While most people living in the PacNW probably enjoy the sun, I find it detrimental to my bird photography. However, in the past two days (July 18-19, 2023) I’ve obtained some good photos of some of this year’s fledglings.

This is a Spotted towhee which has been extremely reticent to show itself for photos this year. It’s in transition from juvenile to adult plumage. Of all the bird species common in the area, I consider the plumage of the juvenile towhee the least like its adult plumage.

I’ve been patiently waiting for the opportunity to obtain good photos of our juvenile California quail. This year we didn’t see the juveniles until they were fairly large and I was unable to obtain good early photos of them for several weeks. On July 19, 2023, I finally had the opportunity to obtain some good photos.

I want to credit and thank my sister for assisting me with creating the new bird bath where these photos were taken. The construction of a bird bath for photographic purposes is a lot more complicated than you might think!

On this particulars day I had a rather rare observation… a female quail standing lookout while two males and about seven juveniles fed. It’s almost always the male that stands guard duty.

And here is the male on guard duty… but at this moment he’s distracted, performing a brief bit of personal grooming!