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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Recent content by rkj

  1. R

    California, 2024

    12 May 2024 To the sea, to the sea, down to the salty sea in ships. Actually to the hypersaline Salton Sea in a Honda hybrid. The Salton Sea and the area surrounding its southern end have several birds that are hard to find elsewhere in California. Today my goal was to get down there, hit some...
  2. R

    Gull, Salton Sea, California, USA 12 May 2024

    Franklin's it is then. Thanks to all who have helped to set me straight.
  3. R

    Gull, Salton Sea, California, USA 12 May 2024

    I initially identified this as a Laughing Gull, based on the dark hood and the dark wing tips. Looking at photos on line, however, I have begun to wonder if it could be a Franklin’s Gull. There is a bit of pale color at the base of the black on the upper side primary tips, and the black there...
  4. R

    California, 2024

    11 May 2024 I went back to Big Morongo again today. Just because. I walked up the Marsh Trail, Mesquite Trail, and Canyon Trail as far as its junction with the West Canyon Trail. I spent a lot of time at the feeders, trying to get better photos. Success was limited, but I did finally get an ok...
  5. R

    California, 2024

    Big Morongo is mostly open, but the trails connecting one side of the creek with the other are still out so you cannot do a loop, you have to go up and back on each side. The birds seem unaffected and it is still one of my favorite places to bird. My only pelagic so far was a whale watching...
  6. R

    California, 2024

    10 May 2024 Some thoughts about visiting the Mojave National Preserve. It is a beautiful place and has some excellent birding – depending, as anywhere, on the weather. I am quite glad I went. Many of the roads on the Preserve are dirt or gravel. Those I drove were all fine for an ordinary car...
  7. R

    California, 2024

    9 May 2024 I went back to Midhills Campground again this morning. What a difference from two days ago. It was cold and windy and the migrants that had been here were almost all gone. I did, however, find a Juniper Titmouse. The last report of one had it near campsite #21. I parked nearby, gave...
  8. R

    California, 2024

    8 May 2024 I still wanted to get some information about road and trail conditions in the Preserve, so I headed toward the main visitor center in Kelso. On the way I stopped at the Baker Sewage Ponds. If there is water in the desert, birds are not picky about where it comes from. There were a...
  9. R

    California, 2024

    7 May 2024 It was into the Mojave National Preserve today. There are two species there that are hard or impossible to find elsewhere in California, Gilded Flicker and Bendire’s Thrasher. Both may be found in the Joshua tree woodlands in vicinity of Cima, but the best place for the flicker is on...
  10. R

    California, 2024

    6 May 2024 I drove today to Primm, Nevada, with stops at Afton Canyon and Zzyzx. Afton Canyon is a site in the Mojave Desert about 23 miles (37 km) southwest of Baker. Here the Mojave River (calling this a river is perhaps dubious), which mostly runs underground, is pushed up by the local...
  11. R

    California, 2024

    Cinco de Mayo When I was young I was taught that there were three kinds of desert in California: the Great Basin Desert, dominated by sagebrush and found in a strip east of the Sierra Nevada mountains; the Mojave Desert, characterized by Joshua trees and found east of the high southern...
  12. R

    California, 2024

    4 May 2024 I had not planned to do any birding today. It was raining – unusual here in May – and I needed to get ready for a trip to southern California. But yesterday there was an ebird post reporting a Mute Swan in a little lake in the middle of a mobile home park in Scott’s Valley. The post...
  13. R

    California, 2024

    2 May 2024 Family affairs had me heading to Hollister today, and I made a few stops coming and going to look for birds. Old Chittenden Road was the first. This is a short road that parallels the Pajaro River in southeastern Santa Cruz County. A small section is next to riparian habitat by the...
  14. R

    Need help identifying a bird

    Other than the black cap, which might be a matter of lighting, this sounds somewhat like a Northern Flicker.
  15. R

    Sanibel Island, SW Florida, USA - long shot

    Red-bellied Woodpecker would be my guess.
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