Category Archives: California

California, Discovery, Haiku

Snow Goose Festival

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Great blue heron - don't tell me you can't see him! #worstbirdpic

Six plus hours birding.
This is what I have to show.
(Hashtag) Worst Bird Pic

On Sunday, January 25, Laura B. and I “Bird[ed] the Shores of Black Butte Lake” as part of the 16th Annual Snow Goose Festival of the Pacific Flyway. It was great fun, and I will include a full species list as well as some commentary below, but in this very moment, I would like to celebrate my talent for #WorstBirdPics.

#WorstBirdPic is a legitimate thing, as evidenced by this Buzzfeed (my favorite is #18): 23 of the Worst Photos of Birds.

So with that for a backdrop, I think you will find new appreciation for my opening photo; you can see the great blue heron, right? No?

Let me show you:

He's right here!

He’s right there! #WorstBirdPic

Okay, that one was kind of tough. Let’s try another. Do you see the bird:

Western meadow lark

Hint: it’s a western meadowlark! ….

….

No? I’ll show you:

Western meadow lark circled

Right there!

I know, I am clearly a prodigy, because I did not practice at all and produced these.

On a more serious note: Birding was terrific! I am so glad we participated in the festival. Below is a full list of the species we saw. Happy birding!

Birders extraordinaire!
Birders extraordinaire!
  1. Western meadowlark
  2. Rock wren
  3. Double-crested cormorant
  4. Gull sp.
  5. Dark-eyed junco
  6. Western grebe
  7. Song sparrow
  8. Goldfinch sp.
  9. American kestrel
  10. Loggerhead shrike
  11. Killdeer
  12. Black phoebe
  13. American coot
  14. Bufflehead
  15. Common goldeneye
  16. Ruddy duck
  17. Acorn woodpecker
  18. Northern flicker
  19. Nuttall’s woodpecker
  20. Mallard
  21. Turkey vulture
  22. Great egret
  23. Great blue heron
  24. Common merganser
  25. Northern harrier
  26. Red-tailed hawk
  27. Western bluebird
  28. Say’s phoebe
  29. Kinglet
  30. American robin
  31. Glaucous-winged gull
  32. California towhee
  33. Spotted towhee
  34. Golden-crowned sparrow
  35. Western scrub-jay
  36. Mourning dove
  37. Yellow-billed magpie
  38. White-crowned sparrow
  39. Lewis’s woodpecker
  40. White-tailed kite
  41. Ring-necked pheasant
  42. Red-shouldered hawk

Oh, and there was a delicious post-birding trip to the Sierra Nevada Taproom. Yum! Yum!

Sierra Nevada

California, Haiku

Whirring

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On Wednesday, January 21, my intern partner, Corey B., and I were on a snail hunt along a partially constructed trail just outside of the city of Redding.** During a pause on the trail, I heard what sounded like a small helicopter come whirring in past my left side. The proximity and sudden arrival of the sound startled me. It’s volume told me the critter was far too large to be a bee, which were also in the area, but then what could it be? I glanced up just in time to see the outline of a hummingbird before it disappeared among the manzanita. Even now, I find the experience a little surreal; the abrupt arrival and departure of such a small, beautiful thing accompanied by an almost unreal sound. My thought as the bird departed: ‘I am in paradise.’

Helminthoglypta - this is what we are seeking.
Helminthoglypta hertleini – this is what we are seeking.

**Our assigned task was to relocate survey sites from 2014 and to establish whether snails – or to be more formal “terrestrial mollusks” – were still occupying the sites. In particular, we were interested in finding Helminthoglypta hertleini, a California BLM sensitive species, and we had to be careful not to confuse it with Monadenia churchi, another species of very similar appearance, but not considered sensitive. The snail hunt came with mixed success, and in the process, we found this really cool lizard!

Sagebrush lizard face
Sagebrush lizard face
Distinctive sagebrush lizard underbelly; they are also known as "blue bellies"
Distinctive sagebrush lizard underbelly; they are also known as “blue bellies”
California, Friends, Haiku

Trivia!

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On Tuesday nights, our team “Optimistic About Fourth Place,” plays trivia at Shameless O’Leery’s, a local watering hole. Some weeks, we do really well; like last week, we won second place! And that was actually the second time we won second place (see! it wasn’t just a fluke), which comes with a $20 bar gift card and some bragging rights at the office. Other weeks, we don’t do so hot; like this week, we finished somewhere in the neighborhood of fifth. Win or not, we have a grand time, and I am so glad to have friends who like to do this kind of thing on a week night.

For fun, here’s some recent trivia questions for you! If you know all the answers, then you should definitely come play on our team!

  1. Is Bob Dole dead or alive?
  2. What do you call a group of raccoons?
  3. Locate the following horse leg parts: pastern, gaskin, and cannon (this was a visual round question)
  4. Who stole the record number of bases – 1406 – during his baseball career?
  5. What is the fewest number of moves you would need to make to win a game of battleship?
  6. What is the name of the Greek goddess of wisdom?
  7. What is the sum of the first three prime numbers?
  8. What is the name of the world’s third largest ocean?
  9. What do these three things have in common: Jelly Bean, KitKat, and Ice Cream Sandwich?
  10. Name the four US presidents who were assassinated while in office.

If you want the answers, you can ask my friend Google.