Some of my notable photos and experiences that I intend to share are growing more and more dated, but I felt the need to share this experience, which happened yesterday, with you.  I try to walk the loop road in Washington Park five days a week, weather, health and other commitments permitting.  My walk start times vary somewhat with the seasons/amount of available light but by anyone’s standard I am at the park early.

This past spring and summer other early walkers and I have tracked the progress of a pair of breeding Barred owls who managed to successfully fledge two owlets.  We shared sightings and locations and were able to obtain many good views of the owls and their young,

On Wednesday, September 26, 2018, two of the morning walkers observed a Great Horned owl fly from the ground to a branch of a tree.  A good many of the morning walkers (and I) were able to see the owl which seemed unconcerned about our presence.  I took some photos with my cell phone but surmised (correctly as it turned out) that the owl might lay up for the day in the same general area.  So I returned at 10am when I could drive onto the loop road in my car with my camera, lens, monopod (total weight 13 pounds!) and a chair.  After a careful search, and having passed by it three times, I finally found it resting on a tree limb.  I took several photos but the owl was in shadow and I could see that as the day progressed, and if it didn’t move, it could be in more sun later in the day.

I returned to the park about 3pm and found the owl had moved only slightly and seemed to be enjoying the sun which was shining directly on its back and side.  I took another series of photos, some of which you see below.  When on my Thursday (9/26/2018) morning walk I was unable to relocate the owl.

I’ve had some great days of photography, mostly of fall migrants passing through our yard on their way south or fall arrivals which will stay for the winter.  Because I’ve been spending so much time on photography and processing I haven’t kept up with posting photos to my blog.  I have a large backlog of photos to post, and normally I would post them in chronological order.  But I’m going to make an exception and post some photos here that will alert you to an unusual visitor in our area… a Great egret.

I viewed the visitor on two different days… the afternoons of Thursday, September 20 and Monday September 24.  The bird was in the same location both days… along (West) March Point Road just north of South Texas Road, opposite a large retention pond on fenced refinery property.  There’s no place to pull off the road there so you need to either do a drive-by or find a safe place to park.  Traffic at times (especially around 4-6pm) can be frequent and it’s a route used by tanker trucks, so exercise caution in the area.

On September 16, 2018, (Sunday), I decided to give the yard a break and hit the road.  I began with birding March Point, with the primary aim of photographing a few Caspian terns I had seen on a drive-by a couple of days previously.  I encountered these two Great Blue herons at different locations.

At the Headquarters Tract on Fir Island I found a large number of yellowlegs, a mix of Greater and Lesser.  (I’ll let you sort them out!)  I sat and watched them for a considerable length of time, watching them fly back and forth between a pair of logs in the water.  Even the closest log was a little further from my shore location than I would have liked.

I walked around the wetland and returned to my original location, taking more photos.  While I was looking through my camera’s viewfinder something (probably a hawk) flushed the yellowlegs, and in the panic that ensued three of the yellowlegs flew towards me and landed in the water at a much closer distance!  I was suddenly in business!

During the panic and its aftermath I managed to get one of the yellowlegs in flight.

When I returned to my vehicle I found three species of sparrows in the bushes.,, juvenile White-crowned sparrows, Song sparrows and this Lincoln’s sparrow, perhaps the rarest of the three species.

On the way back to March Point I ran across this Red-tailed hawk.  Unfortunately I was zoomed in when the hawk flew so I wasn’t able to capture the entire hawk in the photo, Nevertheless, I like the photo

Meanwhile, once again touring March Point, I found the Caspian terns out feeding and took many photos.

On Saturday, September 15, 2018, I had just waken from a short nap. I had checked the yard for birds and there weren’t any, so I was channel surfing when I heard a soft window strike.  The sound was so soft I assumed that it was just a glancing blow so I wasn’t concerned, but the strike signaled that birds had returned to the yard so I decided to verify the birds’ presence.  I glanced out the window and immediately saw a Golden-crowned kinglet on one of the staging sticks next to the watercourse.  This was our first fall visitor of that species!

I immediately ran for my camera and sneaked to my observation chair in the yard but found it was not only wet but that very light rain was currently falling.  I made the decision to sit under the eave next to the house.  When I looked down to arrange my chair I spied a Golden-crowned kinglet on the paved walkway, evidently the victim of the window strike I had heard.  (This indicated that there had been two of them visiting the yard.)  I picked up the bird and held it in my hand for about 15-minutes to keep it warm.  While I did so a second kinglet visited the watercourse.

I’m always amazed at how small such birds actually are.  I spend considerable time enlarging photos so that birds can be viewed better and it just doesn’t seem possible that these birds are so light, delicate and small.

It seemed uninjured so after awhile I placed it on a staging stick adjacent to the watercourse and kept a close eye on it to ensure that it didn’t fly into the water.  It stayed on the stick for about 10-15 minutes (during which time I took advantage of the situation and took some photos).  When a House sparrow flew to the watercourse the kinglet  seemed to show more interest, grew more animated and soon flew into a madrone tree, evidencing normal, active behavior.

I had another visit from a Golden-crowned kinglet before I gave up photography for the day.

Just before retiring I photographed his juvenile Spotted towhee around the watercourse.

I checked my records for both the Golden-crowned sparrow that first appeared in the yard on September 14 and the Golden-crowned kinglet that visited this day and they were the earliest seasonal visits I had for both birds.

I spent considerable time in the yard on September 11, 2018, without seeing a single warbler or other migrant passing through.  How boring!  But… not long after I arrived at my yard post I had a visitor who remained in the yard for several minutes.  Here’s a clue…

I obtained only one good photo, and here it is.  I have it on good authority that this is probably a juvenile Cooper’s hawk.  Size is not a good determining factor between the Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned hawks, but this hawk seemed on the large side to me.

It had been an otherwise boring afternoon when I spied a bird among all the house sparrows exhibiting a little different behavior (a special area of the yard and non-gregarious) and looking closer I identified our first Golden-crowned sparrow of the fall season!

And to round out this post, a few of the more common birds which occupy my time…

One of the juvenile California quail fledged this season. Of the covey that visits our yard we seem to have two adult males and seven young females.  I’ve quit trying to separate the young from the adults because the young are so large I can’t tell them from the adults.

This is one of the two adult males in the covey.

A Black-capped chickadee…

And a Cottontail rabbit munching on plants in my bog…