I'm Stepping Out, I'm Standing Up

Allen the Hummingbird. Ventura, CA.

Sometimes it's hard writing a blog that is the Zeitgeist of a whole generation of birders. It's a lot of weight on my shoulders. The Great Ornithologist Felonious Jive has taken to the bottle in order to cope with it all. He keeps muttering about declaring war on the Mexican Army, but with only an army of nerds (birders) at his disposal, I think his chances of Victory are slim to none. I suggested that he start his own drug cartel, which he seems to be taking seriously....

Common Ground-Doves on the march. Photographed at the Salton Sea, CA.

Strange ruminations on a cloudy morning in San Francisco. I'm considering changing the name of my Moderate Year from El Año Tranquilo to something a little more fitting in light of recent events....something like The Gnarly Year....also, I think my year list is hovering somewhere in the high 300's already, which is pretty crazy for a modest birder such as myself. What can I say, there are scads of birds in Mexico. Que intenso.

Red-tailed Hawk. Martinez, CA.

Yes....perhaps an agonizing reappraisal of 2011 is already necessary....and it's only February 1! The Pursuit of Happiness ended in a bloody heap at the bottom of a cliff when 2010 kicked the bucket. The vultures are circling overhead....with 2012 around the corner, these may truly be The End Times.....

Which reminds me....I am amazed at the number of people who have asked me, usually after a couple drinks, if I think the world is really going to end in 2012. Perhaps it is because I am a Scientist, not a religious maniac, and my answer carries a lot of weight. But seriously. Why do people give this any kind of credibility? Its like Y2K all over again. Those damn Mayans have people in a tizzy. There have always been, and will always be, people claiming the world is about to end, and until we see mushroom clouds on the horizon or an enormous asteroid plunging through the atmosphere, we have more pressing concerns.

Snowy Egrets, survivors of the Plume Trade Holocaust in the early 1900's, know a lot more about extinction than people do. Martinez, CA.

I Taught The Weeping Willow How To Cry

Some Burrowing Owls need some "me" time in the winter, some double up in more spacious burrows.

Siiiiiiiiick. My birth into the new year was lubricated by karaoke at Bender's, a Mission bar I don't usually find myself in very often, but we all had a blast. I sang an Against Me! song and a Creedence song. It's nice to start off the year with a high note....unlike last year, when some asshole in the Lower Haight ran off with my camera, ipod, sunglasses, etc. 

I woke up bright and early on January 1 (12:49 PM) and blearily stuck my head out the door to find out what my first bird of the year was, and managed to make out the quiet twittering of a Bushtit nearby.  So there we have it.....2011, The Year of The Bushtit.

A young Bonaparte's Gull braves the murky sea.

It's bloody hard to get an action shot of a dove/pigeon of any sort, so I thought this one was pretty good. This is a female Common Ground-Dove bossing around her male friend.

A better view of the female Common Ground-Dove. She may be homely, but is well-kept.

Before I take off for my east Mexican road trip, I'd like to squeeze in some bay area biding when the weather gets good. It has been a particularly dark, wet winter here, and its all that some people can do to stay out of a state of catatonic despair. The urge to stay in bed as long as possible (preferably in the fetal position) is strong, but the urge to view birds overcomes. The last couple days have been marked by the cold, wet, overcast and overwhelmingly bleak weather that has been typical for the last month or so, but Imma get out and soak in some birdlife today.

As you probably guessed, this is another suite of pictures from my recent Salton Sea trip. If you've never been......then what are you waiting for?

There's nothing like seeing a majestic Great Egret soaring over some high mountain peaks amongst the eagles and condors. There's nothing like it because that never really happens.

An illustrious Black-necked Stilt finds a salty morsel.

In my book, the Salton Sea (along with Mono Lake and the Gulf of California) has some of the best sunsets.

To Kill The Sleeping Cop In Me

One of the newly completed areas at Salvation Mountain.

Well it's been a turbulent start to Y2K10 here at BB&B, but turbulence happens right? And like most occurrences, it's usually pretty brief and not something we bank in our long-term memories....why dwell on the bullshit, right? Right.

A lot of birders are getting all uppity and bragging about how many species they've already seen in this Foul Year Of Our Lord, Two Thousand Ten. Which is fine. That's what they do. That's what I used to do. It's in our nature. It's all part of our subcultural zeitgeist, part of what makes us the nerds that we are.



I didn't mean for this shot to come out so dark (that's the sun, not the moon), but I kinda like it.

Which is neither here nor there....and possibly not anywhere relevant. When working on this thing I often require coffee, which in turn (tern?) makes it extremely difficult to concentrate on any one topic for very long. For example, the topic on the tip of my proverbial tongue right now is fallen soldiers. No, not the heroic/unlucky/stupid (depending on your point of view) people who have died for their god and country, but cans and bottles of beer that were opened and had a couple of sips taken.....then left by the wayside. But these fallen soldiers are neither gone nor forgotten....they serve as reminders (the next morning) of A) how wasteful people are, and in the case of a certain German roommate, B) what terrible drinkers people can be.

Indeed.....very much so. I guess this is what you're stuck with....random screeds written by a highly-caffeinated half-asian man. Maybe I should go birding or something, eh? That always seems to make life a little more livable.

Speaking of which, for those of you in the bay area (Fay Area), there are a lot of good shows coming up in January. Andrew Jackson Jihad, Strung Out, The Ian Fays, Devil Makes Three and Strike Anywhere are all playing in the city this month...which sounds good to me. Ha!



A female Common Ground-Dove, wallowing in her scaly goodness.



Sometimes living a life in the dust doesn't seem like a bad idea.

Finally, barring catastrophe, apocalypse, and The Second Coming Of Zombie Christ, it looks like I will be moving down to Arizona at the end of February for some serious point-counting. I will give more details in the near future.....with this in mind, I think I can level my warrior to enjoy funemployment to the maximum. Sick.



A cloud of Snow and Ross' Geese whirls over an alfalfa field at Salton Sea NWR.