Visit the kelpforest....

Something I meant to document from awhile ago - the fourth of July as a matter of fact.  But as the profile says, events may not occur in chronological order. Winter holidays just past so you get something from a warm summer one.

( crowds and a single visitor... )

Last summer, runsamuck and Gareth built a birdhouse as a kind of father-son woodworking project.



We stuck it up on the Moreton Bay Fig tree in front of our house, just on a whim. I thought it would be purely decorative - it's a rather odd size, and the hole is bigger than ideal. It's also located only about 10' above the sidewalk, with people walking their dogs under it every day.

( Sorry, forgot a cut-tag...but, burdz! )

Rainbow Harbor - Squid boat and "trees." Hey, I've sampled this one!

When we got a little closer there were black-crowned night herons perched on top of the "trees."

Hmm, may have brightened this too much...the original was pretty dark.

Hmm. I had no idea turkey vultures were such a big problem, until someone sent a question in to my agency's Q&A, regarding them roosting on his tile roof and damaging it.

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ws/researchreports/report05.pdf

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1743&context=icwdm_usdanwrc

And apparently the best way to deal with them is by hanging up, upside down, what looks like (and sometimes is, although fake ones can be used as well) a dead one. Somewhat similar to all the plastic owls hanging out on roofs and signs to keep away pigeons, I suppose.

I quite often pass large groups of them roosting in trees around the perimeter of the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station near my workplace. Occasionally I've come down the 405 Freeway to see them all spreading out their wings to the morning sun after a cool night.

Heh! This is a great series of photos.

I don't think I'd worry too much about the cranes; Beau's owner is more worried they might go after him... In a rural area as this appears to be, I'd be worried more about raptors carrying him off, which happens occasionally even around here...

Not only have I been constantly hearing cedar waxwings in the neighborhood lately, the kingbirds are back, although I haven't determined whether they're Westerns or Tropicals. I hear the waxwings more often than I see them, with their very high-pitched piping calls, while the kingbirds seem to be using the Moreton Bay fig in front of our house as a food source. It's dropping figs all over again, and several afternoons lately when I've parked after coming home from work, I watch the kingbirds flying in and out of tree. They flutter out of the leaves with a large object (well large compared to them) in their beaks, which they choke down while perched on the lightpost wires. It takes them some effort; I don't think the fig tree is infested with insects that big, and it looks about the diameter of one of my fingernails, i.e. about the size of a fig. Hmm, and I'd thought they ate mostly insects. I'm glad some wildlife is getting some use out of the tree.

I've also seen the Say's phoebe hanging around the office, well, the fence next to the strawberry field adjacent to the office. For a moment I thought it was another kingbird, but a little too small, and the top of its breast was grey, then orangeish farther down, not yellow.

Another walk (since it was Spring Break and the kids were home all week), this time to Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve, where we walked from the parking up to the lagoon north of the flood control channel, on a trail at the base of the mesa. We hadn't been along that path before. While trying to get close to some flowers, I looked down and saw this male side-blotched lizard catching some late-afternoon rays at the front of his burrow in the earth.

Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve
Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
7 April 2010

( moar... )

23. earth ☺
2. pace ☺
5. flower ☺
20. fruit ☺
1. stair ☺
3. bird ☺
22. camera ☺

EEEEEEEEEEEEEeeee!

Just watched Wesley hatch about five minutes ago at http://www.ustream.tv/theowlbox. It was so funny, Molly was sitting there almost falling asleep, and suddenly she jumped straight up and turned around; then you could see the egg was cracked in half. She helped the newest out of the shell. Congrats on your fourth Molly and McGee! Max, Pattison and Austin are going to start getting cramped; Molly has to check where she's putting her feet.

Max is a week old today, and it must be warm enough that Molly is letting him sit next to her instead of under.

I posted this on Facebook a couple of days ago, but thought I'd let my LJ friends know too -

http://www.ustream.tv/theowlbox

Sent by my bird lover boss to us at work. Molly is a soon-to-be-mother barn owl whose eggs are about to hatch, in San Marcos CA. She's asleep right now, but earlier she was eating breakfast that her mate McGee brought her. My kids are watching this every chance they get. Apparently the eggs can be heard peeping, so sounds like it's going to be soon - although I have a hard time telling from all the other bird songs. I hear roosters right now.