Bird Watching

When visiting my son and daughter-in-law in Redondo Beach, CA in early June, I discovered a Hummingbird's nest.  I took a picture of the empty nest to show how small it is.  Later the Hummingbird returned.  The second picture shows the bird sitting on the nest.  A while later, my son told me that three birds hatched and the children enjoyed watching the small birds from their window.

                                             



I was at the Famosa Slough in San Diego recently where there was little bird activity.  Then, I spotted what I think was a young Great Blue Heron right in front of me.

The Heron shown at the left below was just hanging out.  Then, along came another Heron.

After a few minutes, the second Heron took off, followed by the first.   They landed in a little island in the center of the Slough, where it appears to be nice and quiet.

Walked to the Famosa Slough twice this week.  On the first trip, a bird popped out of a fir tree about a block from the Slough.  The bird just stood on the cement wall long enough for me to whip out my camera and take its picture.  The bird was a Juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk.  I had been looking for a hawk for my photo collection and was so surprised that it lingered long enough for me to take four photos.  Then, just a quickly, it popped back into the fir tree.

Juvenile Red-Shouldered Hawk

On Saturday, I returned to the Famosa Slough to attend a monthly Nature and Bird Walk.  I benefit from these walks because the bird watchers usually can identify a bird for me, since I'm such a "newbie."  I usually pore through pictures on the Internet to match the image I've photographed, but sometimes, I just can't find anything similar.  That's where these experienced bird watchers are such a resource.   Also, they are gracious and quite accommodating in helping a "newbie" in identifying birds.

On each visit, I had been watching for a Night Heron, but never found one.  However, this time, the tour leader pointed out a Juvenile Night Heron.  I had to take the photo through a chain link fence.  I've learned that you can't wait for perfect circumstances.

Juvenile Night Heron     

We proceeded to the other side of West Point Loma Blvd to see what we could find.  At the end of the property near the "8" (a major highway) were several Great Blue Herons, Great White Egrets and Snowy Egrets.  They were seemingly oblivious to the highway traffic nearby.  While I watching them, I spied a very small butterfly.    

As we returned to the east side of West Point Loma near the chain link fence, the Juvenile Night Heron had departed and in it's place was the "territorial" Snowy Egret that I wrote about months ago.  He apparently has no problem protecting what he considers his property.

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