Rare Bird Alert
Jon Fisher
Rare Bird Alert - December 19, 2024

Sandhill Crane | Pacific Golden-Plover | Mountain Plover | Solitary Sandpiper | Vega Gull | Lesser Black-backed Gull | Pacific Loon | Flesh-footed Shearwater | Zone-tailed Hawk | Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | Dusky-capped Flycatcher | Tropical Kingbird | THICK-BILLED KINGBIRD | Hammond’s Flycatcher | Dusky Flycatcher | Western Flycatcher | Eastern Phoebe | Bell’s Vireo | Verdin | Lapland Longspur | Chestnut-collared Longspur | Thick-billed Longspur | Dark-eyed “Pink-sided” Junco | Grasshopper Sparrow | Clay-colored Sparrow | Black-chinned Sparrow | Sagebrush Sparrow | Swamp Sparrow | Green-tailed Towhee | Baltimore Oriole | Lucy’s Warbler | Palm Warbler | Pine Warbler | Painted Redstart | Hepatic Tanager | Indigo Bunting

Rare Bird Alert
Jon Fisher
Rare Bird Alert - December 6, 2024

Tundra Swan | Red-necked Grebe | Pacific Golden-Plover | Mountain Plover | Solitary Sandpiper | Lesser Black-backed Gull | Swainson’s Hawk | Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | Dusky-capped Flycatcher | Tropical Kingbird | THICK-BILLED KINGBIRD | Hammond’s Flycatcher | Western Flycatcher | Lapland Longspur | Chestnut-collared Longspur | Thick-billed Longspur | Clay-colored Sparrow | Dark-eyed “Gray-headed” Junco | Dark-eyed “Pink-sided” Junco | Sagebrush Sparrow | Nelson’s Sparrow | Swamp Sparrow | Green-tailed Towhee | Orchard Oriole | Black-and-white Warbler | Tennessee Warbler | Painted Redstart | Summer Tanager

Rare Bird Alert
Jon Fisher
Rare Bird Alert - November 29, 2024

Inca Dove | Common Ground Dove | Pacific Golden-Plover | Vega Gull | Lesser Black-backed Gull | Least Bittern | Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | Dusky-capped Flycatcher | Tropical Kingbird | THICK-BILLED KINGBIRD | Western Kingbird | Western Flycatcher | Eastern Phoebe | Cassin’s Vireo | Clay-colored Sparrow | Sagebrush Sparrow | Dark-eyed “Pink-sided” Junco | White-throated Sparrow | Swamp Sparrow | Green-tailed Towhee | Hooded Oriole | Baltimore Oriole | Scott’s Oriole | Black-and-white Warbler | Cape May Warbler | Painted Redstart | Summer Tanager | Blue Grosbeak

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

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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