Chuqui 3.0

breaking the 200 barrier... (with a bullet!)

With everything going on, I was wondering if I'd ever get past the 200th bird on my birdwatching life list. I set myself two goals for birding in 2008: 200 species, and to be the first to discover a notable bird in the area.

The latter is really a function of luck, time spent birding and a bit more luck; and I've come close a couple of times in the last year, but it's never been confirmed. It'll happen when it happens.

But I've finally been able to do a bit of birding again, and I've now shot past 200 species. I'm now thinking I might amend the goal to 200 species for the year and see what happens.

Bird # 200 was, of all things, a Barn Owl. There's a Barn Owl in a box at Don Edwards EEC; I went out there on the 11th to see if I could find the Wilson's Phalaropes (no luck because I was limited in how far I could walk out after them), and realized I'd never logged the owl onto my list. Looked i the box, it looked back and blinked. Done.

Leading up to 200 included a couple of nice birds: 199 was Snowy Plover, down in Bolsa Chica (yes, I'm spending a LOT of time in SoCal these days, and birding Bolsa Chica on the way out home most trips; it's a nice place to visit and a good break after the fun of Southern Cal right now). 198 was Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher, a bird I've missed multiple times, even when Bob Power has pointed it out -- yet when I was reworking my photo library, there was a bird from 2006 labeled "sparrow" that I saw at a glance was wrong; a close look showed it to be a Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher, so I added it to the list retroactively.

Also added to my list via photo evidence were Gila Woodpecker and Northern Cardinal from a trip to Tucson in the 1990s, and Rhinoceros Auklet from 2005 and a trip to Victoria at Odgen Point, those made 201, 202 and 203. Today I added Wilson's Phalarope and the Ruff out at EEC for 204 and 205, and I could have added a Pacific Golden Plover, but my ankle just wasn't up to the walk. The walk out to island 4 wasn't bad, but it stiffened up watching the ruff, and the walk back got pretty brutal; still, it's slowly improving.

Nice to know that despite everything going on the last few months, at least one goal is accomplished...

On the way back from SoCal yesterday with the first batch of Dad's "stuff" to be sorted and organized, and with the key estate issues taken care of (at least this round), I hit Bolsa Chica again and got some really nice Snowy Plover photos, as well as some least tern chicks, and got to watch a black skimmer on the hunt again. Fascinating, weird-but-beautiful birds, the black skimmer.

But none of my skimmer shots were nearly this good:

And some quick notes on today's birding trip:

I headed out this morning to Don Edwards in search of fame and fortune, or at least a Wilson's Phalarope. Starting out around 10, I walked out to Island 4 and back, running into numerous other birders out searching for same or better.

It was a very successful day. The Ruff continued on Island 4, living most of the time on the far side of the island but popping up into sight every so often; while I was there, it came into full view three times, and popped it's head up once more, over about 30-40 minutes.

Other birders reported the golden plover continuing on island 5, but my ankle was already complaining, so I gave it a pass (sigh. but right decision for me).

there was a Wilson's Phalarope at the eastern edge of Island 4, another on island 3, and a third in the shallows on the S side of the berm across from Island 4, but not great numbers. I found two ruddy turnstones on Island 3. Walking back towards the parking lot near island 2, I had a sparrow fly past me. I chased it a bit before it flew off into the brush, and it looks (I think) like a moulting juvenile Savannah:

had one weird gull on Island 2:

not sure what to think of it, really, but is this a Mew? I really can't place it, even after doing some book work here at home.

From talking to the other birders, the black tern had been a no-show that morning. I'd stopped to rest the ankle near Island 1 on the way back (about 12:30ish) and noticed a tern out on the algae mat out beyond island one. It was only there for a minute or so, but I got the scope on it and it was a black tern (much darker underwings than forsters, and much different flying habits, it was flying maybe 1-3 feet over the water and dipping in to skim, much like a black skimmer, rather than the plunge dive; very distinctive once you see it). It flew off to island 1 and I thought it landed near the pelicans, but I couldn't find it, but it was definitely there for a very short period of time.

In the reeds of the marsh between the EEC and the pond I spent some time trying to coerce the marsh wrens to come into view; one finally did, but there were four or five in the reeds. While doing that I had another bird fly through and perch; my initial thought was warbler, when I got my binocs on it, the face seemed more like a kinglet, but it had bright yellow on the chest. Coming home and researching, I realize now it was a female common yellowthroat, so my first guess was pretty close (I was initially thinking yellow-rump but no yellow on top or back).

A couple of birders reported a peregrine playing around near island 1; I didn't see it, the terns did and weren't happy.

Other birds seen included canada geese (which seemed to be migrators, not feral, and not terribly friendly), snowy and great egret, black-crowned night heron, one great blue heron, white pelican, a few mallards and a couple of pied-billed grebes, double-crested cormorants (lots of blonde younger ones), turkey vulture, lots of stilts and avocets, two really, really, REALLY cute baby stilts still in down on one of the islands (3, I think), one practicing catching bugs, one practicing swimming, yellowlegs, dowitchers, red-necked phalaropes (50+), western and least sandpipers (my brain cramp of the day: "least sandpiper. that's a lifer. yeah, right. it's semi-palmated I need.. gah). swallows, anna's, and the usual cast of characters.

the golden plover, by reports, has moved onto island 5 and evidently went to sleep there, so it may hang around. the ruff is definitely hanging around, and well worth going and looking for; patience is needed because of its tendency to wander the far side of the island. When I was there, it'd make an appearance every 5-15 minutes for a bit. The black tern is around, look for the tern that isn't acting like the Forsters -- it tends to fly much closer to the water and swoop/skim rather than dive/plunge.

(and Ruff is 204 on the life list, wilson's phalarope 205, and black tern 174 on the year list.... finally over 200....)

Black Skimmer

Black Skimmer
Originally uploaded by chuqui

The Black Skimmer is an east coast bird, but sometime in the past, a clock was carried onto the west coast by a storm. Today, there's a growing population in the Bay Area, and a larger group down in southern california, with many of them resident at Bolsa Chica Preserve in Huntington Beach.

I've been fascinated by these birds since I first saw them -- but in the bay area, where they're visible they're mostly sleeping or resting. When they rest, they'll lay their head and that huge beak on the sand, because the beak is heavy.

Why do they have such a huge, ungainly beak? This photo explains why, as well as their name. Their mode of fishing, unlike most terns (which plummet into the water after fish) is to skim the surface and act as a flying colander -- and after numerous tries, at a recent trip to Bolsa Chica, I finally caught one in action.

Look at the large size.

Charleston Slough 6/22

Laurie and I wandered out to Charleston Slough and Adobe creek yesterday, visiting the pump building for the swallows and tern island.

Tern Island seems to have been very successful tonight; doing a quick survey using the photos I counted at least 27 chicks of various sizes and downiness, and a few birds that looked to be youngsters making the switch to real feathers (a couple had spotted chests that looked like bits of down not quite gone). I also saw half a dozen or so birds chasing adults in that "feed me" activity that seemed to be fledged kids. Also on the island was an avocet nest (possibly two), and some terns that seemed to be sitting on eggs.

It was really busy, noisy and grumpy, in that way tern colonies can be. Great fun.

On the pump building there were about 10-12 nests that seemed to have chicks in them and being attended to by mom and dad. One nest had three chicks in it, all almost ready to fledge. the rest the kids stayed out of sight, but a couple of the nests were making noises that sounded like multiple chicks.

The only really notable bird was a common moorhen on the far shore of adobe creek, roughly parallel to the tern island. half a dozen white pelicans flew through, four snowy egrets, the usual component of Mallards, Gadwalls, d-c cormorants, and hybrid duck families. Lots of song sparrows, and we also saw a good number of fledged but still young blackbirds; at one point a flock of about 25 flew by. Down in the pond area in the pond building outflow with the gulls and mallards were a single killdeer and a black-crowned night heron with his breeding bauble.

I stayed to try to get shots of the swallows at the nests (and mostly took shots of blank walls), while laurie wandered over to the lake; she says other than his lord high surf scoter and his harem, not much was going on (but he looked happy). As it was getting dark, I showed laurie where the burrowing owls on the shoreline golf course are, but they evidently went to a movie...

Carrizo plain birds...

Coming back from LA from my dad's funeral, I decided to do a bit of birding on Carrizo plain and then come down to the coast and wander around Morro Bay.

I spent a total of about 90 minutes on Carrizo plain, coming in on the south side, and driving in to about 3 miles past the end of the paved road, then back out to the road. Highlight birds included three different Loggerhead Shrikes, a number of flocks of Lark Sparrows (lifer for me, #198), and a family of rock wrens (total of 4-6). Also saw a gorgeous male bullock's oriole right where soda lake road and the 33 meet, a western kingbird, a couple of northern mockingbirds, ravens, etc.

Not a massively birdy day, but a very successful one:

Location: Carrizo Plain --IBA
Observation date: 6/8/08
Number of species: 8

Western Kingbird 1
Loggerhead Shrike 3
Common Raven X
Horned Lark 1
Rock Wren 6
Northern Mockingbird X
Lark Sparrow 15
Bullock's Oriole 1

Decent photos include Lark Sparrow, Horned Lark, and rock wren/

The rock wrens were in a gully near quail springs road, about where I turned around. (to give you an idea where my head was at, I then proceeded to drive back out the 166 to I5, sort of messing up my plan to visit morro bay... ohwell)

On the way in, I drove via Frazier Mountain Highway (from i5 near the Tejon Rest Stop) over to Carrizo plain, doing "fencepost" birding -- anything I could see sitting on a fencepost and waving. Nothing too spectacular:

Turkey Vulture 1
Red-tailed Hawk 2
Mourning Dove X
Western Kingbird X
Steller's Jay X
Western Scrub-Jay X
American Crow X
Common Raven X
Tree Swallow X
Western Bluebird 2
Northern Mockingbird X
California Thrasher 1
European Starling X
Red-winged Blackbird X
Western Meadowlark X
Brewer's Blackbird X

although California Thrasher is a year bird for me.

Not a bad day overall. I'll retry actually FINDING Morro Bay next weekend, when I drive back from Dad's wake (we've hired the caterer, we've hired the mariachis, and I'm buying the beer).

Life in LA LA land...

I've been down in LA again, visiting family. This time, it's because Dad was scheduled for an angiogram on Friday, and I felt it made sense to be here in case anything happened.

Well, the test found three arteries about 99% clogged, so he was immediately admitted into the hospital because the doctors felt he was too risky to allow home. Arrangements were made, and this morning, he went into surgery for a triple bypass. I'm happy to say that he came through fine and was in recovery and from talking to the doctor, there seemed to be no complications. If all goes well, he'll be in the hospital another week or so, then I'll head down to LA again to help get him home and settled.

The family (and myself) are all nicely de-stressing now, too.

So it's been an interesting week or so especially the last couple of days. I've been using the down time to study up on some work stuff, and have gotten out when I can to go out and do some walking and birding (trying to, instead of stress eat, get out and get some exercise. So far, it's worked)....

It's been a positive trip for birding -- spring migration is on, so the migrant traps are busy. I'm about five minutes from Tri-City park in Placentia, so that's where I head when I don't have much time. In researching orange county birding, I also ran across Lakeview Park, which is on the Santa Ana "river", and happens to be literally next door to the kaiser hospital (on Lakeview in Anaheim) where dad had his tests (his surgery is up in San Bernadino at a place that specializes in heart surgery).

I also took some time out Sunday for a more extended trip, visiting Huntington Beach Central Park for the first time, and a return visit to Bolsa Chica and then a quick drive up Newport Back Bay.

All in all, I added 7 birds to my life list:

Warbling Vireo, Orange-Crowned Warbler, Plumbeous Vireo, Least Tern, Elegant Tern, Rufous Hummingbird and Ash-throated Flycatcher, taking the life list to 196 (with a goal of 200 for the year, I've probably set the bar too low. Maybe I'll shoot for 200 species for the year list).

The year list added those 7, plus four more: Wilson's Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Semipalmated Plover, and Bewick's Wren, giving me 164 for the year.

I finally added two problematic birds to my list: Orange-Crowned Warbler and Rufous Hummingbird. OC Warbler isn't all that difficult a bird, but even when I've been in a group and had it called out, I've had trouble pulling it out of trees and identifying it to my satisfaction. This trip, I finally did so, so I can check it off. It was with a large group (20+) flock of warblers wandering Tri-city park, mostly yellow and Townsend's with some Wilson's for spice. And -- I think -- at least one Hermit, but I never got a good enough look to be sure and no photos. The photos I thought might be a candidate are bad pictures of a Townsend's that make it hard to see the facial coloration. Ohwell. I'm pretty sure a Hermit was with that flock, though, but not enough to call it out for sure.

And rufous? they've just been hiding from me, even in places like Ed Levin where they're known to congregate. Adn twice I ran into birds down south that turned out to be Allen's, but I finalyl hit an adult I could sit and study enough to be able to differentiate it from the Allen's.

Here's a hummingbird that looks to be a barely-fledged rufous or Allen's (probably Allen's) -- you can see just the barest hint of the gold/orange on the sides starting to come out, and there's almost no green yet. Teh orange makes it selaphorus, and the general lack of color makes it real young. Doesn't hurt that I saw Allen's at that location, so I'm fairly sure they were nesting there.

More enjoyable, though, was being able to pull out some of the vireos and get good enough looks and photos to get solid IDs. Those birds can be tough; I found a spot at Huntington Central Park where there were a lot of canopy birds and a snag that actually went into the lake, and the birds were using it as a staging point to get down to the water to drink. It almost made it a bit too easy:

One negative: bad light (grey and overcast) so I was shooting with flash, including a Miligrid flash extender, and I'm not thrilled iwth the light catches in the eyes in some cases. ohwell.

This is one where the light catch works well, adn the flash really brings out the faint olive coloring on the side:

And for the Plumbeous, notice the different eyebrow than the warbling:

Newport Back bay was really quiet, and I was running short on time, so I only stopped at the observation parking lot, and wandered across the street into the brushy area up in the hill rather than focus on the wetlands. It's a hangout for swallows and sparrows and stuff, and I was hoping to run into a loggerhead shrike or a blue-grey gnatcatcher (both seen there in the past by people I know); no luck, and it was pretty quiet other than the song sparrows, until the rufous popped up and gave me a good look, and then this bird popped up into a bush and hung out for a minute or two. I immediately realized it was a flycatcher ("Say's Phoebe. Boring. No, wait, not with that head!...."). Those two species made the side trip on the way home more than worthwhile...

I'd originally planned on either a run down to Salton Sea, or up into Carrizo Plain and Morro Bay, but of course, plans changed. maybe next trip, once dad is settled. But I don't think I did badly at all, and I'm starting to get the hang of tracking and seeing canopy birds better, and getting some decent photos.

And I can't not show off the ducks... Came back from the birding trip to the beach, only to say to mom "did you know you have ducks in the back yard?". fortunately, while they like the idea of nesting in the garden and using the pool, Remy had other ideas, and they moved on...

On the other hand, the neighborhood is pretty birdy, if not exotic: two mockingbird nests, a black phoebe couple, and for some reason, a flock of bushtits have moved in and are systematically cleaning all of the bugs and stuff off my mom's window screens....

My entire photo set is, as always, on flickr).

Cattle Egret in Redwood Shores

A cattle egret has landed in Redwood Shores, something like the third record for the species in the county in the last decade. it's very habituated -- I went looking for it this morning, found it sitting on the grass eating bugs in the intersection of a main highway in redwood shores.

Life bird 186, year bird 147, having also added forster's tern today to the year list down at radio roads...

The avocets are now in breeding color and looking for nests:

while I also saw a black-necked stilt on a nest on the radio road ponds. Down at the egret rookery in palo alto, we had night herons actively nest building, and snowy egrets congregating, but they don't seem to be nesting yet. Great egrets weren't seen this morning, and by now, in previous years I've seen them. I'll probably be visiting the rookery weekly until June when it calms down again, just to watch and photograph the process...

Pacific-slope Flycatcher and friends...

While out running errands today, I took an hour or so off and ran up into Steven's Creek park, just to get out for a bit... it's been over a week since the sapsucker's been seen, so it's pretty clear it's moved on, but I arrived just about the time today's Big Day team was leaving, and ran into Bill and Mary scouting for their big day next weekend.

There was a small clump of birders on the road up to the campground that were scouring the oak canopies (including Al Eisner, Ron W). They reported Townsend's and Black-chinned grey warbler, as well as a calling (probable but unseen) Cassin's Vireo, an enthusiastic but hiding Black-headed grosbeak, and western tanagers. About that time, of course, the leaf blowers up the hill kicked in.... Also reported was a hairy woodpecker nest, in a snag along the entrance road from steven's creek; look for the 15' tall stump just after you turn in towards the picnic area.

The others wandered off to check out the woodpecker nest and get away from the leaf blowers. I stuck around because I wanted to practice searching the canopy and trees. After a bit the blowers quit and the birds started again, but instead of a black-chinned grey warbler, I found song sparrows and spotted towhees and American Robin (which means I still have some work to do before I I challenge Al's abilities. Al, you can relax....)

The vireo kept calling and I kept at it, and about 30 minutes after Al left, a bird finally popped down onto a branch and gave me 15 seconds of good looks (and photo ops), and then popped out again. I never saw the warblers, but as I was leaving, I did get some quick but decent looks at a Western Tanager, too. I thought it was the Cassin's, but when I showed the photos to some of the senior birders, it turns out to be a Pacific-slope Flycatcher, which looks a lot like a Cassin's (smaller, different color beak). So it was hanging out as well, but not making any noise, waiting to trip me up. But we ended up getting it right...

On the way back, I stopped at the boat launch at the dam. Farirly quiet, but there were two Osprey hunting the lake, and two Caspian Terns fishing it, as well as a few D-C cormorants, one of which was wearing his breeding feathering over the eyes.

On the way out, I was going to check out the woodpecker nest, but another photographer was working on it, so I left that to later so I didn't risk disturbing it. it's easily visible from the road as you turn into parking area, so I expect we'll see some nice photos coming soon....

Pacific-slope Flycatcher is a life (184), and Caspian Tern was a first of year (142).... And thanks to Al for taking the time (again!) to do some teaching on songs and habitat and habits on the grosbeak and vireo.... I also had a female hooded oriole at the feeder here at home on Friday, and I realized I hadn't added hooded oriole to my life list. It's not new, but that makes it life bird 185 and year bird 143.

When I decided to start keeping a life list (I'm using eBird www.ebird.org), a question when to start. I finally decided to use as a cutoff my first birding trip to Morro Bay, since that was when I decided to take birding seriously (as opposed to be someone who takes photographs of birds); because of this, the lift list only goes back to May 2006, with two exceptions, both birds that I happened to have good photos of from before then.

I've currently set a couple of birding goals for the year; one is to reach 200 species (and with some luck, 200 for the year); the other, more of a longer-term goal, is to be the first to find and ID a rarity and have it confirmed, rather than follow the other birders and add known birds to the life list.

I've come close to that second goal a couple of times, but never gotten independent confirmation of the find. To me, that's a goal that indicates how my ability to find and ID birds is progressing. OTOH, there's still a huge amount of learning to do. My biggest problem to reach 200 species is going to be how much time I'll have and how wide I can travel. With the new job and Laurie leaving Yahoo for MacAfee shortly, I'm probably not leaving the Bay area all that much, other than trips to LA to visit family...

--------

Location: Stevens Creek Park, Conley Picnic Area
Observation date: 4/19/08
Number of species: 9

Pacific-slope Flycatcher 1
Steller's Jay X
American Crow X
American Robin X
Western Tanager 1
Spotted Towhee X
Song Sparrow X
Dark-eyed Junco X
Black-headed Grosbeak X

Location: Steven's Creek
Observation date: 4/19/08
Number of species: 5

Double-crested Cormorant 3
Turkey Vulture X
Osprey 2
Caspian Tern 2
Song Sparrow X

A good day Birding -- Merced NWR, O'Neil forebay

Update: photos now available here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chuqui/sets/72157603931162647/

Laurie and I joined Bob Power of Santa Clara Valley Audubon on a group outing to Merced NWR, O'Neill Forebay and the areas around that, with a group of about 12. It was a warm, sunny day, and the target birds were, of course, the geese and cranes that are about to head north for the spring migration. They didn't disappoint.

By my count, the day's list was 85. Highlight bird was tufted duck, found by Bob on O'Neill in a group of mixed scaups. Also highlight birds (at least for me) were Ross's goose and snow goose, sandhill crane, a gorgeous adult bald eagle, downy woodpecker, blue-gray gnatcatcher, brown creeper, hermit thrush, rock wren (which has been seen in Merced NWR since November on and off, and came out and gave a great show) and virginia rail, which Bob coaxed out of the reeds into full view to the amazement of the entire group.

there were a few notable misses by the group: no turkey vultures at Merced, we didn't see any until we hit Santa Nella. Also no California Towhee (go figure), no Say's Phoebe, no Burrowing Owl. the great-tailed grackle was seen just outside of Los Banos on the way to the group, so it wasn't seen by everyone.

After we left the group and were driving home, we realized we were headed past the Hawk/owl hotspot near Bailey road, so we headed out to Richmond and Santa Teresa, where we found ourselves in a gaggle of birders waiting for the owl. To my amusement, one of the birds Bob was trying to find at O'neill -- Say's Phoebe -- immediately popped up and posed. A Great Egret entertained the troops, catching and eating a vole to applause while harriers and kites hunted. At about 600, a Short-eared owl arrived to hunt, and was seen for about 15 minutes.

I added 11 birds to my life list today: Great-tailed grackle, Ross's goose, Virginia rail, Brown Creeper, Rock Wren, Blue-gray gantcatcher, tufted duck, clark's grebe, california gull, horned lark, and short-eared owl. Not all of these are really new to me (Clarke's grebe and california gull, SEOW and horned lark) but weren't in the documented trips I used to create the official list (horned lark in Victoria BC a while back, SEOW at Byxbee park in Palo Alto last year, for instance). Still 7 birds were new, and I can't complain.

That takes my life list to 180, and my year list to 120.

Tufted duck was a real find and a source of much frustration to the group. The differentiation between it and the scaups is fairly subtle, especially for this bird, which was either female or late juvenile male and mostly tucked and sleeping. In my case, I searched in the scope for a while and finally was able to see it among the scaups, got about 30 seconds of a good, obvious look, then lost it and couldn't re-find it again. Most of the others had similar challenges, but enough of us saw it and were able to differentiate it from scaups to be sure (and of course, we trust Bob, except when we don't...)

I was also thrilled that the brown creeper was my find while trying to get good looks at a bathing hermit thrush (at the back observation post at Merced).

At one point the geese took off, and we had about 12,000 snow and ross's all in the air and circling. we also had smaller overflights of sandhill crane, but there were easily 20,000 geese in the preserve -- and making enough noise to drown out the the blackbirds and marsh wren. Well, almost.

Also seen today -- tule elk at the basalt area of the San Luis Reservoir as we drove in, and deer in the hills above 152 driving home. I also had a possible barrow's goldeneye, but it was diving and I lost it before we could get someone else's eyes on it for verification. ohwell.

Species Name
Greater White-fronted Goose
Snow Goose
Ross's Goose
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Canvasback
Tufted Duck
Greater Scaup
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Common Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Ring-necked Pheasant
Pied-billed Grebe
Clark's Grebe
American White Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
White-faced Ibis
Turkey Vulture
White-tailed Kite
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Golden Eagle
American Kestrel
Virginia Rail
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
Killdeer
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Long-billed Curlew
Dunlin
Long-billed Dowitcher
Wilson's Snipe
California Gull
Western Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Great Horned Owl
Short-eared Owl
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Black Phoebe
Say's Phoebe
Loggerhead Shrike
Western Scrub-Jay
Yellow-billed Magpie
American Crow
Common Raven
Horned Lark
Tree Swallow
Brown Creeper
Rock Wren
Marsh Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
American Pipit
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Brewer's Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Finch
Lesser Goldfinch

American Robin -- another CS3 workflow test

found my meta-data. Don't use "Save for Web" (duh), use "Save as". This is now a photoshop album. Need to make sure I have descriptions in the meta data and a real title, and experiment with sharpening for flickr.

Almost there. Next up -- output for print to various sizes. And then setting up SmugMug for the portfolio (and using Flickr for the social side of the photography...)

Still working out niggling details on naming and etc... And next few nights I won't be around much in the evening... So by the weekend, maybe this'll be done.

Western Bluebird: another CS3 workflow test.

Another try on my CS3 workflow. I think I like this way of handling the copyright and framing better. And the photo istelf ain't bad. Unfortunately, I'm not seeing my keywords, so I"m doing something wrong with the metadata.. Of to explore...