Howdy all!

I decided to move this blog over to Facebook...it's so much more user friendly and easier for me to keep things current. As you can see from my submissions I was not good at keeping up with stuff. Anyway, join our facebook group: Birdwatchinglady.com

See ya there!

Heidi 

Alright, I had great intentions of bloging at least once a month. I can't seem to do that. It's so crazy! I still bird watch everywhere I go. I have a ton of new pictures but I'm just distracted with two beautiful grandkids that are too cute or their own good and of course.....Tennis! My other obsession. I'm probably the other person that can be playing a tennis match and still maintain a birdwatching hobby at the same time. I know that's out of control. I was playing a match out in La Cresta on a ladies private court when I stopped the game because I saw a Kingfisher fly by and land in a tree next to the court. 

I just got back from a couple weeks in Kauai. It is one of my favorite places to stay. I play tennis every morning and then birdwatch in the evenings. My goal this trip was to see a Hawaiian owl or called the Short-eared Owl. We drove to the Barking Sands area on the West side of the island just before sunset. We drove on several miles of dirt roads and pasted by lots of dry fields of grass. "This is a perfect place for an owl", I commented as I was scanning for the Hawaiian Owl. My 3 year old grandson was not convinced that the Hawaiian owl even exisited, after two weeks of us looking for one and having no luck. "There are no owls here grandma", he said. Then out of no where came an owl flying right in front of our car. It was awesome! Not just because I saw the Hawaiian Owl but it also showed that grandma is always right. *LOL* I didn't get a very good picture but I got one good enough that I could identify it was for sure as a Short-eared Owl. I will share a picture I took near the Taro Fields on the north side of the Island in Hanalei. We were driving back into the reserve area and this little guy landed on a sign next to our car, we stopped and he visited with us for several minutes. Very cute! He is a White-Rumped Shama.

My birding friend and I were on a mission a few weeks ago. We had seen a picture of a Mandarin Duck while we were at the San Diego Bird Festival last year. The photographer said that he took the picture at Lake Jennings a couple days earlier. We drove directly over to the lake and as you would have it.....No Mandarin Ducks. It had been a year but we couldn't get that duck out of our minds. One afternoon, we looked up "Mandarin duck" on Google and found this guy that said he saw them at Lake Irvine. So, off we went to Lake Irvine. When we got there the place was closed due to someone shooting a movie there and closing the Lake to the public. Once again.....No Mandarin Ducks. Then my birding buddy's daughters boyfriend (confused yet?) bought a new camera and was showing her some pics he had taken on her TV. As he quickly scrolled through pictures of railroad tracks and cool looking graffiti, up popped a Mandarin Duck. She said, " What the heck?  Flip back, what was that?". Come to find out, a couple pairs of Mandarin Ducks had settled in his backyard and were hanging out by their Koi Pond in Yorba Linda. What are the chances of that? We made an appointment and went over and I took some beautiful shots of the Mandarin Duck. You just never know where you will find beautiful birds.

Ok..... I stink at blogging.

I had good intentions of sharing my current birdwatching adventures weekly or at least bi-weekly. At this point it looks like once a year.  Pathetic!  It is not that I don't have cool things to share, it's just I don't take the time to blog about it. I will have to make up for lost time and share several awesome days I have had this last year birdwatching. So, here it goes......

A couple weeks ago my birding friend and I were driving down a dirt road called Tenaja Rd. out in La Cresta Ca. We were on a birdwatching mission but were surprised when a Bob Cat ran out in front of our car. We stopped and then drove real slow and was able to catch a glimpse of him in the bushes before he decided to run off. I was excited that I was able to get a picture of him too!  Cute little guy huh?

I'm still here....... Really....

I have been on several birdwatching trips and just haven't caught up with getting all the pages added to my site.  I have two little grand-babies that I love on every week plus play tennis several times a week and run my local Tennis Club here in Temecula. I'm just a busy birdwatching Lady! I was at the San Diego Bird Festival this last weekend and met some cool people. I also picked up info on even more fun places to go bird watching. I don't think you can ever exhaust places to go birdwatching!

Isn't that exciting?

I saw this bird a couple days last week and was taken back. We used to see Greater Roadrunners all the time but over the last few years there hasn't been many around. When I saw him again this morning I was able to grab my camera  and take this picture. I'm happy that he has chosen to hang out around my house. It would be awesome to have several Greater Roadrunner's hanging around here. They are the most unique bird. I love the way they move and strut around. They are like the bird "Fonzie" from Happy Days. You can just imagine them in a leather jacket riding a Harley. Very cool!