Upper Newport Bay

Anna's Hummingbird

Upper Newport Bay is an estuary that is an important staging area for migrating birds in winter. In summer the walking trails brought me close to bush birds and raptors. Turkey Vultures, Red Tailed Hawks and Osprey circled overhead, but the marine layer made distant photos a dull grey. I still haven't identified many of the little brown birds, but the Anna's Humingbirds were numerous.  Anna's are the most common hummingbird in Southern California. The way the light fell made a spectacular difference to the colours they displayed, a small turn of the head and the colour was gone.

Newport Bay, California

After a stimulating and informative New Media Consortium conference at Disneyland I'm on the Balboa Penninsula in Orange County. I took an evening stroll along the harbour wall to check out the difference in birdlife in my first summer visit. Two great blue herons flew into a huge palm tree for the night, severel black crowned night herons were on their way somewhere, and a green heron headed towards the back bay. Barn swallows flittered over the water and perched on boat rigging. Snowy egret foraged along the tide line and displayed on the bait barge, and a great egret flew overhead. Brown pelican formed a giant V in the sky, before finding a row boat to  roost on, and double-breasted cormorants perched on mooring buoys. Western gulls and forster's and caspian terns circled the harbour, fishing in the last of the light.

SYD to LAX

Off to Orange County for a month – 50% work with conferences and networking, but should be time for birding. My goals are:

Bolsa Chica Wetlands  Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach, CA.

Huntington Central Park 18000 Goldenwest St., Huntington Beach, CA

Irvine Regional Park 1 Irvine Park Road Orange, CA

Mason Regional Park 18712 University Drive Irvine, CA

Peters Canyon Regional Park 8548 E. Canyon View Ave. Orange, CA 

San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary 5 Riparian View, Irvine CA

Santiago Oaks Regional Park 2145 N. Windes Drive Orange, CA 

Santiago Park Nature Preserve 2535 N. Main St., Santa Ana, CA 

Talbert Nature Preserve 1298 Victoria Avenue Costa Mesa

Thomas F. Riley Wilderness Park 30952 Oso Parkway Coto De Caza

Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary 29322 Modjeska Canyon Road Modjeska Canyon, CA

Kooragang Island

When I need a little bird photography expedition to clear my head, but can’t take more than half an hour I tend to head for the Kestrel street on Kooragang Island. They didn’t disappoint this afternoon, with one of the pair sitting on the fence wire as I drove up, then flying down to catch a grasshopper over the roadway, and taking it back to a perch on a concrete post. The 50D played fair with focus actually locking on in Al Servo mode, so my images were even sharp. Very pleased with the outcome, I was almost content to go back to grading student papers.

Tarro

Indecision - “I’ll land here, no I won’t, yes I will, no I won’t”

Duck!

He seemed to be managing OK with half his top beak missing.

Hunter River

Between end of semester grading and several days of rain I haven’t had many photo opportunities, but caught this crested tern cruising the river at sunset.

Hamilton Oval

A flock of around 200 Little Corellas were feeding on the oval as I walked the dogs this afternoon.  There were quite a few young birds, this one (above) had just flown in, and crash landed on his head. Great to see them in such numbers, makes you wonder where they come from and go to.