Return of the Crusher

After close to a month of not taking bird photos, I finally got my crusher back. Cautiously optimistic that everything was fine, I lurked out to Lake Merritt to see if I had the capacity of damage infliction that I was hoping for. My first targets were Canvasbacks...

Very quickly I found that any worries I had were unfounded. It's good to be back in business. Here's a hen Canvasback modeling her Economy of Style.

Black-crowned Night-Herons at the lake are always eager for attention. When observing birds, it's important to be able to see how far their eyeballs protrude from their sockets.

An adult Glaucous-winged Gull was equally obliging. Orbital ring color is a very helpful field mark for adult gull ID; Glaucous-wings use pink eyeliner.

Glaucous wings. Frosty.

This adult Thayer's Gull was also hanging around, behaving somewhat meekly.

Who needs sunlight for a good photo? This is by far my favorite shot of Thayer's that I have. Note the pale inner primaries.

The most recent addition to my small collection of second-cycle Thayer's photos. Note the dark (not black) primaries with pale tips, and small bill. Interesting to me, it attempted some half-assed begging for food aimed at the adult bird above. It didn't work.

Looking into the eye of an Eared Grebe is always a captivating, albeit confusing experience.

A Glaucous-winged X Herring hybrid achieves maximum bellow. I wouldn't want to be the piece of garbage inhaled into this bird's gaping maw.

I think this crush captures the essence of what Western Gulls are all about. It had just finished bludgeoning a shellfish.

Piercing The Drum, Smelling The Hubris, with Violence and Force

People think American Avocets are just great, great birds. That's before you notice the feathered missile coming out of the sky, hoping it will get the chance to impale your eardrum with its bill that is shaped specifically for piercing human ear drums.


I think I brought some of the heat back with me from the Salton Sea. It's hot.

The Salton Sea trip was a great success...I got a state bird (holy shit), a bunch of year birds, some deec photos, my car made it over the mountains and back, and La Migra wasn't particularly annoying to deal with...some would call this trip a Great Success, and they would not be wrong.


That said, I haven't gone wading through the photos yet, so you'll have to wait for that.


"Hectic" is the best way to describe the scene over here at BB&B...the phones are ringing, email inboxes are about to explode, tweets are being tweeted, and my gang of interns are feeling the sting of the BB&B cat-o-nine-tails even more than usual. They flail and panic, I thrash them with the whip, and the Birdosphere just keeps on turning. They take great pride in their work though....you can practically smell the hubris in the air.

If their repeated attempts at physically piercing your eardrum fails, they will simply persist in battering it to bits with their high-pitched, incredibly annoying calls. This is the price you pay when you get even remotely close to an avocet nest or chicks.

Their similarly shaped cousins, Black-necked Stilts, are not quite as aggressive but can be just as annoying.

Fiddler crabs, on the other hand, are relatively harmless. But like shorebirds, their lives are often dictated by the state of the tide....a Daoist crustacean, no doubt. 

I have some friends who know plants, some who know fungus, some know butterflies, some know dragonflies, some who know herps...but who knows fish? What is this Snowy Egret about to inhale? Looks sculpinish, but that's all that I know. San Diego River (near the mouth), San Diego, CA.

Little Blue Herons are not known for their aerial prowess, but lo and behold, here it is.

The Black-crowned Night-Heron. This is one of very few species I feel like I have conquered with a camera, mostly due to the fact that Night-Herons in Oakland (where I spend a lot of time) don't act like other Night-Herons. This one, in a slightly more natural setting, was at grimy Lindo Lake, Lakeside, CA.

I think it is safe to say that the Caspian Tern own the most prehistoric voice in the kingdom of birds. Few other natural sounds so grating are uttered with such violence and force...truly shudder-inducing. San Diego River.

What's this thing? A Painted Lady? She's a hooker...I mean a looker. San Diego River.

Red-tailed Hawk. What can I say about a Red-tailed Hawk that hasn't been said more eloquently by someone else? I like this picture, although the lighting wasn't so good. Laguna Campground, Laguna Mountains, CA.

The Prophecy Has Been Fulfilled

This juvenile Green Heron is going really, really fast. Lindo Lake, Lakeside, CA.

I've been residing here in the whale's vagina for almost three months. What do I have to show for it? Well, besides some money and good experience from slaving in the bird mines, I've been exposed to Yellow-crowned Night-Herons, Reddish Egrets, Prothonotary Warbler, Baltimore Oriole, Thick-billed Kingbird, Gray Vireos, Calliope Hummingbirds, South Polar Skuas....and now, a bird that I am positive appeared simply because I willed it.

The bird I speak of, of course, is none other than a Curlew Sandpiper. Curlew Sandpipers are extremely rare in California, averaging one a year or less, and the one and only I saw was so long ago I feel lucky to even remember it. I was recently reflecting on how fulfilling it would be to see another one, especially since one showed up here last fall (I was in North Dakota at the time). Thus, by dwelling on said bird, *POP*, a Curlew Sandpiper appeared on the mudflats of Imperial Beach.

Now when I say I willed the bird into existence, I'm not saying I deluded myself into thinking I found such a heart-stopping rarity...this was no Sanderling through a mirage. I have to credit a certain highly worshiped birder whose name rhymes with "Raul Palin" for locating the bird, and for that I am in his debt.

So there we go. Curlew Sandpiper automatically wins Bird Of The Month here at BB&B, and for those of you who have not had the good fortune of seeing a Curlew Sandpiper yet....well yes, you are an unfortunate lot, aren't you? But don't foresake hope...you may never lay eyes on a wild Spoonbill Sandpiper, but a Curlew Sandpiper is in your future...I HAVE WILLED IT.

A muddy-billed Gull-billed Tern. Imperial Beach, CA.

You can tell this is a quality bird by the exceptional lack of quality in the photo. It is the quintessential rarity shot. Curlew Sandpiper, Imperial Beach.

Here it is dwarfing a Western Sandpiper. I was crying when this photo was taken. So rare.

Here's a just-fledged Black-crowned Night-Heron. It makes me think of an Antpitta for some reason. Maybe if I had actually seen an Antpitta, I would know better. Imperial Beach Sports Park.

A recent addition to the nesting Black-crowned and Yellow-crowned Night-Herons at the sports park are Snowy Egrets. They got started a lot later than the Night-Herons it seems, but they already have humungo chicks.

A Black-necked Stilt plies the murky and questionable waters of Lindo Lake.

Hella photogenic.

I remember the first Great-tailed Grackle I found, which I believe was at Clark's Bird Refuge in Santa Barbara. To me, it was a big deal, and was actually semi-rare at the time. Now seeing them is not a big deal at all, but I still have fondness for them. This female Great-tailed Grackle lurked in the murk and muck of Lindo Lake.

San Diego just doesn't make sense to a lot of birders....we have such a bizarre avian community. Where else on the west coast do you see Curlew Sandpiper and Gull-billed Tern at the same time?

When I Knew To Stop Looking

In an instant this first-year Herring Gull has transformed from a disgusting garbage-eater to a mind-boggling contortionist. Note that the preen gland on it's upper tail is exposed. Lake Merced, San Francisco, CA.

Good Thursday to you nerds. The only loose theme running through all these pictures today are birds doing some interesting poses...I purposefully avoided posting anything too graceful (well, except for the terns) as it would just be too easy to slap a bunch of herons and egrets in here and call it a day. Oh yeah, no flight shots either, them's the rules.

The crystal ball that is seasonal bird work is beginning to clear...my destiny grows easier to see by the day...an official migration announcement should happen soon!

A Bobolink takes a break from being Lord Of The Prairie and stretches out. Do you see how sharp it's tail feathers are? They have rapidly evolved in the past few decades to stab bird banders...interestingly, their distress calls given while in the hand sound uncannily like "I'm giving you tons of bird lice right now" and "I'll see you in Hell". Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge, North Dakota.

Since they are so big-bodied, Canvasbacks often appear somewhat stubby-winged. This female is trying to buck the trend...I think she pulls it off. Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA.

Of course, courtship and territorial displays frequently entail some bizarre posturing. These male Great-tailed Grackles are both telling each other "Why don't you come at me bro?". Chavarrillo, Veracruz, MEX.

While appearing superficially gull-like on land (and somewhat confused to be on land in the first place), albatross become entirely different beasts when it comes to dancing. These Black-footed Albatross were seducing each other with their sick moves at Midway Atoll.

White Terns look good, there is no denying it. But when it comes down to making babies, they make it look more like a miracle. I can't tell you how many tears I shed watching this...eventually I ran out of water and cried blood. That's when I knew to stop looking. Midway Atoll.

Going from no-necked to fully extended, a Thick-billed Murre takes a gander at something on the cliff below. In a moment it will return from its moment of quasi-elegance to being fat, squat and cute. Buldir Island, AK.

Other birds aren't blessed with such long necks. This is about as far as a Clay-colored Sparrow can stick it's head out. It still a good-looking bird though (obvi). Des Lacs National Wildlife Refuge, ND.

A Double-crested Cormorant throws it's wings out for air brakes and balance as it makes a brilliant landing. Lake Merced, CA.

While many sandpipers are comfortable being cloaca-deep in putrid mud, this Semipalmated Sandpiper is apparently a bit too dainty to get it's feathers dirty. It's wings are out for balance, to keep from sinking in too deep. White Lake, ND.

I know what you are thinking..."Whoa. I am really drawn to this image...it's affecting the shit out of me. It is a thing of beauty. I've never seen anything like it." Yeah, you guessed it, this is absolutely ART. That's why you are feeling so many emotions right now. You may also be feeling some jealousy, since this is actually a Slaty-backed Gull. Buldir Island, AK.

Some birds just aren't cut out for being graceful. This soggy Black-crowned Night-Heron was photographed at Lake Merritt.

Brilliance Borders On Nonsense

This past week BB&B has pulled stakes from the bay area and has been encamped in my old haunts of Arcata, California. Unfortunately, the weather has been miserable all week so I don't have much to show for it, at least in terms of photography. As a result, you will be getting an eyeful of other winter birds that I've gotten to lay optic nerves on over the past couple months.

I'm not sure if you've noticed or not, but my short attention span requires me to generally not post more than one photo of a species at a time. In an exercise of tranquility and mellowness, you are going to get DOUBLE the number today.

Our first bird is no other than one of the Wood Ducks that wintered at Golden Gate Park, in San Francisco. They mostly sat around in the shade under some trees and didn't come out much, so most people had their eyes glued to the Hooded Mergansers that lived in the same pond. Obviously, a Wood Duck is a completely facemelting bird. They're brilliance borders on nonsense. I can't imagine life without seeing these birds once in a while.

That's right....right when you thought the Birdosphere was done with Snowy Owls, I'm bringing one back! This is the infamous Barfing Owl from Damon Point, Washington. I have a vast quantity of pictures of it relentlessly gagging. I've never seen a creature so devoted to trying to vomit.

Look at that face. Know it. Then love it. How could you not? Do you not? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU???

Here is a Ferruginous Hawk surveying its grassy domain. It may be thinking about squirrels and kangaroo rats and how it's going to break their little necks and eat them. Or maybe its admiring the view. Or maybe it just realized it needs to poop. Who knows?

Here is a different bird. Can you imagine seeing one of these, back in the day, flying around with frakking buffalo bones to include in their nest? Maybe one day they will again, provided there are enough buffalo. These Ferrugs were photographed on California's Carrizo Plain.

Black Oystercatcher is a west coast specialty. I pity all regions of the country that are not blessed with an oystercatcher of some sort. Of course, you probably pity me because I don't have things like Prairie-Chickens or Golden-cheeked Warblers or Spectacled Eiders or Mangrove Cuckoos...touche, reader, touche.

Although they can be migratory, Black Oystercatchers have very strong site fidelity at nesting sites and do not share their stretch of coast with other individuals. The same pair of birds can occupy the same territory for many years.

Unlike oystercatchers, most of us readily have access to Black-crowned Night-Herons, an extremely appropriately named bird. Not to mention good-looking.

Immature Black-crowned Night-Herons, on the other hand, do not live up to their name very well. They are also not very good looking. Awkward. These birds were photographed at Lake Merrit.

Common Goldeneyes all around the country are going full swing into courtship displays, whistling, farting, splashing, and yes....BELLOWING. These birds were getting kinky on Lake Merritt, in Oakland, CA.

This bird was a bit more subdued, feeding by himself. Either he has a lot of confidence or is not very attractive by female Common Goldeneye standards.

Enjoy your Friday, for freedom will soon be upon you. Rage.