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Sunday, May 29, 2011

Moving it the blog to Facebook....

Howdy all!

I decided to move this blog over to Facebook...it's so much more user friendly and easier for me to keep things current. As you can see from my submissions I was not good at keeping up with stuff. Anyway, join our facebook group: Birdwatchinglady.com

See ya there!

Heidi 

10:09 am pdt 

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

MY BLOGGING STINKS! *LOL*

Alright, I had great intentions of bloging at least once a month. I can't seem to do that. It's so crazy! I still bird watch everywhere I go. I have a ton of new pictures but I'm just distracted with two beautiful grandkids that are too cute or their own good and of course.....Tennis! My other obsession. I'm probably the other person that can be playing a tennis match and still maintain a birdwatching hobby at the same time. I know that's out of control. I was playing a match out in La Cresta on a ladies private court when I stopped the game because I saw a Kingfisher fly by and land in a tree next to the court. 

I just got back from a couple weeks in Kauai. It is one of my favorite places to stay. I play tennis every morning and then birdwatch in the evenings. My goal this trip was to see a Hawaiian owl or called the Short-eared Owl. We drove to the Barking Sands area on the West side of the island just before sunset. We drove on several miles of dirt roads and pasted by lots of dry fields of grass. "This is a perfect place for an owl", I commented as I was scanning for the Hawaiian Owl. My 3 year old grandson was not convinced that the Hawaiian owl even exisited, after two weeks of us looking for one and having no luck. "There are no owls here grandma", he said. Then out of no where came an owl flying right in front of our car. It was awesome! Not just because I saw the Hawaiian Owl but it also showed that grandma is always right. *LOL* I didn't get a very good picture but I got one good enough that I could identify it was for sure as a Short-eared Owl. I will share a picture I took near the Taro Fields on the north side of the Island in Hanalei. We were driving back into the reserve area and this little guy landed on a sign next to our car, we stopped and he visited with us for several minutes. Very cute! He is a White-Rumped Shama.

 

9:58 pm pdt 

Monday, March 1, 2010

The Mandarin Duck
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My birding friend and I were on a mission a few weeks ago. We had seen a picture of a Mandarin Duck while we were at the San Diego Bird Festival last year. The photographer said that he took the picture at Lake Jennings a couple days earlier. We drove directly over to the lake and as you would have it.....No Mandarin Ducks. It had been a year but we couldn't get that duck out of our minds. One afternoon, we looked up "Mandarin duck" on Google and found this guy that said he saw them at Lake Irvine. So, off we went to Lake Irvine. When we got there the place was closed due to someone shooting a movie there and closing the Lake to the public. Once again.....No Mandarin Ducks. Then my birding buddy's daughters boyfriend (confused yet?) bought a new camera and was showing her some pics he had taken on her TV. As he quickly scrolled through pictures of railroad tracks and cool looking graffiti, up popped a Mandarin Duck. She said, " What the heck?  Flip back, what was that?". Come to find out, a couple pairs of Mandarin Ducks had settled in his backyard and were hanging out by their Koi Pond in Yorba Linda. What are the chances of that? We made an appointment and went over and I took some beautiful shots of the Mandarin Duck. You just never know where you will find beautiful birds.

10:12 am pst 

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Check out the Bob Cat


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Ok..... I stink at blogging.

I had good intentions of sharing my current birdwatching adventures weekly or at least bi-weekly. At this point it looks like once a year.  Pathetic!  It is not that I don't have cool things to share, it's just I don't take the time to blog about it. I will have to make up for lost time and share several awesome days I have had this last year birdwatching. So, here it goes......

 

A couple weeks ago my birding friend and I were driving down a dirt road called Tenaja Rd. out in La Cresta Ca. We were on a birdwatching mission but were surprised when a Bob Cat ran out in front of our car. We stopped and then drove real slow and was able to catch a glimpse of him in the bushes before he decided to run off. I was excited that I was able to get a picture of him too!  Cute little guy huh?

2:37 pm pst 

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Yikes! It's been a long time since I bloged in!

I'm still here....... Really....

I have been on several birdwatching trips and just haven't caught up with getting all the pages added to my site.  I have two little grand-picturegallery171325.tmp/zekemalachi.jpgbabies that I love on every week plus play tennis several times a week and run my local Tennis Club here in Temecula. I'm just a busy birdwatching Lady! I was at the San Diego Bird Festival this last weekend and met some cool people. I also picked up info on even more fun places to go bird watching. I don't think you can ever exhaust places to go birdwatching!

Isn't that exciting?

9:22 pm pdt 

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

I was never more excited when I saw a Greater Roadrunner!!!

 

greater roadrunner 171325.tmp/roadrunner.jpgI saw this bird a couple days last week and was taken back. We used to see Greater Roadrunners all the time but over the last few years there hasn't been many around. When I saw him again this morning I was able to grab my camera  and take this picture. I'm happy that he has chosen to hang out around my house. It would be awesome to have several Greater Roadrunner's hanging around here. They are the most unique bird. I love the way they move and strut around. They are like the bird "Fonzie" from Happy Days. You can just imagine them in a leather jacket riding a Harley. Very cool! 

4:50 pm pdt 

It was a warm bird watching weekend!
I went out with my birding buddy to The Oak Canyon Nature Center in Anaheim, Ca. to check it out. We found a secluded, shaded canyon nestled in the hills of the city with streams, oak trees, tree-covered paths, wood bridges, and of course BIRDS! There was wildlife everywhere you look. We saw tons of lizards, squirrels, and even a raccoon curled up taking a nap in some tree branches. Pretty darn cute! You can only imagine how disappointed I was when I realized that I had left my camera battery in the charger at home. What a drag! I will go back again in a few weeks and take some pictures so I can post them on my Bird Photo Page. You can check out more info on my page.
It’s that time of year……We also experienced heat, bugs, and poison ivy! It was about 98 degrees and the bugs were everywhere. Flying under the rim of my visor and trying to get into my mouth, eyes, and buzzin’ my ears. That’s makes me crazy! I forgot to take my bug spray so I was kicking myself most of the afternoon. I did wear my favorite bird watching shirts so I was comfortable. I should have worn my long lightweight pants due to the Poison Ivy. I have not had a reaction from Poison Ivy before so maybe I’m immune but it’s better to be safe and avoid contact whenever possible. It's hard to enjoy a day birdwatching if you don't dress properly and bring a lightweight folding chair to take time to rest and stay still allowing the birds to come to you. My birding buddy has a birthday coming up in July so we are planning to revisit The Oak Canyon Nature Center and hopefully I will remember the camera batteries, & bug spray this time.


12:10 pm pdt 

Monday, June 9, 2008

Let's get this Bird Blog started.
This whole "Bird Blog" thing is new to me and to the site, but it has to start somewhere. So, here we go. As an only child until I was 13 years of age, I learned to entertain myself. I should have no problem entering my own blogs until I get all you birders out there to join in. Actually, it should be easy for me sense I do a good share of talking to myself not only at home but also in public places. It's embarrassing at times and I have earned myself some funny looks, but it hasn't seemed to deter me a bit.

Anyway, I thought I would share a funny bird watching story. My girlfriend and I were out in Ramona, Ca. at the Grasslands Reserve. We were pulled over on the side of the road looking out onto a beautiful open grass plain. We spotted some beautiful birds about 150 feet away. It was hard to make them out but I could see some detail and knew that I had never seen this type of bird before. We were real excited! They were about 10", yellow chests with a black arrow under their necks. They were open field birds and had a beautiful song. Then all of a sudden a man & wife, dressed in their "birding best", pulled their car over next to us, jumped out, and ran over with their binoculars. "What are you looking at?" the lady asked. I started, with excitement, to describe the birds to them as all four of us were eye to eye with our binoculars. Then with great disappointment she says, "Oh, their just Meadowlarks". They both hurried back into their car and drove away. My girlfriend and I looked at each other and cracked up. Hey, Meadowlarks were exciting for us. I hope I never get to be such an experienced birder that I'm bored with the likes of a beautiful Meadowlark or it's lovely song. We still tease each other about that day. As we look through our binoculars to identify a new bird and find that it’s a bird we are familiar with. We always say, "Oh it's just a mockingbird". It always gives us a good chuckle.

5:51 pm pdt 

2011.05.01 | 2010.09.01 | 2010.03.01 | 2010.02.01 | 2009.03.01 | 2008.06.01

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