Spent a few days in a Phoenix suburb and found lot’s of Gambel’s quail. There was both a greater number than I’d ever seen before and they were not as skittish. Nesting appears to be on the agenda.

There are some beautiful areas around Phoenix. One I drove through had the desert landscape, especially palo verde trees, heavy enough to pretty much hide business and shopping areas from the road.

A female phainopepla.

Below, a verdin and a cactus wren. Just starting to see ocotillo plants blooming.

Love watching brown pelicans dive for fish.

Osprey hunting. One of a pair. Caracara were also in the area.

Tern with a small fish.

Ruby-crowned kinglet. Such big eyes for such a small bird.

Had a few more visits from the kingfisher. First, and probably last time, a kingfisher will sit still long enough for me take their picture.

Wild turkey’s fluffed up and on the fence.

I’m again parked along the Arroyo Colorado in southernmost Texas. The weather continues to be a lot better than last year, albeit quite windy. A lot of homes still have their windows boarded up.

It has been a very Dickens’ December for me. Listened to Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, and Bleak House.

The belted kingfisher above gave me a present in landing right by my rv for a few minutes. Bet nature gave it the white dots near it’s eyes just to confuse both predators and prey.

Flycatcher

Great kiskadee

Tri-colored heron in the background,  little blue heron in the foreground.

Below, tri-colored heron. In the first one has a tiny fish in it’s beak.

I stayed at Prado Regional Park in Chino for three days to wait out some rain and wind alerts before heading north. Went to visit some peacocks that stay around their office area and one male put on a show. With feathers extended in full showgirl mode, he would try to envelop any of three females that walked by. At the same time, he’d do a shimmy of sorts. The females were just looking for food and seemed puzzled by his behaviour. To add insult to injury, sparrows were landing on his feathers.

When I was leaving the park, noticed a man taking pictures of a hawk that was very close to him. Think he was feeding it. First time I’ve seen anything like it.

After the first day at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, stayed at Dos Picos County Park in Romona. It’s a nice park that I’ve stayed at before.

In the African lion exhibit, the male lion jumped onto a platform right next to a floor-to-ceiling glass window. He had the same look that the male African lion had at the San Diego Zoo when he growled at a keeper walking by, calm on the surface but you don’t know what’s going on inside. A female lion had been sniffing the ground and then started making faces.

A gorilla enjoying a cob of corn. There is no glass around the gorilla enclosure. With all the busloads of kids that go through the exhibit, think glass would be a good idea both to lessen the noise the gorillas have to endure and to prevent kids from throwing things into the exhibit.

The lorikeet exhibit

Andean-cock-of-the-rock taking a bath.

Have been at one of my frequent stopping points, Rancho Jurupa Park in Riverside, California for the past week. Had gone without hookups for more than a week, so really appreciated having electricity again. The weather fronts with rain keep coming through California on a regular basis. Today heavy rain and thunder have been present most of the day.

Two pairs of herons are reusing two nests from last year. Saw one heron bring one twig to the heron in a nest and the waiting heron spent some time arranging that one twig. A red-tailed hawk landed between the two nests one day. The herons in the nests flew away and one came back so it was facing the hawk and started hissing at it till the hawk flew away. Heron’s can hurt hawks with their beaks if they are facing them and are not taken by surprise.

Have seen both herons and egrets hunting gophers in the field by me. The gopher exterminator that was here in the fall must have left some.

Saw an adult and then a juvenile night heron resting in the same tree on two different mornings.

Northern flicker

Cormorants. Have read where some places are killing them because they eat fish meant for fishermen.

Say’s phoebe. Probably the same one I saw in the fall, at least it was hunting and perching in the same spot.

Mallard. Have also seen a small group of ruddy ducks.

Feel like I’m seeing old friends when I see the geese mascots that have been here as long as I’ve been coming here. Glad to see they have made it through another season of kids, dogs, and fishermen.

Visited  South Padre Island Birding & Nature Center that is around 20 miles from my current home base. There are boardwalks through marsh areas that allow you to observe birds close up. The seem to know they are safe and usually don’t fly away. I did not visit Galveston or Rockport, Texas this year, so it is nice to see the coastal birds here.

Above two pictures, tricolored herons

Above, reddish egret (top) and little blue heron (bottom).

White rumped sandpiper (top) and lesser yellowlegs (bottom).

Caspian tern

Finally made it to the Gulf Coast of Texas. The warm breezes I felt when I first got here confirmed that I had arrived. Unfortunately, it proceeded to rain nonstop the following two days. I’m staying at the same park that I’ve stayed at before, but this time my site is about 20 feet from the Arroyo Colorado River. The second day of rain I started to get worried, but the river did not rise. There is, however, flooded farmland and front yards all over. You know a lot of stuff gets washed into the river when it rains. Nonetheless, people were back fishing the day after the rains.

I love watching all the birds fly inland over the river in the morning and out towards Laguna Madre in the evening. There are always brown pelicans around. It looks like an 2 adults and 2 young look alikes above.

Coyote in muddy farmland. He blends right in.

Green jays

Black crested titmouse.

Kingfisher seen from my rv. All these pictures are from where I’m staying.

There is a resident spotted sandpiper at my site. It’s a solitary bird that bounces up and down like a male ruddy duck.

Below, a Harris’s hawk with a fish. I didn’t have time to focus my camera, but still wanted to include it.

Have been at Rancho Jurupa Regional Park in Riverside for about a week. Have been surprised at the wide variety of birds I have been seeing. There are the regulars that I have seen in the past, as well as some new ones.

Do not recall seeing a kestral (above) before.

Have seen a number of black-crowned night herons, as I have in the past.

Blue herons and egrets are here as well. Saw a blue heron hunting for gophers this morning. The park has finally hired a gopher control professional who is putting some type of gas into the gopher tunnels.

It’s funny how a blue heron, a night heron, and a great egret will stand side by side next to the water, but will usually get territorial and chase away their own species.

Black phoebe (top) and a Say’s phoebe (lower).

Not sure what kind of woodpecker this is. Doesn’t look like any of the pictures in my bird book.

A lot of birds are here as part of a flock. These include Western kingbirds (top), Western bluebirds (middle), and Cedar Waxwings (botton). I have never seen cedar waxwings here before. Also have had first time sightings of Western meadowlarks, but haven’t gotten a good picture yet.

A few more photos from the San Diego Zoo. Above is a Turkmenistan Caracal, an endangered cat found in the Middle East and Africa. At the zoo it is located next to the polar bears. I was watching the polar bear cam the other day and saw the outline of the cat’s ears in the background. If you didn’t know better, you’d think it was an antelope or deer.

Below, Frank the one-year-old male gorilla, is watching an adult female gorilla eat a green pepper. Parts of it is in her right hand and her left foot. Frank had tried to get some of it, but she wanted it for herself.

I have been in the Riverside area for two weeks getting routine maintenance done on my truck, trailer, and myself. Spent one day at Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach while my trailer was being serviced and was really impressed. There was a twenty year court battle with a land developer to create this refuge along the coast where almost every square inch is developed. My hats off to the people who fought this battle.

Above: An adult breeding snowy egret wrangles a fish.

On walking along the trail at Bolsa Chica, an adult killdeer got my attention by running to the side of the trail and looking like she was nesting (top picture). When I started to move on, the killdeer ran back to the trail and seemed to try and get my attention. Then I saw two young killdeers exploring the side of the trail. The mother seemed to have been trying to divert my attention from them.

Greater scaups.

Yellowlegs (greater or lesser).

I spent most of my time at Rancho Jurupa Park in Riverside. There are two pairs of herons nesting in tall trees there. Also saw a lot of western bluebirds (below).

Stayed at Prado Regional Park a few days, where I saw the peacock below. There are around 25 of them that stay around the park office area.