Rare Bird Alert
Jon Fisher
Rare Bird Alert - November 22, 2024

Inca Dove | White-winged Dove | American Golden-Plover | Pacific Golden-Plover | Vega Gull | Lesser Black-backed Gull | Tricolored Heron | Western Cattle Egret | Dusky-capped Flycatcher | Tropical Kingbird | THICK-BILLED KINGBIRD | Eastern Phoebe | Grasshopper Sparrow | Clay-colored Sparrow | Dark-eyed “Pink-sided” Junco | White-throated Sparrow | Sagebrush Sparrow | Swamp Sparrow | Green-tailed Towhee | Sagebrush Sparrow | Black-and-white Warbler | Tennessee Warbler | Palm Warbler | Painted Redstart | Summer Tanager | Blue Grosbeak | Indigo Bunting

Rare Bird Alert
Jon Fisher
Rare Bird Alert - November 15, 2024

Inca Dove | White-winged Dove | American Golden-Plover | Pacific Golden-Plover | Lesser Black-backed Gull | Pacific Loon | Zone-tailed Hawk | Tropical Kingbird | THICK-BILLED KINGBIRD | Eastern Phoebe | Grasshopper Sparrow | Dark-eyed “Pink-sided” Junco | White-throated Sparrow | Green-tailed Towhee | Black-and-white Warbler | Bay-breasted Warbler | Painted Redstart | Summer Tanager

Rare Bird Alert
Jon Fisher
Rare Bird Alert - November 8, 2024

Tundra Swan | Mountain Plover | American Golden-Plover | Pacific Golden-Plover | Sandhill Crane | Lesser Black-backed Gull | Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | “Prairie” Merlin | Dusky-capped Flycatcher | Tropical Kingbird | THICK-BILLED KINGBIRD | Eastern Phoebe | Gray Catbird | Dark-eyed “Pink-sided” Junco | Green-tailed Towhee | Bobolink | Black-and-white Warbler | Tennessee Warbler | Lucy’s Warbler | Palm Warbler | Painted Redstart | Summer Tanager | Blue Grosbeak | Lazuli Bunting

Rare Bird Alert
Jon Fisher
Rare Bird Alert - November 3, 2024

Common Ground Dove | Lesser Nighthawk | Pacific Golden-Plover | Lesser Black-backed Gull | WEDGE-TAILED SHEARWATER | Zone-tailed Hawk | Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | “Black” Merlin | Tropical Kingbird | Eastern Phoebe | Clay-colored Sparrow | Dark-eyed “Pink-sided” Junco | White-throated Sparrow | Green-tailed Towhee | Black-and-white Warbler | Lucy’s Warbler | Bay-breasted Warbler | Cape May Warbler | Painted Redstart | Summer Tanager | Scarlet Tanager

Rare Bird Alert
Jon Fisher
Rare Bird Alert - October 26, 2024

Common Ground Dove | White-winged Dove | Mountain Plover | Pacific Golden-Plover | Red Phalarope | Lesser Black-backed Gull | American Bittern | Little Blue Heron | Broad-winged Hawk | Zone-tailed Hawk | Tropical Kingbird | Pacific Wren | Red-throated Pipit | Lapland Longspur | Chestnut-collared Longspur | Grasshopper Sparrow | Clay-colored Sparrow | Dark-eyed “Pink-sided” Junco | White-throated Sparrow | Green-tailed Towhee | Black-and-white Warbler | Tennessee Warbler | Lucy’s Warbler | Cape May Warbler | Blackburnian Warbler | Magnolia Warbler | Palm Warbler | Summer Tanager | Painted Bunting

12MAWT

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Adventures in Nature Wherever We Are

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Adventures in Nature Wherever We Are

My first close encounter with a whale was at SeaWorld in San Diego, California, currently home to many orphaned and injured ocean inhabitants. I took the back scene tour that raised funds for animal rescue and welfare including “Lunch with Shamu,” one of several generations of Shamu-named orcas. Seated at a table alongside Shamu, I bit into my peanut butter sandwich only to have Shamu leave the water and slide down our eight-person table to my sandwich. Whales have huge, muscular tongues they use to lick food off of their baleen, much as we lick peanut butter off of the roofs of our mouths. From the response of the trainer, this was an unplanned snack.

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An Unexpected Gift

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A black phoebe has taken a liking to our backyard, perching variously on the spent orchid stem, the tomato plant cage, the long slender stem of the Agapanthus, and the telephone wire. She visits often throughout the day, feeding on the small yellow moths she spies in the grass, swooping down to snatch them and gliding back up to her perch to swallow them.

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