Vail, AZ ~ Birds Bathing

In the desert the birds need water to survive so they flock to water sources.  Aaron's place has a great water feature that brings in good amounts of birds throughout the day.  Early in the mornings many of the birds come into bath in the fountain or even just to get a drink.

Bullock's Oriole

Black-headed Grosbeak

Townsend's Warbler

Western Tanager

Western Tanager

Wilson's Warblers

Wilson's Warblers

CA ~ Balboa Park, San Diego,

My Dad loved the Rose Gardens at Balboa Parks.  He loved rose gardens everywhere but these gardens were so special to him.  This morning we went to the park to walk around all of the gardens.  We never did find the Australian Gardens because they have been pretty much taken over by the Japanese Gardens.  I was hoping to find lots of hummingbirds which really didn't happen either but I did see about 15 species of birds.  There were great looks at Townsend's Warbler, Yellow-rumped Audubon's Warbler, Berwick's Wren, Black & Say's Phoebe.

Townsend's Warbler

Black Phoebe

Moss Landing & Elkhorn Slough

Today's adventures had us returning to the Watsonville area. We, again, drove Hwy 1 stopping at several places that we hadn't stppped at on our way to SF. These included Pescadero Marsh Nature Preserve State Park where you could go down onto the rocky shores and view the tidial pools. There on larger rocks in the water were roosting Black Turnstones and Sandpipers. Plus there were also groups of seals sunning on some of the rocks. We stopped further down the road at Big Basin's State Park, ate lunch and walked across the street where we saw more California Quail.

Next stop was Moss Landing where the Sea Lions was napping on the town pier.  I also saw some of the jelly fish we had seen in the aquarime floating by in the water and Pelagic Cormorants fishing successfully for crabs  Jetty's Landing Rd where we viewed sea otters frolicking in the water; shorebirds foraging in the shallow waters.

Then it was off to the Elkhorn Slough to walk the trails. As it was about 2pm when we arrived we decided to walk the longest trail of 2+ miles that took you through the most different habitats giving us the best opportunity to see a variety of birds. The highlights were Brown Pelicans, Elegant Terns, Townsend's Warbler plus there were Acorn Woodpeckers and shorebirds out on the slough.