Thursday, December 2, 2010

CA towhee ~ 12/02/10 ~ at home

California towhee perched on coast Douglas-fir
Pipilo crissalis perched on Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii
Pinaceae

Have I mentioned my bird photos are generally lousy? My fuzzy pictures of this Pipilo from July were way better than what I was able to capture today. I don't think I have the patience (or camera) to get really great photos of birds. These two visited our balcony and stayed for the longest time, until I had Andy hand me the camera through the window and I started the camera with the "bling" sound. All the commotion scared them away to the nearby tree. Argh! While I had the camera out, I tried to capture a Townsend's warbler, but it was too quick in the branches. Heavy sigh. My goal for the next year is to capture better bird photos.

ps 12/06/10 - And yes, it is this green around here and fairly warm. A light sweater is all I need to be comfortable enough outdoors in December. While I love the pics many nature bloggers post of snow, I'm glad to not have to endure that kind of cold weather.

4 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

I'm with you on the "no snow right now thing" altho when we get some thru-out the winter, I am grateful to be able to see/enjoy it while it lasts! Just don't want 6 mos. of it like in Wisconsin!

sandy said...

I agree bird photos are the most difficult. They require a lot of patience and a long lens. I also missed a Townsend's Warbler so I went to Google for a photo when I wrote about it on my own blog. Having lived in Wisconsin for a few years, I also appreciate not having six months of winter. I prefer visiting the snow.
I will be posting some bird photography tips tomorrow at: tomorrow. Not my tips but those of people much more skilled at birds than me.

Anonymous said...

Towhees are among the tamest of the backyard birds; they routinely come hiphopping across our deck, driving our indoor cats nuts with their incessant "cheep! cheep!") and are the only birds to every venture all the way up our driveway into our covered courtyard.
Re snow: my first year in SF, friends from NY kept asking me if "there are any winter sports where you are?" and my stock reply was "yes....gloating."

Katie (Nature ID) said...

twg, ice and snow are the reasons I left Ohio. Snow is fun to play in when it's fresh, but not so much when trying to de-ice the car and get to work in a big city where it quickly turns into black chunks of ice.

Sandy, I make it a point to use my own fuzzy photos, because I sometimes get IDs wrong and it's nice to check against what I actually saw.

Janet, they were fairly tame. I hope they visit again!