Santa Cruz Island Eagle Nest Fails

Bummer… apparently the Santa Cruz Island Bald Eagles named K-10 and K-26 lose their second eagle chicks. These were the two eagles watched daily on the Channel Islands Live Bald Eagle-Cam I referred to in an earlier post. Maybe they will try again.
See: Unhappy Endings…

Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Some time ago I posted about the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s “Birdshare” photo pool on Flickr. A place for we amateur photographers and digiscopers to contribute bird images for use by the CLofO. Little did I know at the time that the Cornell web designers were feverishly working on a complete redesign of the “All About [...]

Translating Birdspeak

Mnemonics. It is the bird to bird-song association that can assist in identifying certain species, but written in a phonetic form that we can relate to. An English translation of what the bird is “saying”.
Most birders are aware of some of the more popular mnemonic phrases as written in books and older field guides: “Drink [...]

In Memoriam

I photographed these two Anna’s Hummingbird nestlings on April 1, 2009 (see earlier posts). On April 6 I checked the nest and both were gone. They were too small and not fully developed to have flown off so I can only assume they were predated by something that found the nest. The female was repeatedly returning [...]

Channel Islands Bald Eagles

You can find nest-cams all over the Internet these days. Peep shows of nesting owls, hummingbirds, bluebirds, hawks, woodpeckers, and the purpose of this post, Bald Eagles. Locally on Santa Cruz Island in the California Channel Islands there is an active Bald Eagle nest worth watching since the first of two eggs have now hatched, and the [...]

My Digiscoping Rig

I was asked recently what the make up of my digiscoping equipment is. Here is a photo of my set-up taken at Oso Flaco Lake with my point-and-shoot Nikon. My digiscope rig consists of a Zeiss Diascope 85T FL, Zeiss photo adapter and T-ring, my Canon EOS 350D digital camera and remote shutter switch on a Bogen tripod. I also have [...]