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!

Birds on a Wire

On our first birding foray in California we visited our favorite destination - Eaton Canyon Park in Pasadena. We spent the whole day seeing familiar birds.

In the afternoon still affected by jet lag, we decided to just explore my son's neighborhood in Glendale. Palmer Park was a huge disappointment. It became a "people park". It now has a basketball court, a children's playground and a "social area". With such an abundance of human beings, the birds were nowhere to be found. So our option was just to walk along the street inasmuch as we've seen some crows and a mockingbird there earlier.

Surprisingly, the birds were here! Albeit perched on electric wires. Some would fly down to catch some unfortunate insect. And here they are:

Hooded Oriole (immature)

House Finch

Mourning Dove

Northern Mockingbird

Western Bluebird

Then suddenly this lovely bluebird spotted a worm and flew down just a few feet from where I was. That resulted in my photo of the day:

Ok, Frank, what have you got?

And as it turned out....a lot!!


Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimas has been (and continues to be) one of my favorite birding spots in Southern California. So on our second day here I managed to cajole my son, Kurt, to drive me here where we can both enjoy our respective hobbies: birding for me, of course, and mountain biking for him. Cynthia, once again, decided to go shopping and do some personal errands.


As it was in several spring mornings in the past, the very first bird to greet me at Bonelli Park was an American Robin. There it was it's bright orange breast gleaming in the morning sun chasing some tiny insects from the dewy grass. 

As expected, as if I am watching a replay of my past birding adventures here,  after the Robin comes the Western Bluebirds showing up with the males in their sparkling bright blue plumage.

Another thing I love about Bonelli Regional Park is the wide diversity of species found here. Aside from the usual park birds like the Robins and the Bluebirds, there are also some shorebirds like the Spotted Sandpiper, Killdeer and Snowy Egret. Waterbirds like the Canada Goose, Lesser Scaups and Northern Shovelers are also present.

Northern Shoveler pair

Spotted Sandpiper

Killdeer

I was even rewarded by a fly-by of an immature Bald Eagle!

Spring wouldn't be spring without the loud and incessant love songs of the Great-tailed Grackle and Red-winged Blackbirds.

Great-tailed Grackle

Red-winged Blackbird

I wasn't even aware that several hours had already slipped by until Kurt came gliding in in his bike. As we were packing our gears, I was smiling because I was happy I visited Frank again. And boy, he did not disappoint!

transitioning....

..from photography to videography??

I thought I'd try out the HiDef video making capabilities of the Canon 5D Mk II. Apparently it works quite well - my problem seems to be with my slow CF card. And then my old clunker of a PC (read 512MB RAM) can't handle the processing of large video files. That said, here is a video of a Western Bluebird drying itself off. This was taken at noon thus the harsh light.

The Ides of March

"Beware the Ides of March", the soothsayer warned Julius Caesar. That was the day he was assasinated by his friends. So it went down in history that March 15 was some kind of a "bad luck" day.

Ides or not, we decided to go to Placerita Canyon, albeit a tad later than usual. Again, we were fooled by the weatherman. There's a storm front arriving Saturday morning, he predicted. So we thought we'd just stay in bed a little longer since it would be pointless to go birding on a rainy day, wouldn't it? But when I rose to pick up the newspaper at around 8 am, the sun was joyfully shining!

We did a quickie breakfast, then sped to Placerita. We got there just a little after nine. There were birds all right, we just couldn't see them. Cynthia kept reassuring me because she heard all the twitters and tweets all over the place (I can't - I'm a little hearing impaired). Then we would see movements in the bushes or trees. Or a bird would suddenly fly and then promptly get lost in the underbrush once again. Ten am and we still have not taken a single shot, even after we have completed the trail loop.

At the picnic area, we got a little bit luckier. The Western Bluebirds, the males of which had taken on the deep blue breeding plumage, were a bit more cooperative, except that they stayed mostly in the shades of the oak trees. 

So did the Oak Titmice. Then a Red-shouldered Hawk came crashing in, scared all the little birds, and then took off after a few minutes.

Finally at noon, I decided to call it a day. The Ides of March certainly applied to our photography. So I just declared our trip a birding sortie instead - we did see quite a number of species - and be happy with that.