Quick good-bye beach

 Time to head back to the cabin, with a heart full of love!  What a wonderful trip this has been.  I feel like I've had some really great family reconnection time, and seen so many things!  We went by Coronado for a last look at the ocean before heading to the airport.  Here's the pic I took, it's not great in the traditional sense, but it does reflect how it feels to visit.  Everything just layered up with happiness and love!

The day all of our plans changed

 Well, we had a plan, but we ended up doing totally different things.  We were going to walk around a meditation garden that Deborah has been wanting to go see, but when we got there, it turned out they are closed on Mondays.  So, I guess that's for another trip!  Luckily there was a gorgeous overlook nearby for us to regroup somewhere pretty.  H Street Overlook was awesome!  Easy parking, amazing gorgeous view, and dolphins!!!!!  A pod of maybe about 8, quite close to shore, just going along doing dolphin things!  

From there we went to La Jolla, trying to see leopard sharks in their nursery in the clear water, but we were too late in the day for that already.  We did have gorgeous views, and saw just ridiculous numbers of pelicans and cormorants!   A very nice walk which my knees did well on.  And then when we were getting back into the car, a juvie red-tailed hawk was right there!  So we paused again for that. 

https://ebird.org/checklist/S153421512

Then down to the sea lion beach, more great nature sightings.   There were ground squirrels there, my first time getting a good look at them.  And of course sea lions, chasing each other around, hanging out, they are always a treat to see. And look how beautiful the beach next door is!

https://ebird.org/checklist/S153422788

From there, back home and picking up Mom for lunch in Seaport Village.  As we were waiting for a table, a sharp-shinned hawk flew into a tree right by us!  So I reported that as an incidental.  Lunch was amazing.  Nice place on the water, again with the gorgeous view.  And I got huevos rancheros and they were so delicious!  I would definitely go back to that place again!  The rest of the day I just kept thinking back on that meal :-) We walked around Seaport Village, Mom wanted to look around and do some shopping and maybe find a treasure.  Well the treasure that we found was ice cream, thank you Ben and Jerry's!  

Another day, another boat

 We changed our plans.  Originally  from having a relaxing start to the day, hitting the boat for a couple of hours and then heading to nice dinner.  We ended up getting on the boat earlier, having a nice long wonderful boat ride, and needing a little bit of recovery time before nice dinner!  

This time the boat was a fast motorboat, and we did some zooming!  It was really really fun.  First we slowly got out of the harbor

Then it was zooming time!

I again took out my binoculars and we spotted lots of stuff, the highlight for me was a flock (raft?) of at least 175 surf scoters!  They are a cool looking duck with white on their necks that at first fools you into thinking they are maybe buffleheads.  But they are bigger, the beak is wrong, and they have other markings that will leave you doubting until you look it up, and find they are scoters!  That was pretty great.  We went super far, further than Deborah had gone before, so that was really cool.  Again a lot of sandpipers I wasn't able to ID, even though I looked at some in a guide last night.  I did see some that I was confident about, including a long-billed curlew, which was really cool!  Oh and some brant which were really hard to ID.  Looking up a black duck with a white neck ring was useless.  Merlin eventually came up with it, but only on try 3 or 4 of going through the process.  But we got there!  I really need to study my sandpipers and plovers etc. for next time I'm here.  Here's the checklist:

https://ebird.org/checklist/S153361223

Here's my best bird pic, of the brant. I miss my superzoom!  

Then we had a really fantastic dinner at a nice restaurant on the water.  I wore a skirt!  So fancy!  It was beautiful and delicious and I got to spend some really great quality time with Mom.  

Then back to Deborah's to again basically collapse exhausted!

San Diego, Canyon and Boat day!

 I got to San Diego last night, and today was a big day.  We started the day with a walk with the local Audubon Society in Tecolote Canyon, it was wonderful!  Deborah came along and loved it too.  Great guides, great group, easy walk, lots of birds.  Great views of hummingbirds, hawks, scrub jays (a favorite of Deborah), bushtits, wrentits, just a lot of cool stuff.  Here's the checklist

https://ebird.org/checklist/S153297743

I only took one pic from the boat, I sort of forgot:

And here we all are on the doc afterwards!

Then back home for a bit of recuperating, and then we picked up Mom and met Kat and Charlie, and went on a boat!  This kind of boat is called a Duffy, and we went out on Mission Bay, which is calmer.  The combo gave us a nice smooth ride for Mom, and Charlie brought some trains to play with.  I of course brought my binoculars and Kat and I counted just so many great blue herons!  And cormorants.  It was pretty amazing.  Also some sandpipers but I could not ID them, so I didn't enter them.  There was one mystery grebe, which ebird wanted more info about, but I didn't have any more info for them.  I didn't get a pic, and the light was bad, so, sorry ebird!  A highlight for me was a big group of about 40 skimmers!  They are so cool.  Didn't see them skimming, just hanging out.  Hopefully next time!  :-) It was so so wonderful to be out on the water!  Here's the checklist:

https://ebird.org/checklist/S153289672

Then we took Mom back home and headed to Kat's place for kebobs for dinner and some Charlie time, a house tour, and some kitty time.  It was great!  I got to hold a purring cat on my lap!  <3 

Back home to Deborah's, worn out from a wonderful day.

Jack is becoming a regular

 A couple of days after that, Jack's swim leggings came, along with his rashguard and swim socks.  So he had a full outfit, and on a good river day, we went down to the float-in-place spot, and had a wonderful river float!  

Mostly it was beautiful and relaxing and just nice to be there.  And then we saw a beaver!  It came out and played in the water briefly, then got out on shore.  Then a few minutes later came back into the water a bit closer to us, played for a longer while, and went back out on shore.  It was so cute!!!!  Then we heard it on shore going past us, and heard it getting back into the water upstream from us, but we didn't see it again.  I got terrible pics on my phone and I was so happy!!! 

Alternative Spot Float

 Then the three girls came back, and I showed them the other river spot, on the spur of the moment.  We were taking our chairs down to sit in the river, and I thought, hey, let's check that out.  We did, and it was not good for a river sit, but it looked awesome for a river float in place instead of doing the whole down-river float.  So we went back to the bridge and sat there.  That's when I met Sean and Todd and talked to them about the Christmas decorations, which was great!  The next day we decided to float there instead of doing the whole down-the-river float.  Good choice!  It was a very easy in/out, we didn't need to do a car shuffle, and it was easy to stay in place.  Anastasiya got me an inflatable floating cooler, and I had gotten the bungee cords with D-rings at the ends, so we joined together and made a flotilla, and had a wonderful afternoon.

Jack gives floating a try

 A few days later, I floated down the river with Jack!  He was wearing my leggings and Chris's shirt, so not totally ideal, but had a great time.  We saw a juvie eagle, then an adult eagle.  And a bullfrog making loud noises, which I learned about at a C&O canal walk.  

Then a deer on the left bank, followed pretty closely by a deer on the right bank.  And then a group of about 10 mergansers, who just went as a group under a tree and stayed calmly hanging out in the shade as we passed.  It was awesome! 

And then at the end a tiny jumping frog by the bridge as we got out.  It was a big day for him, and very tiring, but I'm so glad he tried it out and went.  He can enjoy this stuff too!  

Twice in one weekend? Sounds pretty nice.

 The next day Erin and I went alone, and I remembered to actually take some pics with my phone.  Me fully decked out in my swim leggings, rash guard, just covered tip to toe practically.  She just had her bikini.  We are so opposite, and both so happy!  

It was another beautiful wonderful float down the river, and we had some really great one-on-one time. We did see a little snake.  Anastasiya and Vhary picked us up at the bridge, it was great!    

Floating on the River - How it Started

 

My first time floating on the river was with Tami, late summer 2022.  She was in her little pink kayak, I was in a big blue inner tube, with one paddle.  What a wonderful time!  Chris got us set up and in the water at Common Area 3, and we floated and paddled and chatted all the way down the river to the bridge.  From there we texted Jack who came and got us.  The biggest problem was that my water shoes were not good for the river.  They were snorkeling shoes, not made for walking on river rocks, and every step really hurt!  Oh and I overdid the paddling, and re-injured my shoulder a bit.  I knew I was doing too much, but it was so fun!

That was the only time that year.  My next time was also with Tami, early summer 2023.  We left a car at the bridge this time, and Chris got us in the water again.  It was basically a repeat, but I had better river shoes this time, and I was much better with my shoulder.  It was really wonderful, so relaxing and so beautiful.

Then some friends came to visit, and I took them!  I got new inner tubes (the old ones had failed an overnight test), and took Erin and Vhary and Anastasiya down the river.  We loved it!  When we got in at CA3 we saw a beaver!  Oh this was the time we first went down to the bridge to test out the inner tubes, so Vhary could figure out whether she could do the whole float.  And she could, and she did!  Erin and Anastasiya knew how to inflate the inner tubes very well, so I learned from them.  And I got to tell them why they are called inner tubes, which was funny!  They are all so much younger than I am, it's funny that I am now the one who explains old-timey stuff!

Warm April day at Rocky Gap

Sometime in 2020 we went to Rocky Gap state park, and it was gorgeous!  So on a warm spring day, we decided to give it another go.  It was just as gorgeous this time, with an added plus - the bathrooms were open!  Yay!!!!!

Here's the ebird checklist:

https://ebird.org/checklist/S132699116

We basically parked by the building with the bathrooms, and walked along the edge of the lake, and followed the lake loop trail for a while.  The trail is 5-6 miles long, and we are building back up to that, but today we just went as far as felt good and then turned around.

First off, scanning the lake I was a little sad there wasn't anything to see, but then a loon popped up quite nearby!  It was underwater when I started my scan!  Definitely my best sighting of a loon ever, and I think the first time in breeding plumage.  Talk about fancy!  

Then I noticed a group of 4 cormorants on the lake, so that was nice.

Going towards the trail start (the bridge) there were some other ducks, one that I figured out later was a ruddy duck, and the others, well, my best guess is greater scaup.  Hard to know if they are greater or lesser, I looked at the guides, and that's my best guess.

On the trail, we heard plenty, and saw a little!  Not much in the way of spring migrants, mostly resident birds.  But right by the bridge Jack spotted a groundhog, and on our way back he found a snake!  It looked like a garter snake about 2 feet long to me, but let's be honest, I am far from a snake expert.  It was so cool!  

This was a really nice place, with really nice people on the trails etc.  I would guess it gets crowded as it gets warmer, so I don't know if it will be for us during busy season, but for right now it's pretty ideal.

 

Abrams Creek Wetlands Preserve

 Took a walk on the little-bit-wild side at Abrams Creek, a very nice walk by a little wetlands on the edge of Winchester.  So nice!  I was hoping to get some migrants, but I didn't really, except for one little ruby-crowned kinglet.  But it was a wonderful walk!

It started with a kingfisher!  I love kingfishers, and I was thrilled to see this one.  It was on power lines and backlit, so I'm not putting a pic here, but trust me, it was as cute as it could be!  

Further along, a lot of activity, mostly hearing red-winged blackbirds, wrens, hearing much more than I was seeing.  Saw a pair of wood ducks at one spot, it's surprising how hard they are to see at the edge of the water!  Like most people, I love a wood duck.  

Further along, lots of little cuties, the expected ones, sparrows and juncos and such.  Then I saw a weird branch that I thought might be a bird hiding, but it was at such an odd angle, I thought, probably not.  But obviously I looked, and it was a red-shouldered hawk!  My first time seeing one perched.  It was so hard to get a picture of!  It flew off but only maybe 15 further down the path, and sat up straighter, for this shot.  

At the end of the path you can see across to a golf course, and there were geese there.  Several Canada geese, and 2 greylag geese, I guess escapees from somewhere.  And one that I still can't ID, I'm guessing some sort of swan, I didn't get a good pic.  I'll see if it's there next time!

Here's the ebird checklist, I'm going to start including these hopefully on the regular:

https://ebird.org/checklist/S132234577

Nesting Cavity Drama!

 

So today from upstairs I saw a pair of super-cute Carolina chickadees hollowing out a cavity in a dead tree, to make a nest there.  That’s how they do.  I’m trying not to get too excited and scare them off, which has happened before with several pairs of nesting birds.  I try to be cool, but.......

Everything is going fine, until a bluebird shows up!  Ooooooooooh a cavity, nice!  I want this.  This is mine now.  A bluebird is like 3-4 times the size of a chickadee, so the chickadees are upset, but there is nothing they can do.  A bluebird also wants a cavity for a nest, and isn’t bothered by the ethics of taking a chickadee cavity!

Then, just when it was looking terrible for the chickadees, a robin comes by and drives off the bluebird!  Why??????? No idea.  A robin doesn’t want a cavity.  Maybe it just hates bluebirds.  But now the bluebird has moved on and the chickadees are back to work on their nest!

I was watching through the screen so pics were not happening.  It was pretty exciting to watch!  

Back again!

 Hello again!  It's been quite some time.  I continued to bird in NYC, even visited some cool places, but didn't have energy to keep up this blog, so it went dormant.  

Then as you already know the pandemic hit, and life changed.  Now I've been living in my brother's cabin for almost a year, and I'm feeling ready to engage with this blog again.  I got a super cute new camera and I'm learning how to use it, and spring is just about here!

One of two phoebes who has been a regular

Yellow-bellied sapsucker has been a regular

Eastern bluebird by neighbor's house

I might do some after-the-fact posts just so I don't forget cool stuff, but for now I'll just start with today.  In the morning I spent some time on the deck, and in addition to the regular cuties, there were some new migrants!  I saw 3 golden-crowned kinglets, and one blue-headed vireo.  I didn't manage good pictures of any of them.  I did get a whole bunch of crappy pics of the kinglets, but I'm guessing nobody particularly needs those.  The regulars were more cooperative, everyone in their springtime spiffiest costume.  

I went out again after lunch, and saw most of them again.  And then later I heard a knock, knock, knock that wasn't coming from the door.  I went to check it out with a bit of dread in my heart, and sure enough, a pileated flew off, having pecked into the post of the back patio!  Oof.  I mean, I love seeing them, but pecking is for trees!  That made it a 5 woodpecker day for me - two flickers, the yellow-bellied sapsucker who chased off the downy, the red-bellied, and the vandal.

It was wonderful to see the migrants, hopefully I will get better with my camera and share some great moments!  :-)