South Bay Morning

Great Egret
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

Well, Ashok and I had a pretty slow morning at Sunnyvale Baylands and the neighboring sewage ponds. I did have a lot of fun borrowing his 2X teleconverter, and I even, in a moment of hubris, tried stacking the 1.4X teleconverter on the 2X teleconverter on the 500mm f/4L on the camera body with the 1.6 magnification factor, leading to the equivalent of a 2,240mm f/8 monstrosity. Thanks to the miracle of image stabilization plus the wicked tripod setup, I actually got some moderately sharp images with that setup. More pictures here.

Owls at Shoreline

Burrowing Owl
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

Ashok and I found the family of Burrowing Owls at their appointed post near Michael's restaurant in Mountain View. Although the abundant grass made photography somewhat frustrating, they were unfazed by our big lenses and really quite cooperative.

Return to Rancho

Western Screech-Owl
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

This morning Ashok and I decided to check out Rancho San Antonio. We were rewarded by looks at a lot of great residents, including the beloved owl and fabulous bobcat. Neither of them payed any mind to the hordes of joggers and walkers and RC airplane enthusiasts.

Some alert passersby drew our attention to what seemed to be two Wild Turkeys either fighting or mating. In a tree. Wow.


Anyway, not as hot as many recent days. What a great morning. More photos here.

Red Knot at Frank's Dump

Red Knot
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

Ashok and I went out to Hayward Regional Shoreline today (affectionately known as "Frank's dump") and found an early Red Knot quite far away. As I'd never photographed this species, I took the shots anyway, and squeezed a barely-recognizable image out of the resulting RAW files.

Wings over Mojave, Day Four

Sage Sparrow
Originally uploaded by Bill Walker.

I got some quality time with this _awesome_ bird, the Sage Sparrow. We broke 100 species for the trip, field notes forthcoming. It was an awesome time, we are now back home safely.