Photo ABCs

Welcome!

Welcome to my photography blog!

Here I share photos of birds, travel, sports and people (mostly birds...)

If you wish to hear about upcoming gallery exhibitions or slide shows (once this pandemic is over) please sign up for the mailing list on the left. (That is ALL the mailing list is used for). I have a large show planned near the end of 2021, be the first to hear about it!

It seems lately that sporadically, some of the images on this site have not been loading properly. I contacted the website host, and the problem has improved, but is still not perfect, it seems. Let me know how it is for you.

If an image doesn't appear, clicking on the name (or on the blank space), will cause the image to appear, enlarged. Hit the back button and you get back to the blog. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Thanks for visiting, do come back, a new post appears almost daily.

White-tailed Kite

This is a juvenile (first-year) White-tailed Kite, since it has buffy streaking on the breast. The streaking only lasts a few weeks, according to Sibley.

Photographed in July of 2020 near the start of the Sweetwater River trail in Spring Valley, California.

 

Borrego Springs

More birds from Borrego Springs, California, in November of last year.

Northern Mockingbird:

Costa's Hummingbird, female:

Savannah Sparrow:

Cactus Wren:

Borrego Botanical Garden, cont.

More photos from the Borrego Botanical Garden (see yesterday's post).

The garden contains a hummingbird feeder, which attracts Anna's and Costa's Hummingbirds.

A Costa's Hummingbird. The colorful framing of the bird consists of out-of-focus fall foliage in front of and behind the perch. Taken in September of last year:

Up, up and away!

I believe the Costa's Hummingbird to the right is displaying for the one on the left. Photographed in the Borrego Botanical Garden in November of last year:

An Anna's Hummingbird, photographed earlier the same morning:

Black-tailed Gnatcatcher

The Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association has worked for three years to transform a small patch of land behind their building into the Borrego Botanical Garden, "a place of reflection and beauty," as their website states. Each time I visit the garden it is a little more complete, and a little bit more active with bird and animal life.

Here is a Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, photographed there one September morning last year.

I believe that this is the same bird, photographed a few minutes earlier. I love how this picture shows the claws grasping the tiny individual spines of the ocotillo! The dexterity of our feathered friends can be awe-inspiring when you take time to notice.

Wilson's Warbler

A Wilson's Warbler, photographed a few moments before yesterday's picture, in Borrego Springs, California.

Let the Birds Come To You!

In downtown Borrego Springs there is a decorative water fountain where the water forms a small pool atop a granite column. If you sit quietly nearby you will see a parade of birds come to drink and bathe.

Here are two photos from a September afternoon last year.

A Great-tailed Grackle sends the water flying:

A Great-tailed Grackle seems to wonder what that peculiar-looking bird is that just flew in. It's an immature Brown-headed Cowbird, molting into its adult plumage:

Rock Wren

A Rock Wren, photographed in Little Blair Valley, Anza-Borrego State Park, in September of last year.

American Pipit

At Harry Griffen Park, in La Mesa, California, there are always various sparrows and finches feeding on the large lawn. A dog will frighten them away, then they will return and resume feeding. One November morning I noticed a group of birds on the lawn which did not look like the others. A look with binoculars revealed them to be American Pipits, the first time I had seen them there.

Obtaining a close picture was another matter. They had a certain comfort zone, and would move their browsing just far enough away from me so they'd be too small-in-the-frame. So I took another approach. Or rather, non-approach. I noticed which way they were heading, went quite far in front of them, sat down, and waited. Eventually, they reached me, and while they did not exactly surround me, they moved close enough for a decent, eye-level shot (I lay on my belly in the grass).

This bird appears to be strutting its stuff!

Praying Mantis

A Praying Mantis, photographed in my back yard (in San Diego), in August of last year.

Let's hope it was praying for a better year in 2021!

Pine Valley County Park

Pine Valley is a bucolic small town, situated near the Cuyamaca mountains at 3700 feet of elevation.

There is a lovely small county park there, which usually has a least a few birds to be photographed.

Here are a few taken one late afternoon in August of last year.

California Thrasher:

Mountain Chickadee:

An American Robin bathes in a small puddle:

Anna's Hummingbird: