Cameron's trip to Alaska

Cameron just spent the last few months in Alaska researching shore birds and he has some photos to show for it. They will rupture you eye balls and you will bleed into your bins: Alaska
I don't have anything else to report though keep up the good work!

Photographer for a Day

Hey All,

Liz and I are looking into some camera lenses that might allow me to take some bird shots.  Today I borrowed a 200mm lens.  Photos below.

California Condor Trip

Matt and I headed out from Santa Barbara last weekend with three friends for a fun birding trip. We ended up with just over 60 species, which was higher than I expected for the time of year. The trip included some driving, but it was fun to check out several habitats.


Our two best birds were California Condor (385) and Reddish Egret (386). After driving about 2.5 hours to the Condor spot, we had a lot of difficulty finding the place where they had been viewed. While driving around, we saw a huge soaring bird, which we all hoped to be our target bird. It wasn't; but we were all happy to get a Golden Eagle on our way to finding the Condors.


Other highlights:
Yellow-Billed Magpie
3 Nuthatches (Pygmy was a lifer for Matt--I missed the Red-Breasted)
Olive-Sided Flycatchers (ordering malted beverages)
White-Headed Woodpecker (lifer for me)
Hairy Woodpecker
Great-Horned, Barn, and Northern Pygmy Owls (the NPOW was heard only)
Lark Sparrow
Bullock's Oriole


Matt Grube took some nice photos, which you can find below.  These photos may help boost our Chinese readership, to whom Matt would like to give a shout-out.  Nay Ho Ma and Gong Hee Fat Choy.

Farming

Still farming here and have not made any birding eforts in a bit but we are bout to go down to Stone Harbor again this week with Ryan, Kat, Chelsea, and the fam. So I will likely have some reporting to do. Hopefully about some more rails!
Peace guys

Summer doldrums

The birds are still good, but no new reports or sightings.

Kevin and I are planning a California Condor expedition soon.

Farming

Farming.

P.S. Saw a Redheaded Woodpecker fly over me as I drove back home from one of our fields yesterday.

Love you guys.

Santa Cruz Island.

Wells boys, after almost 2 full years living here in SB, I finally made the trip out to the Channel Islands. I was excited to make the trip out with Beth, and to take her parents out for a day-trip adventure. The islands have been part of the National Park family for,some time now - no doubt a product of the intensely important dynamic endemic population of thousands of flora, fauna, avifauna, and marine life found there. Basically, it's the North American Galopagos. I was most excited about finding a SANTA CRUISE ISLAND SCRUB JAY 379, and we we did -- and we worked for it. I will thank Bill Ellis here, for sticking with me through a 4 hour hike to an oak grove where we had a slim chance at spotting one. After not seeing or hearing any sign of a Scrub Jay for quite some time, I had about 10 seconds of searching left in me. I was ready to turn around and leave the oak grove. Suddenly, two SCISJ flew in all massive and blue. We were able to get great looks for about ten minutes, and call over Beth and her mom for some dramatic views too. YES!! Other good birds were: SOOTY SHEARWATER 380. (lifer) Common murre 381 Allen's hummingbird* (*island endemic subspecies) Pacific Slope Flycatcher* Bewicks Wren* Loggerhead Shrike* Rufous Crowned Sparrow* Song Sparrow* western meadowlark Rock wren Kessie rtha Red tailed Big ray - ven No flick Acorn wood Spotty tow Brown pelly Western gull D.c corm Hermit thrush House finch Peregrine falcon soaring and diving MODO whimbrel Black oystercatcher Barn swallow Caspian tern