October 11, 2023, was another great day for birding photography!

I began the day by photographing American robins eating madrone berries. For the past couple of weeks I had been attempting to photograph robins in the madrones. The madrone berries have been ripe and are very abundant, but it seemed all the birds in the trees were at least 30 feet off the ground making photography difficult. Yesterday I found some of the birds had descended to lower levels of the trees making photography much more attractive. So there are a few of the photos I was able to take…

I took a short break when the birds seemed to take a break and drove by the Cap Sante Marina on my way to get gas. I seldom forgo the opportunity to check the marina for waterfowl and did so on this day, but there was no discernible bird activity. A short time later, on the way back from my errand, I again drove by the marina and found that matters had changed significantly.

The first thing I noticed was a Common loon had arrived in the basin. It was not active and seemed content to just slowly drift around the yacht basin, but it was not as close as I would have liked.

As I photographed the loon I noticed a Great Blue heron successfully fishing along the shore…

As I stood watching the heron a female Belted kingfisher arrived, landing very near me. This may have been the closest I have ever been to one!

I returned to the neighborhood and photographed more robins, then later in the afternoon returned to the yard. While I was there this Ruby-crowned kinglet flew into a bush very near me and gave me a fleeting opportunity for a photo.

Finally, just as I was getting ready to call it a day, a Pacific wren emerged from the undergrowth and skittered around the yard. This is a very rare visitor to the yard and one very difficult to photograph due to its activity level.

Whew! It had been a long day… I had over 300 photos to process!