המועדפים של carriechelle

35 flying overhead, they circled several times over the Grahams Oaks area. I lost them in the sunlight and they were gone, not sure if they landed or flew off. I didn't know we even had pelicans here, so was a cool sighting for me to see from my house!

The photo is of a Violet-green Swallow in a nest box with 5 Western Bluebird nestlings. The Violet-green Swallows have returned after migrating and are looking for cavities to nest in. The swallows won't harm the nestlings, and there are reports of swallows actually assisting in feeding the nestlings.

Violet-green Swallows and Ash-throated Flycatchers are the late nesters and often have to use whatever cavities are available. I've been finding both Tree and Violet-green Swallow nest starts in boxes from which other species have fledged and before I had a chance to clean the used nest out.

This is another example of the competition among birds that occurs for cavities to nest in. I added another nest box nearby in hopes that the swallows will use it.

Here's the bluebird observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/79032961

📸: By Lee Pauser

This observation was part of a nest box trail done in conjunction with the California Bluebird Recovery Program (CBRP), which runs the Cavity Nesters Recovery Program (CNRP). CNRP involves many volunteers across California who establish and monitor nest box trails for cavity-nesting birds. During the breeding season, these boxes are checked weekly for parasitism, predation, number of eggs, nestlings, and number of young fledged. Then at the end of the nesting season, volunteers submit their results to CBRP. We compile these results and submit them to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s NestWatch program and other interested organizations.

White Rock lake, lower spillway
4 part series of a mock snowy battle.
Texas Death Match Snowy Style

1. A snowy egret (just out of sight here) was busy catching fish when this second snowy walked up behind it & sprang into the air to challenge for this prime fishing spot. You can see the path of drops where it's feet had just left the water.
2. The first egret accepted the challenge and it was on. Both birds were in mid air going at it. They were not flying, they would jump in the air with loud squawks and try to intimidate with spread wings and head feathers puffed up.
3. Both fell back down to the ground & the one on the right chased the original one to the left, away from the prime fishing spot. Looks like it was using its tongue also to intimidate.
4. With the first bird gone, the interloper took a victory walk for a few seconds as though to say "That's right! I'm bad!" The entire encounter took less than a minute according to the time stamps on my photos.

White Rock lake, Winfrey Point
The Yawn
Just happened to have my camera trained on him when he yawned and gave me a nice look inside. Can see the blood vessels, tongue and the choana (the opening on the roof of the mouth that leads to the nasal passages.) Very colorful interior.

White Rock lake, lawler road behind the arboretum
Mid Air
This waxwing pulled a berry off the twig above it then tried to snatch it out of the air. There were several more waxwings in the tree so I was clicking away at them and did not know I had caught this action until later. I am sorry to say I don't know if it got the berry or not. This bird does not have the red tips so would be a juvenile.