Spring is Here

The first day of March. Spring is in the air. But where are the Robins? It is common knowledge in America that robins are the signs that winter will soon be over. However, despite going to several birding places in the Los Angeles area, we have not seen even one American Robin!

Let's try Placerita Canyon, I told Cynthia and my son, Kurt. We did. Again not a single robin in sight. As a consolation we had better (that is, more open) looks at a Spotted Towhee. We saw this species at Eaton Canyon and at Bonelli Park but each time they were skulking behind some bushes.

Another uncommon bird we saw here was the Golden-crowned Sparrow.

Other than these two, not much were seen at Placerita. Which was a bit strange (and very disappointing) considering this place is one of better birding places as I remembered it.

Our last hope at finding our target bird was at the Veteran's Memorial Park in Sylmar. We would definitely see the robins there I thought to myself. As soon as we arrived we explored the park and only saw a Western Bluebird.

As a last resort and with dwindling hopes, my wife and I went to the area near the playground. And voila! American Robins! About a dozen of them even!

one among the dozen

Are you looking for us?

Spring indeed is here!

I think I'm right but what if Tamron?

As in previous years I purposely did not bring my 500 lens on our trip to the US - for the simple reason that it is huge and heavy. Another thing is that birds are generally tamer in America than in the Philippines. Having a long lens is not really an advantage if the subjects could be photographed from just a few feet away. However this time, I wanted to try a long lens but lighter in weight. Our friends in the Philippines had been giving good reviews of the Tamron 150-600 zoom lens. After consulting with my wife/CFO, I was given the go signal to purchase one. I promptly ordered from B&H Photo in New York to be delivered to my daughter's house in Arcadia, California. On the day of our arrival, we met up with Michelle and finally got my hands on my brand new lens.

Early the following day, I gave the Tamron a field test. The place was Eaton Canyon in Pasadena - one of my favorite birding haunts. As in any new equipment, it took some getting used to before I was able to truly appreciate the 150-600 lens.

Here are a few sample photos:

Northern Mockingbird - one of the early shots, still in learning mode

Western Scrub Jay - getting better

Golden-crowned Sparrow - should've gotten more depth of field

American Bushtit - was able to nail this hyperactive tiny skulker

Swainson's Hawk - also tried some BIF but the subject was just too high up

Aside from birds, I also photographed a ground squirrel

maybe I should shift to mammal photography

and a California Poppy

a Poppy is also a flower (to borrow from a film title)

All in all I give a 4 stars out of 5 rating. The lens sometimes was quite slow in focusing, particularly on fast moving birds. Also, in my observation, a higher shutter speed was necessary to obtain sharper images which means setting higher ISOs. I am happy with the Tamron and I was right in getting one.

Placerita Canyon

With gas prices ballooning lately to over $3 a gallon, we thought it wise to go birding to a place closer to home. Placerita canyon is such a place. Less than 30 miles away, it is a place we have not visited for quite sometime now. Placerita is a wooded canyon in the north side of the San Gabriel mountains in southern California.

After our Saturday morning ritual at MacDonalds (where else but in our own hometown of South Pasadena), we pessimistically drove north. Pessimistically because there was fog all over. Our fears thankfully went for naught because after a few miles the sun was already brightly shining.

There were already some volunteers sprucing up the area when we arrived. Just as soon as we parked, Cynthia was already calling out birds that were right in front us: “Juncos and House Sparrows!”

“You’re half right”, I said, “the sparrows are actually Golden-crowned”. Of course, she was already shooting away before I could even get my camera out of the Jeep. Then again the sparrows were used to people so I was able to squeeze in some shots of my own.

We moved on to the trails where we got some good looks at Acorn Woodpeckers and singing House Wrens. Further up the trail, Cynthia hushed me and said that she heard a different bird call, something she has not heard before. We stood still while Cynthia tried to locate the source of the strange new song. Soon she was yelling, “There it is! There it is!” all the while pointing to a small brown bird high up on the hillside. At first I thought it was some kind of a flycatcher a it hawked after some insect. But then…..

It has a long bill - so very unlike a flycatcher. Looking at it intently through my binoculars, going over images in my brain that will match the identity of the bird in my sights. Then it came to me. “Rock Wren!” I shouted triumphantly.

“Are you sure?, Cynthia asked trying to curb her enthusiasm since this is a rather uncommon bird. I have seen this species only once before, in Patagonia, Arizona a couple of years ago (she missed it).

“Without a doubt.” I assured her.

We both agreed that that was the highlight of the day. On our way back, we added Spotted Towhee, California Towhee and Nuttall’s Woodpecker (!) to our photo list.

As we were leaving something deep within me, call it gut feeling, prompted me to turn right from the park exit instead of turning left which would be the way back home. When I moved to the side of the road to let the truck behind me pass, I noticed a bird perched on top of the telephone pole. I quickly grabbed Cynthia’s camera (mine was already packed and stowed at the trunk) and started shooting the juvenile Red-tailed Hawk. Perhaps it was the clicking sound of the camera but the raptor took one look at me, sized up my personality and consequently gave me the “finger”. One of them juvenile delinquents, what can I say?

Dip and Drip

It had been quite a while since we seriously birded. At first we were still “getting over” our Hawaii trip and then I was under the weather for some time. Saturday, October 15th, we decided to drive down to San Diego on a two-fold mission: to bird Pt. Loma and to recover some of my clothes. Allow me to explain the latter. When I visited the Philippines last year, I left behind some clothes at Cynthia’s place (they were still being laundered at the time of my departure). Since then Cynthia had been trying to have those pieces of my apparel brought over by someone – anyone - who is coming over to the States. That finally became a reality when her aunt who attended Cynthia’s Tio Totoy's funeral, had the space to carry my clothes over. Her aunt of course, lives in Poway in San Diego County.

It was a bright and sunny morning when we left Pasadena. The moment we entered San Diego County, the skies suddenly turned gray. Undaunted, we continued on to our scheduled first stop – the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. Cemeteries are always good places to bird - the local residents don’t bother the birds at all. As we were getting off our car, another car pulled over next to us and disgorged two gentlemen birders/photographers. My kind of people, I told Cynthia. In a short while, all four of us were in a part of the cemetery called the “Dip” because the relatively level ground “dipped” slightly towards a ravine. There we joined several birders in looking up a eucalyptus tree. “Grace’s Warbler”, one of the birders whispered as he pointed to a tiny object flitting among the leaves 30 feet up. Training my binoculars to the constantly moving bunch of olive green feathers, I smiled as I saw my first lifer of the day.

We continued roaming the cemetery grounds and saw the usual birds – Black Phoebes, and their more colorful cousins, Say’s Phoebes, a bunch of House Finches and Yellow-rumps, and a Townsend’s Warbler, not as rare as a Grace’s, but pretty nonetheless. 

As we were getting back to the parking area, one of the birder/photographers we met earlier (we went separate ways after seeing the Grace’s Warbler) told us that he saw a Varied Thrush. Now not only is a Varied Thrush a colorful bird, it is also quite rare in southern California and this is one bird that I’m dying to see. We vigorously searched the area where the guy said he found the thrush but it was a no-show. Soon birders from the San Diego Audubon who also heard the news came and searched high and low but didn’t find the bird either.

Trying to stick to our schedule, we decided to go to the Cabrillo National Monument further down the road. After paying the $5 entrance fee (good for one week, we were told) we proceeded to the visitor’s center and inquired about the “Drip”. The drip is the one place at the park where birds are guaranteed to be seen. It is so called because in the middle of a clump of myroporium bushes is a faucet that drips into a red dish. This is where birds drink and bathe. We were informed that it was located not far from the visitor center so I grabbed my camera gear (with my 500mm lens) and rushed over to the “Drip”. We were surprised that there were already a flock (no pun intended) of birders there (many we already met at the cemetery).

I set up my equipment alongside the birders and their scopes and pointed my camera to the dripping faucet. Already bathing were a family of House Finches. Then coming in succession were the White-crowned Sparrows, Fox Sparrows, Orange-crowned Warblers and the highlight of the day, Golden-crowned Sparrows. 

The rarer Clay-colored Sparrow and Green-Tailed Towhee were both absent. At about noon, and not seeing anything unusual, the birders slowly dissipated, us among them.

We decided to give the cemetery one more try (it’s along the way anyway, we rationalized) and see if we can find the Varied Thrush. There were still a group of birders there, holding a vigil for the now intriguing bird. After a couple of false alarms, one of the lady birders shouted, “There it is! There it is!” We all rushed to where she was and looked at the area of the fence that she was pointing to and sure enough, there it was, my second lifer of the day! 

With hearts pounding and stomachs growling we finally went and had lunch at Arby’s. Somehow something as blasé as a roast beef sandwich seemed like a gourmet entrée when you just notched 2 lifers in half-a-day’s birding.

We arrived at Poway a little after 2 pm. After some family talk and being incredulous at the low rent rate that Tito Ramon and family were paying for their apartment ($375.00 a month for 2 bedrooms!) we said our goodbyes and left at around 3 pm. With still enough time to do another quick birding, we checked out a place called Blue Sky Preserve also in Poway. Other than a few Yellow-rumped Warblers, we saw nothing but blue skies (maybe that’s why this place was so named). On the way home we stopped by West Covina and had dinner at Salu-salo because Cynthia had this hankering for Pilipino food. To top off the evening we had fun dipping eggrolls in their sauce and seeing them dripping as we popped them into our mouths. Dip and drip – what a day today was!