@dystopian
Good to have you back. Sorry to hear you're still having vision problems. Are you going to be able to get the problem corrected any time soon? Vision problem or not your bird photos look great.

Hi SP,

Great bird photos man!

A fair number of owls get fairly diurnal during breeding season. All those mouths to feed. Great Horns fledge the natal tree as soon as they can fly, and generally still have a fair bit of down showing. These look a bit early, but maybe in a couple days they could fly. They have a whistled ascending note they make which is the begging 'feed me' call. Follow that to run them down.

At a lot of marinas in America, and certainly many in socal, you can often walk right up to Black-crowned Night-Heron. Especially if one with any kind of bait tank.

I apologize for not being around much, it is very hard to read and reply with my vision impairment.
Can't even see the pix posted clearly as they deserve. Can barely use uploader, etc.

I have taken a few pix this spring though. At high mag I can still sorta do it, though processing is questionable.

Here are the compulsory annual spring Yellow Warbler in the birdbath photos.
one for you, and one for you, and one for everyone

hey guys, didn't I tell you dysto's place was great!

This male Blue Grosbeak sang territorially here for 6 weeeks, and the females must have kept going, as it left last week after not attrackting a mate.

Thanks for the great photos SP!

And the OT. Tommy James and Shondells were great. I think they were big supporters of Hubert Humphrey's 68 campaign?

Happy trails all!

@janis b
they're nearby but usually they're to far away. I've never used a flashlight to try and find them in the trees.
It must have been a real treat to see the Ruru up close.

What varied personalties your birds express, from graceful and sweet to penetratingly intense. How nice that you got to see mama owl and her little ones in the daylight. Mama owl is certainly concentrated on what’s going on around her. Don’t take it personally that she’s giving you the side-eye ; ).

When you hear them at night, do they sound close enough to go out with a flashlight to look for? A couple times a Ruru (Owl) came and sat on the railing in my vision. All lights inside were turned off, and only the outside lights left on, which attracted the Ruru to the moths flying around the light.

I enjoyed hearing that song again, and the wonderful visuals with it.