeds on root aphids and I suspect it may also feed on psyllids as the flies seemed to be somewhat clustered around the eucalyptus psyllids covering many of the leaves.

    Finally, just before going on the bicycle underpass to leave Shoreline, through the roar of cars from 101 I could hear the faint but beautiful melody of a Swainson's Thrush. A gentle breeze blew through the trees and the sound of leaves joined the lonesome song of the bird, probably still on its way to some sheltered thickets a bit farther away from civilization. Migration is amazing. Until next time, enjoy life and love nature!

I would also like to give a special shout out to Will Brooks for showing me the Lazuli Buntings and for helping me with some identifications on this page, namely confirming the Olive-sided Flycatchers and Bank Swallow. Thanks!