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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Sep 10, 2015 - 06:43pm PT
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Dark Morph Swainson's at Las Vegas NWR tonight.
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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Sep 11, 2015 - 01:02pm PT
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From today.
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dee ee
Mountain climber
Of THIS World (Planet Earth)
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Sep 11, 2015 - 04:09pm PT
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WHEW, thanks Bob, I had to duck in here to recover from "The Burch Zone" thread.
I feel better now.
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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Sep 13, 2015 - 08:03am PT
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Thanks Dave.
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Mike Bolte
Trad climber
Planet Earth
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Sep 13, 2015 - 08:06am PT
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Great bunch of photos on this page!
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Sep 14, 2015 - 02:24pm PT
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Amazing photo, Mike!
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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Sep 15, 2015 - 10:47am PT
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Great shot Mike.
One from today.
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10b4me
Social climber
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Sep 15, 2015 - 03:42pm PT
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10b4me
Social climber
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Sep 16, 2015 - 04:12pm PT
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Darwin
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Sep 17, 2015 - 01:01pm PT
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I didn't think this warranted a separate thread, although there are a fair number of non-birding photos.
My wife and I just went on a camping trip to Cape Disappointment at the mouth of the Columbia River. The plan was for a tame vacation for a few days, but given it's location, I brought my camera, and then I threw in some climbing shoes at the last moment as we headed out the door. I decided to put the birds photos last, so first some scenery and rocks:
Much to my delight it wasn't raining for the first two days and the campground and the area had outcrops of surprisingly solid (for seaside rock) pillow basalt of probably the Crescent formation of the Olympic Peninsula and lower Columbia. Most of it was highball bouldering size and pretty easy. I think I only pulled off two holds in two days. My bones wanted a rope to top-out on all but the easiest climbs. All in all, I guess there were about 20-30 small faces, most of them overhanging very slightly and most had jugs. A few reached 30', but the rock on the larger faces look more suspect.
Steeper than the photos make it look, and the solid climbable section of these are maybe 12' high.
Most faces didn't have chalk but this one did.
Now to the real subject. The first two days I noticed hundreds of what had to be Sooty Shearwaters off the North Jetty and Northhead lighthouse point. The jetty was closed to the public and unfortunately I just didn't make time to go to the lighthouse point those days. I thought that many would stick around for a few days, but I was wrong. My guess of Sooty Shearwater was supported by this poor dead one:
Brandt's, right?
Brown Pelicans are a big deal for me, and I have a soft spot for Surf Scoters.
Surf is also a big deal for former surfing Seattleites.
There are a few more photos at:
http://173.160.158.251/postings/2015-09-15-Ilwaco/index.html
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Tony
Trad climber
Pt. Richmond, CA
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Sep 17, 2015 - 07:24pm PT
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After hearing reports of masses of Sooty Shearwaters, as well as other seabirds and cetaceans feeding just offshore around Half Moon Bay, we made a visit last week. Actually, I went there twice in three days. While driving up to our first stop in Pacifica, we saw a Humpback Whale surfacing. Looking from a bluff, there were thousands of Sooties and Common Murres not too far out. Most were resting as there was no wind. Humpbacks continued to appear. We headed south, making a few brief stops. There were more Sooties streaming by all along the way to Half Moon Bay. That was the site of the highest density. A very conservative estimate was 100,000 just in the area we could see there, which was about a 2 mile stretch. We saw many at each place we stopped between Pacifica and the south end of Half Moon Bay, a distance of over 12 miles. We must have seen several hundred thousand. A week or so earlier there were similar numbers north off Pt. Reyes.
Thousands of Common Murres plus many Brown Pelicans, Elegant Terns and Heermann’s Gulls joined in as well as Humpbacks, Harbor Porpoises, Dolphins. Sadly, there were numerous dead Murres on the beach and in the water. Apparently this has been going on along the coast for a while. They are mostly starved young.
Here is some video footage of the action:
[Click to View YouTube Video]
South at Pescadero we encountered some Snowy Plovers around a nesting protection area.
At the end of the day we went a little north to Pillar Point where the Sooties were streaming towards. There were Surfbirds, Wandering Tattlers, Black Turnstones,Sanderlings and Semipalmated Plovers foraging on the seaweed.
This Brant was looking pretty ragged. It was at the same spot two days apart, probably in catastrophic molt.
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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Sep 17, 2015 - 07:33pm PT
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Great stuff Tony & Darwin.
My meager offering.
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cyndiebransford
climber
Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
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Sep 17, 2015 - 08:30pm PT
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I love checking all the fantastic photos on this topic. Thank you everyone who adds to my joy.
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Darwin
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Sep 17, 2015 - 08:45pm PT
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No kidding about what Cyndie said! Effing Chupacabras and thousands of Shearwaters! What photos!
Watch Tony's movie, holy cow. I wish I felt more confident about distinguishing between the sea mammals.
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Tony
Trad climber
Pt. Richmond, CA
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Sep 18, 2015 - 12:37am PT
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Bob,
Meager?? Pretty cool to get a close-up of a (Lesser?) Nighthawk.
I should mention that Sooty Shearwaters can fly over 40,000 miles in a year during their figure 8 migration route to-from New Zealand breeding grounds.
They also may dive (fly underwater) up to 70m to feed. There is some great underwater footage here in this unfortunately lame show:
http://www.pbs.org/big-blue-live/social-hub/
The Sooty footage starts at about 26:00
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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Sep 18, 2015 - 05:59am PT
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Tony, I was thinking Lesser too but it is pretty far north from their range.
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little Z
Trad climber
un cafetal en Naranjo
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Sep 18, 2015 - 03:49pm PT
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amazing stuff folks, in story and image.
I've been back in Costa Rica for about a week now, getting used to all the green and moisture again after a few weeks in the dry and brown Eastside.
This camera thing is driving me crazy. It's starting to detract from my birding experience. Even if a bird gives me great looks, now it's somehow less than satisfying if I can't get a photo. Then nothing turns out the way I think it's going to. Already wishing I had better equipment. Where is this taking me?
Anyways, here's some less than perfect images.
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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Sep 18, 2015 - 04:11pm PT
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Little Z wrote: Even if a bird gives me great looks, now it's somehow less than satisfying if I can't get a photo. Then nothing turns out the way I think it's going to.
Welcome to my world.
What is Nighthawk picture? Look at the wing color, could be a Lesser like Tony said.
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little Z
Trad climber
un cafetal en Naranjo
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Sep 18, 2015 - 04:26pm PT
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Hey Bob,
Common Poorwill? Very fine vermiculation, dark cheek, overall grayish with no prominent markings, especially on the crown and top of the tail, no white at bend of wing (usually shows in nighthawks). Tail looks long in your photo because it's not covered by the wings, but it doesn't seem to be longer than the wings. Not all guidebooks do a good job at illustrating nightjars (they're a tough lot). One book that does do it well is Howell and Webb's Mexico guide.
I'm in trouble if you're not satisfied with your photos. I suppose even Brassnuts feels at times like he can't get no satisfaction. Wildlife photography will humble you, that's for sure. Hard to imagine how they did it in the days of film photography (short answer: talent).
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