Winter in Los Angeles has transitioned to Spring. The welcomed rainy season left our canyons green. Flowers are blooming. Great big scary bugs are flying the friendly skies. And it's baby season.
The alien looking flying insect is a Teddy ( not Honey) Bear Bee. Another horror that was hell bent on flying into my face. I think it's as big as a baked potato. And did I mention that it flies, slowly, at face level. Buzzing loudly. This and the White-crowned Sparrow were taken at Los Liones Canyon.
We happened upon two life birds this month. W9 IDed a bird based on the research done to find the bird with a voice in the background of a Cornell bird feeder cam. The Canyon Wren. He is sitting on a fence in poor light. What a fun filled song!
The center bird, yes there's a bird in there, is the second life bird we found this month. And by "we" I mean W9. We were skulking Ballona Freshwater Marsh when W9 stopped. I stop. We look. Off in the distance and through the haze stands The American Bittern. We have wanted this bird for a long time. Last year or the year before some teenage tourists stopped us to ask us questions. We told them that we were searching for the bittern. 30 minutes later they passed us giggling. They showed us photos of the bittern on their pocket sized point and shoot.
So W9 and I stood frozen watching the bittern. Too far away for anything but ID documentation photos. The bittern looked our way. Like that neighbor you never see and then one foggy morning you think you see him at the front door in his bathrobe…. before you can blink, the apparition has dissolved.
The Belted Kingfisher, baby coot, and gosling photos were taken at Madrona Marsh. I will never forget Tracy Drake’s warm welcome. We were new birders. So new that we didn't even know we were birders yet.
Jerry took us back to Malibu Creek State Park. The very place where last year we found the rare, Indigo Bunting. He hasn't arrived yet but his handsome cousins are there and they are singing their pants off.
Lower right hand corner holds the California Gnatcatcher. Photo taken on the last day of April. These birds are hopefully making a comeback. It was a bit more than a hop skip and a jump to get to White Point Preserve on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. It is an interesting area in many ways. The main road along the cliffs suffered a big landslide a few years back so a detour is the only way to get there. Great for the lucky folks who live where the coastal route was. The screaming motorcycles don't roar through the neighborhood anymore. Our Gnatcatchers were vocal (think slowly stepping on a squeak toy) while posing in the brush, fanning out their tails.
It was an exciting month and one we will be challenged to top.
Thank you for your visits and kind words.
For what it's worth I have tinkered with camera settings and gave shooting in RAW another stab.
I wish you all good light, no wind, and no biting bugs.... unless you like that sort of thing.
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