I Am A Babbling Brook, You Are A Pile Of Bricks

Ah, the stately Bald Eagle. Adak Island, AK.

Despite my attempts to curb my birding addiction, I can't seem to get a handle on it. My tiny backyard here in San Francisco, next to Stern Grove in the Sunset, always has birds. Pygmy Nuthatches peep away from the big Douglas Fir next door. Pine Siskens fly overhead. Friendly Townsend's Warblers forage nonchalantly, sometimes just a few feet away. A Stellar's Jay lands on the deck and looks through the glass at me. I look back, wave. It sits a moment, then hops away to go do whatever it is Stellar's Jays spend most of their time doing.

There are a lot of pros and cons to living here. The cons are many. No one lives anywhere near here except for The Ian Fays (but thats also a big plus), its really far from where my heart lies (Mission district), and there's not much in the way of decent coffee shops/bars/anyplace fun within walking distance. The pluses, aside from my absurdly cheap rent which I won't bother explaining, are atheTrader Joe's close by, a clean neighborhood, an abundance of parking, and birds....which are not easy things to find in San Francisco. So it actually kind of evens out, although though it can get lonely (ronery) down here. Oh yeah, an old lady died in my bedroom before I moved in, which is ostensibly a bummer...but I'm not quite sure what to make of it yet.

And that's where I stand at the moment.

An American Kestrel, apparently emitting some sort of light. Digiscoped at Heron Head Park, San Francisco, CA.

Oh yeah, thanks to everyone who has been throwing up links to my humble blog (blahg?) on the nerdosphere lately, particularly at the ABA and 10,000 Birds, who are more or less regarded as the Imperial Super Star Destroyers/Death Stars of bird blogs. They have the capacity to prop up or bring down any given bird blog with a few mere clicks. If you are wondering, 10KBs makes BB&B looks like a TIE Fighter in comparison....so thanks again guys!

Yes, I like Star Wars. Obviously.

The world-renowned Mississippi Kite (pronounced "kaht" throughout much of their breeding range). Arcadia Lake, Oklahoma City, OK.

It looks like raptors are the theme of the day here at the bustling BB&B command center. I guess its appropriate for the season here in California, where we have the highest numbers and most diversity of hawks, eagles, falcons, etc. in fall and winter. I guess that's what the Red-shouldered Hawk outside has been hinting at all morning.

Lastly, for both my birding and nonbirding friends, I highly recommend you go snoop around The Magnificent Frigatebird's tee-shirt collection to see a great display of blatant birder dorkdom. It's a testament to the kind of birding culture that Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson feasted on (hopefully!) in their portrayal of birders in The Big Year, which is out next year. At any rate, I just kind of stumbled on this randomly and was struck blind by the size and scope of all the extremely nerdy threads. I would consider wearing a couple of those maybe (the Audubon prints are classy...I actually have old John James' Magnificent Frigatebird tattooed on my calf, so why not a shirt?)......but that's as far as I'll go. I will go on record as saying that I highly recommend people buy the Birding Slut shirt, mostly to prove that such a shirt actually exists. Even better, it would make a great gift to your bird-loving significant other!  Hehehehehe......oh man, I could really go on about that.....but I won't.

A Burrowing Owl furtively greets the day from it's burrow next to a concrete-lined drainage ditch at the Salton Sea. Burrowing owls have a number of diurnal predators and usually stick close to their burrow during the day, going out at night to frolic and forage.