Ice Gal's: Back Yard Birding

Today is the day. As predicted all week and gleefully presented by ever more enthusiastic Tvee weather people it is raining. Wind and rain, together. Flooding, mudslides … This is going to be epic.

Very Dry Reservoir

The rain is much needed. It hasn’t rained since December, and lots of reservoirs are dry, aboot the only down side I can see is the rain will mix with the oil on the roads and it might be slippery until all that oil gets washed into the reservoirs.

Up until today the weather has been perfect for riding on two wheels, and just aboot everywhere I have gone I have spotted California Scrub Jay. This morning he was posing, perched on the shovel handle in the back yard.

This bird wanted his photo taken, but even though I told it to wait while I got the camera, and 400 mm lens Scrub Jay is impatient, and flew off.
I enticed it back with some small pieces of apple, and we watched each other for a while…

California Scrub Jay. You Looking At Me?

After a bit I loaded the camera gear on the bike and headed for the bay. A few errands later I was lured into In & Out Burger for a bun less protein style burger. Yum.

I wasn’t exactly sure of my destination but headed over the 101, and much to my surprise found that the Blair Island trail has finally been opened, after nearly 3 years of moving piles of dirt around, and building two wooden platforms so that you may gaze over the former salt ponds.

I am just glad they saved this area, as wildlife habitat, as the city’s massive condos are encroaching ever closer to the remains of San Francisco Bay.

There weren’t a lot of birds, I think all the construction spooked a lot of them further out into the tidal wetlands, but once past the signs that said closed things got interesting.

It's Eat Or Be Eaten Out Here

Raven, egret, goose, coots, black necked stilt, and even a seal were hard at work, but the winners of the precision formation flying award of the day went to the American Avocet's