Meet Gem the kitten, a precocious little thing filled with curiosity. Although she is the runt of the litter, she has become the boss of everything, always getting into the most trouble and melting hearts with her big personality.
Click here, or on any photo in the post to see the full collection of photos of Gem getting into mischief.
After almost 15 fruitless attempts, I have finally photographed a local American Bittern that has been causing me grief. Time after time, I have gone to “the spot” without a trace of this bird, and time after time countless birders have reported seeing it, sometimes only an hour before or after my attempt. But I am happy to say that this ghost bird does indeed exist!
While not a rare species by any means, the bittern tends to be a secretive bird, often staying hidden within tall grasses and reeds. A few months ago, local birders began reporting seeing a bittern at Shoreline park in Mountain View, CA. I was excited about this opportunity, as I had never seen a bittern before and this location is relatively close to home. I soon found myself obsessed with finding this bird, half convinced that it would watch me approach in then dive into the bushes just to spite me.
Finally, yesterday, I succeeded in finding it after all those tries. I’m sure it felt more satisfying due to the difficulty – if I had found it the first time, I probably wouldn’t have been nearly as excited!
For my New Year’s post this year, I added an image of a black-necked stilt chick and its mother. I have finally processed additional photos from that day of the same chick and its siblings (there were three altogether).
I found this family at a popular birding spot near my home. While I had heard reports that nesting activity had occurred here in the past, I had never seen stilt chicks here myself. It was a joy to watch these little guys stumble around on shaky legs until they got tired, and had to take a break by sitting down on the shoreline.
Soon enough, they would recover and bounce back into action. One of the three was more adventurous than then others, venturing away from the shelter of the brush in search of food.
It was fun to watch them interact with each other. I could imagine talking to each other in their own little language, telling each other where the best food could be found.
When one chick would wander off too far, the mother would swoop in and corral it back to the others. Hopefully this family had good luck and all of these chicks made it through the nesting season. I look forward to scoping out this spot in the future for more nesting activity and a close up view of parents bringing these little ones into the world.
As I sit here in the pre-dawn morning, I can’t help but think of longer (and warmer) days. Although winter is a fantastic time for birds (at least around the SF Bay Area), I get tired of gearing up for the cold every time I want to go out for photos. This is the time of year that demands real dedication. The time of year that only sees the most dedicated of their fields up and outside in the cold darkness.
Soon enough however, buds will be forming, light will stay later, and little ones like this hatchling will start gracing us with their presence.
