Checking out Alviso

Eurasian Collared-Dove
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

All the county hotshots have been scouring Alviso for rare shorebirds lately, so I thought I'd better head over there. For shorebirds I found the usual suspects, but I had a lot of fun tracking this Collared-Dove until it landed down low. This isn't the perfect naturalistic background I might wish for, but it does show how these guys are adapting to the urban environment down at the bottom of San Francisco Bay.

Flight Practice

Dowitcher in Flight
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

This morning Ashok and I went over to Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center and walked out among the shorebirds, trying to capture them in flight. The overcast meant pointing the camera down was best, as with this breeding-plumage Dowitcher. Perhaps our coolest bird of the day was a Peregrine Falcon flying over and spooking several hundred shorebirds into the air all at once.