Something's Strange in the Neighborhood

We are currently staying in my son's apartment in Glendale, California. Wednesday afternoon, we decided to bird around the neighborhood. Expecting to see the usual suspects, we were quite surprised to encounter some species we never expected to be in this sort of urban environment.

But first allow me to show the "regulars". A Black Phoebe has made this place its home. We've seen this bird for the past several years here.

It seemed that the Mourning Doves had multiplied a lot. They're practically everywhere - lots of them!

Another common species here were the House Finches, although this time they stayed at the higher places.

As expected, California Towhees were foraging on the ground, unmindful of the people passing by.

The Northern Mockingbirds were, as always, displaying their audacious attitudes.

A pair of Acorn Woodpeckers were up a palm tree looking for food. I got a photo of one.

Then there were the unexpected. After taking some shots at the mockingbird, I noticed something strange. Softly, I told my wife, "Turn around slowly, there's a Junco behind you". We've seen Dark-eyed Juncos the day before in Bonelli Park. Lots of them. And that's where they can be easily found, not on a sidewalk, along an apartment complex.

Perched alongside a Mourning Dove, was a Band-tailed Pigeon! Again, this species prefer the trees in parks, not electric wires.

While trying to aim at another Mockingbird singing from a tree top, Cynthia saw something green. I looked at where she was pointing and surprise of all surprises - a Yellow-chevroned Parakeet! It didn't stay long though and I was lucky enough to get a couple of shots. We've seen this tropical species before (a feral population thrives in the greater Los Angeles area) in Arcadia and El Monte. Never in Glendale. Until now.

A big bird on a tree top, about a block away, was another unexpected encounter. A Red-tailed Hawk was surveying its surroundings, perhaps looking for an unwary prey. Sometime later it even flew and landed on the top of a pine tree right next to us. Unfortunately, it was so high up that pine needles prevented us from getting a full view.

What was also strange, sort of in a negative way, was the scarcity of House Sparrows. This species was the "trash bird" of urban areas. However, we only saw two, both immature.

It was a productive birding experience for us, considering the type of environment we're in. Thanks to the "strange" appearance of some uncommon birds.

Goody Woodies

Perhaps it is because it was a Saturday - and a gorgeous day at that - that our birding trip to the Irvine Regional Park wasn't that productive. The park, although harboring a pond and lots of trees, was actually a family park, complete with mini train rides and horses for rent. And families came in droves that morning. Ergo, more non-birding people, less birds.

This was also our first time to bird this place. There was no trail map available so we just sort of wandered aimlessly guessing where we could find the birds that were reported seen here. Like the Lewis Woodpecker and the Sapsuckers. Even after several hours of meandering, we still dipped on those.

On the plus side, we had good looks at the "woodies" - Acorn Woodpecker,

Nuttall's Woodpecker

and the very colorful Wood Ducks.

The Belted Kingfisher, a species that has eluded our various attempts at photographing it, continued to torment us by perching at distances that even a spotting scope would be quite inutile.

My wife's endeavours to capture the Double-crested Cormorants in flight were all in vain. It was almost noon, temperatures were uncharacteriscally high at this time of year, and we had just hiked for some distance. That is the reason, I explained to her that she did not have the steadiness in her hands to do BIF (birds in flight) shots.
11:30 and it was time to go. We drove off as the sounds of the toot-tooting of the tiny train and the clip-clopping of the horses' hooves faded in the distance.

Taking the 100-400 for a Walk

As you may recall in my last blog entry, I was complaining of being tired and having some back pains as a result of lugging my heavy camera gear whenever we are doing our sorties. After some introspections and consultations with my beloved wife, I made a decision to only bring my heavy artillery if our outings would not involve a lot of walking. Otherwise I will just carry a smaller camera/lens combo. Inasmuch as Cynthia was already hooked on bird photography and therefore adamantly refuses to let me use "her" 300mm lens, I presented her with this proposition: I would buy a smaller lens (the Canon 100-400 zoom would serve my purpose perfectly) only if it would be offered with "no sales tax" (which would add roughly $120 to the retail price) and "no interest for 1 year". Please bear in mind that those conditions very rarely go together. As a matter of fact, we've never seen that kind of offer being published ever.

So we prayed. It's for my poor, old, fragile body's sake, we told the Lord. Thursday, May 10th, while waiting for our laundry to get washed, we passed away the idle time reading the Los Angeles Times. As I was getting to the last page, there was a 2-page colored advertisement from Samy's Camera announcing that they will waive the sales tax for any item purchased in their store from May 10 to May 15th. Moreover, if the purchase price is greater than $299, they had a "no interest, no payment until May 2008" offer. I immediately showed the ad to Cynthia and right then and there we thanked God for His goodness and faithfulness. Nothing is impossible with the Lord!Hallelujah!!!

Cynthia then asked, "So, when are you going to buy the lens?"
"I''m thinking maybe Saturday, after your doctor's appointment", I replied.

"What?! ", she said incredulously, "Saturday, I want you using that lens already as we will go birding after my doctor's appointment"

Now how can I argue with that?

And so it came to pass that on Friday, during my lunch break, I hied over to Samys store in Pasadena, not far from where I work, and obtained for myself God's answer to our prayers.

As planned, Saturday morning we went birding to Placerita Canyon, where I "test drove" the Canon 100-400 zoom lens while Cynthia tried to familiarize herself with a 1.4 extender attached to her 300mm. Weather and birds not being that cooperative, we still managed to get some keepers. It would probably take a couple more weeks before taking pictures with our new gears would become second nature to us. All in all, my expectations were met and I think I will be happy with this new lens. At least my back and shoulders were overjoyed.