wildlife – Page 2 – Birds of Bishop

Red-shouldered Hawk – a still-hunter

In late December, 2024, Roberta and I were driving home after a bird walk. I was bemoaning how the Owens Valley had changed in ways that birds cannot control. Airports, canals, cars, cattle, highways, homes, and telephone lines have all appeared in the last two centuries. Birds, here for millennia, have no say in these changes.

But for the Red-shouldered Hawk (RSHA), my lament is mistaken. They are newcomers. These birds live east of the Great Plains. They are absent from the Plains, the Rockies, and the Intermountain West. But they reappear on the west side of the Sierra, inhabiting forests near rivers in California’s Central Valley. So there is a giant territory, from the Sierra crest almost to the Mississippi, where you will not find these birds.

They were absent from Inyo County until 1968, when the dead body of a Red-shouldered Hawk was found in Death Valley. During the 1970s, they moved into the Bishop area. Now they live here year-round, nesting and raising their young. They are on tree branches and power lines all over Bishop and the surrounding fields. They control the land along West Line Street from downtown to Riata Road. One of these hawks hunts patiently from a Line Street telephone cable; I drive past this bird 50 times a year.

I graduated from medical school and moved to California in 1970 to start my internship at Stanford. In June I drove over Tioga Pass and down Highway 395 for the first time. In 2002, I settled in Bishop. So I feel some kinship with our local Red-shouldered Hawks; I imitated their move to this area.

Size

Red-shouldered Hawks are a medium-sized raptor. Smaller than a Red-tail, larger than a Cooper’s. Here is a table of size and weight (numbers from Sibley’s guide) for some local raptors:

Length (inches) Weight (pounds)

Bald Eagle 31 9.5

Ferruginous Hawk 23 3.5

Red-tailed Hawk 19 2.4

Swainson’s Hawk 19 1.9

Peregrine Falcon 16 1.6

Red-shouldered Hawk 17 1.4

Northern Harrier 18 1

Cooper’s Hawk 16.5 1

Prairie Falcon 16 1.6

Sharp-shinned Hawk 11 0.3

American Kestrel 9 0.3

Appearance

The first photo below shows a mature Red-shouldered Hawk near the Bishop Creek Canal. I had recently purchased a telephoto lens and was excited to find this bird. These hawks are not that skittish; I was able to approach within a 100 feet or so and the bird let me take a hundred pictures. The red color of the chest continues onto the wing, giving the bird its name. Lower on the body the red feathers form horizonal lines. The characteristic that stands out most to me are the white markings on the black feathers, visible on the side and back. These white spots contribute to the bird’s Latin name: Buteo lineatus = lined hawk. If it were up to me, this would be called the “Spotted Hawk,” for the white spots or blotches on the back.

Above, the right eye looks like a black marble, while the left eye shows a brown iris around the black pupil. The eyes of many raptors look fierce, but the eyes of this hawk look like those of a harmless kitten.

Birds have a nictitating membrane, a translucent “third eyelid” that arises near the nose and can be drawn across the eye to clean, moisten, and protect it. There are other creatures with this membrane, such as sharks, beavers, and cats. See photo below.

Red-shouldered Hawks are “still-hunters” or “perch-hunters.” They sit on a branch or wire and look down, patiently watching for prey. While they do this, they look hunched over; see photo below. When they spot a rodent or insect, they will swoop down and grab it. Instead of flying down, they may just topple forward (or backward) and drop, falling quickly with little movement. Their folded wings snap open just before they hit the ground. I’ve seen this twice; it looks as if the bird just fainted and fell off the wire. See the hunting posture below.

The next two pictures show a Hawk on Line Street near Barlow Lane. In the second photo a breeze lifted up the feathers on the neck.

The photo below shows a pair of Red-shouldered Hawks on Barlow Lane, near Line Street.

The bird in the next picture was on Dixon Lane near the Green Gate road; this is where Great Horned Owls raise their young.

Just north of Line Street is the Conservation Open Space Area (COSA), run by the Bishop Paiute Tribe. The following 3 photos show a Red-shouldered Hawk that was present during the Christmas Bird Count. The first photo shows the spotted or linear pattern on the back. In the second and third pictures, look for a red spot on the left foot; blood from a recent victim.

A few days later I returned to the COSA and again saw a Red-shouldered Hawk. Same one? First I show a frontal view. Then a view of the back. The tip of the tail is white, most of the tail is black with thin white bands. The primary feather tips lie on top of the tail, but fail to reach the tail-tip. A curtain of white feathers lies on top of the primaries. From the back, the red-shoulders and breast are often invisible, but the feather pattern I’ve just described helps identify this bird.

The next photo shows the back of a bird at the Buckley Ponds. I can make out 4, possibly 5, white bands on the tail. The long primary feathers overlap the tail and above them is a horizontal “skirt” of feathers.

Another view of a bird on Dixon Lane. You cannot see the red shoulders, but the white-black patterns are a giveaway.

Juvenile Red-shouldered Hawks look rougher, the upper chest has red streaks, the lines across the body are less distinct. The next four photos show birds that I think are juveniles.

These hawks love telephone lines. If you see a raptor on a line, think of this bird first. The first photo below was taken near the Bishop dump, the next four pictures on Line Street near Barlow Lane. The bird in the last 3 photos is there almost every week, searching for food; if it is not the same bird, they must be related. The last picture shows two of these hawks.

Preening

An immature Hawk at the Buckley Ponds was preening; It was licking feathers, trying to tear them out, and generally contorting itself. Why is the lower eyelid so swollen in some images?

A week later I saw another immature Hawk, or perhaps the same one, imitating Linda Blair in the Exorcist.

Flight

Unlike some raptors, these birds do not usually engage in long flights. I have photographed them covering short distances, moving from one perch to another.

In courtship displays, the male bird is willing to soar upwards for hundreds of feet, then plunge to earth with wings folded, pulling up just before cratering. I hope to see this someday.

The picture below shows a RSHA landing on a post near the Bishop Creek Canal. At the end of each wing are long, dark, primary feathers. At the base of the primary feathers is a band of white; this is sometimes described as a translucent window, crescent, or comma. This feature can help identify the bird in flight. This translucent band can be seen below.

The following two photos show a RSHA taking off on Warm Springs Road. Both photos show the band of whiter feathers near the ends of the wings.

A Red-shouldered Hawk takes off on the Bishop Creek Canal. Left wing shows the band of light color.

Two more pictures show a RSHA landing at the Buckley Ponds.

On Barlow Lane, one Hawk takes off while its mate looks on.

The next two photos show a bird flying away in the forest of the Conservation Open Space Area.

Feeding

The United Methodist Church is in downtown Bishop. Roberta was finishing up a chore in the Soup Kitchen and I was waiting in the car. I noticed a hawk in a nearby tree and stepped out to get some pictures. It was a RSHA tearing apart a rodent; perhaps a Norway Rat? Birds have no teeth. Raptors rip their food apart, choking down the pieces. They have no manners. The bird looks like a fierce gargoyle in some images. These pictures were taken within a 7 minute interval; no leisurely dining for this bird. The bird kept thrashing the rodent about, changing position, and flying short distances. If you ever wished to be reincarnated as a bird, consider having to eat like this.

Fun fact

Red-shouldered Hawks are not the only raptors new to Inyo County. Bald Eagles were not recorded in the County until 1967. Now we see them every winter at the Buckley Ponds, Pleasant Valley Reservoir, and other locations. So Red-shouldered Hawks, Bald Eagles, and Peter are all fairly new to Inyo County. Other new arrivals are Great-tailed Grackles (1970) and Eurasian Collared Doves (2002).

Two seconds of action

Roberta and I walked north on Barlow, then turned west onto Line Street. Across the road, I saw a Red-shouldered Hawk fall backwards off a telephone pole. Just before it smashed on the ground, the wings popped out. This converted the falling momentum to horizontal flight and the bird shot across Line Street, a foot above the pavement. There was a mouse in grass near the road edge; it saw the Hawk, but too late. All over in two seconds.

What color is a bird?

A friend asked if I did anything to modify the colors in my bird photos. The short answer is “Yes.” This blog expands on that answer.

Painters make color choices. When we see a painting by Turner or Monet or Wyeth, we understand that the colors might not be those of the original scene. Sometimes painters of nature are criticized for their color choices. In 2005 I saw a painting by Albert Bierstadt (b. 1830, d. 1902) at the Huntington Library. It showed sunrise over a mountain lake; the sky had flame-red clouds. Commentary next to the picture said that the colors were unrealistic. I suspect the writer was a city-dweller with little exposure to colors in nature. Bierstadt often added fantastical elements to his landscape paintings. But in this lake painting, I thought he captured cloud colors that were realistic. In Bishop I often see flame-red clouds. My wife and I step outside in PJs to enjoy these short displays before sunrise.

Early photos were black and white; so photography started with distorted colors. Our world, after all, is not black and white. Some photographers exaggerated the contrast in their black and white photos. Ansel Adams, for example, used film development methods that created iconic, but unrealistic, images of Half Dome and other scenes.

A variety of color processes for photos were introduced around 1900. Kodachrome 35mm camera film appeared in 1936. I used Kodachrome for years; the colors were pleasing and for years they were the standard for landscapes. With film the colors were baked into a picture; most photographers had no control over color after taking the shot. The choice of film, say Kodak’s Kodachrome or Fujifilm’s Velvia, would determine the final colors.

Now cameras use electronic sensors instead of film. The sensors are made up of tiny photo sites or pixels (pixel = picture element). Lots of them. Most of my bird pictures have been taken with a Fujifilm 26.16 megapixel sensor; over 26 million pixels. Each pixel measures the amount of light that hits it when a picture is taken. But pixels cannot record color; they just measure light intensity. To capture color data, there is a filter in front of each pixel; each pixel just records the intensity of Red, Green, or Blue light. Yellow light is a combination of red and green; if a bird’s beak is yellow, some pixels will record the amount of red light from the beak and others will record the amount of green; none will record yellow. Twenty-five percent of the pixels record Red light intensity only, 25% record Blue light, and 50% record Green light. Then the camera does some wizardry. Let’s pick one random pixel; call it “Pixel Sue.” Say Pixel Sue recorded Green light intensity only. What was the actual color of the light that hit Pixel Sue? Pixel Sue has nearby pixels that recorded the intensity of Blue light. Let’s imagine the intensity of light on the nearest Blue pixel was five times the amount of Green light on Pixel Sue. This suggests the actual color for Pixel Sue might be a mix of about 5 Blue units and 1 Green unit; Blue with a touch of Green. Some Red light pixels are also near Pixel Sue; depending on the light strength on nearby Red light pixels, some red color should be added to the guess for true color for Pixel Sue. The camera will estimate that the true color at the location of Pixel Sue is some mixture of Red, Green, and Blue. It will do this for 26 million pixels!

Not all sensors are alike and not all cameras process the pixel data in the same way. Companies such as Sony, Canon, Nikon, Fujifilm, etc., all have engineers who determine the “color science” for assigning colors to pixels. So when you buy a camera, you have already made some choice about colors.

A delightful 9-minute video by Camon Crocker explains how digital cameras determine colors. Crocker looks like a high-school student, his speaking manner is captivating, and the presentation is polished and enlightening (a pun!):

I set my camera to record large RAW files that contain all the intensity and color estimates for each photo. I later import the RAW files into Adobe Lightroom Classic on my computer and process the images. Last, I export a JPEG file (JPEG = Joint Photographic Experts Group) to my computer’s hard drive and upload that JPEG image to my blog. My goal is to show others the colors of the birds I photograph. Even if I make no color-specific adjustments to the photo, a JPEG file requires a color profile to interpret the data in the RAW file. The color profile used by a camera, phone, or computer will influence how colors look on my computer and in the final JPEG file. I’ll say more about color profiles later. Furthermore, different computers and monitors will display colors differently; the JPEG image created on my Apple iMac may look different on another monitor.

Flame-red clouds near Bishop

On a December morning, Roberta and I drove to Round Valley, near Bishop, to photograph the sunrise on Mt Tom. At 7am, while the sun was still behind the White Mountains, the cloudy sky turned a flame-red that reminded me of the Bierstadt painting I discussed earlier; see the photo below. This photo is flawed; the foreground is just a dark blob and in the middle is an unattractive, power pole. But the cloud colors look realistic to me. I created this image by starting with a Fujifilm Velvia color profile and adjusted using Lightroom’s controls for exposure, shadows, highlights, and contrast.

How do I know the cloud colors above are “realistic”? I remember what I saw and tried to reproduce that memory. But memory is flawed and I could be wrong. I could have taken a picture and looked at that to refresh my memory. Oh, wait … I did take a picture. You can see the problem here; we use memory of color to determine color.

The next image shows the same photo with only one change: I used Adobe Lightroom’s “Standard” color profile. The clouds are now all wrong; hardly any red at all. The Adobe Standard profile is supposed to reveal what the camera’s sensor really recorded. In this case, it did a lousy job of showing the cloud colors.

The human eye and brain have MUCH more dynamic range than a camera. The foreground is featureless in the two images above, but my eyes were able to see the red clouds, the sagebrush, a dirt road, a pipeline, power poles, and snow on the Sierra peaks. All these are shown in the image below, because I increased the overall exposure and further boosted the light in the shadowed areas. Now the clouds are washed out and there is an unrealistic red glow on the sagebrush.

My point is that getting close to what your eyes saw may require several adjustments, including changes that influence colors.

My goal on that December morning was to photograph the sunrise on Mt. Tom, which I show below. I think this is how Mt. Tom looked that morning, but I can’t really be sure.

Spotted Towhee and Color Profiles

In February of 2021 I was driving near Bishop and a bird flew into bushes on my side of the car. I stopped, pushed the lens out the window, and pressed the button. The sky was bright blue and the bird looked like a dark blob in the viewfinder. After I got home, I found I had my first photos of a Spotted Towhee. The image below shows the Towhee with no adjustments. The only color choice I made was to use Fujifilm’s Velvia profile. The bird is too dark because the bright sky caused the camera to underexpose the overall picture. It is hard to see feather details or colors.

The next photo, below, is the same picture, but this time I used Lightroom to make the bird brighter. Now the Towhee has a dramatic red eye, black head, white streaks brushed onto black feathers, a white underbelly, and bright rust on its side. Are these colors correct? I think they are similar to the colors in several guidebooks. But how do I know those books are precisely correct? I can’t compare my photo with a memory of an actual Towhee; I’ve never been less than 50 feet from a Towhee. All my knowledge of Towhee colors comes from my photographs. To really see a Towhee, I would need to kill one and stuff it.

Both photos above were taken using the Fujifilm Velvia color profile. Velvia was a film that Fujifilm introduced in 1990. If you look up “Velvia” in Wikipedia you will find these remarks:

“[Velvia] has brighter and generally more accurate color reproduction (though many see its high color saturation as unrealistic)… Kodachrome 25 fell out of popularity a few years after Velvia was introduced (in part because of Kodak’s lack of interest in promoting their film)… Kodachrome 25 had previously been considered the film to which all other films had been compared…

“Velvia has very saturated colors under daylight, high contrast, and exceptional sharpness. These characteristics make it the slide film of choice for many nature photographers.”

I switched from Kodachrome to Velvia in the early 1990s. In my Fuji cameras, I can use a variety of electronic color profiles that try to simulate color films that Fujifilm used to make; Provia, Velvia, Astia, Classic Chrome, Pro Neg Hi, Eterna Bleach Bypass, and others. Velvia is also called Vivid and Fujifilm describes it as “Vibrant Reproduction, ideal for landscape and nature.” Some nature photographers argue that softer colors and less contrast are now preferred over colors that “pop.” In addition to these Fujifilm film simulations, Lightroom software lets me apply Adobe color profiles to RAW photos; Standard, Color, Landscape, Portrait, Vivid, and many others. Below is the same Towhee picture with the same shadow correction, but using the Adobe Standard color profile. The sky is now more washed out, the rust color is less red, more brown.

Books and websites provide advice about color profiles in Lightroom. You have to choose some profile to see a RAW image. Scott Kelby, an author of many books about digital photo processing and Lightroom, had these comments in 2018: Lightroom “used to process that RAW image using a profile Adobe Lightroom engineers created 11+ years ago, which they felt provided the most accurate interpretation of what your camera captured. This profile…was called ‘Adobe Standard.’ I used to joke it should be named ‘Adobe Dull’ because the result was so flat looking, but it was very accurate as to what the camera captured.” [The “very accurate” claim seems hard to reconcile with the poor job Adobe Standard did for the cloud colors I showed earlier.]

In 2018, Adobe introduced a profile called “Adobe Color” which is now the default interpretation for RAW files in Lightroom. Kelby thinks this profile, which adds “warmth, contrast, and vibrance” is a better starting place for processing RAW files. But with my Fuji cameras, I start with the Velvia profile.

Whatever initial profile you pick, Lightroom offers many other commands for color: exposure, tint, white balance, dehaze, vibrance, saturation, and more. I often use the exposure controls and sometimes add vibrance or dehaze. Lightroom even allows the user to change specific colors, such as red or yellow; I don’t use these color-specific controls. (Many other software packages are available for photo processing, and these also have commands for color: Capture One, Luminar, Topaz, and others.)

California Quail

To show how choice of color profile influences a photo, I will show a California Quail with three different profiles. As you move from one image to the next, pick a single feature and see how its color is affected. For example, pick the orange light reflector that is nailed to the post. Or the orange on the bird’s belly. Or study the background.

First, let me use Adobe Standard:

The next image uses Adobe Color, the current default in Lightroom:

And the last image uses Fujifilm’s Velvia:

There were trees with green leaves behind the bird, but the blurred background has almost no green in the Adobe Standard image. There is a hint of green in the Adobe Color image and obvious green in the Velvia profile. The mountain photographer, Galen Rowell, wrote years ago that Velvia film showed green colors with more punch compared with Kodachrome.

House Sparrow

Let me show 3 images of a House Sparrow, again using the same three color profiles. First, Adobe Standard.

Then Adobe Color.

Last, Fujifilm Velvia.

The changes in the rufous feathers are the most obvious. But look at the background vegetation, which was green. Or study the black beak, or the eye, or the talons. Which profile would you use?

Bald Eagle

Let me apply the same three color profiles to a mature Bald Eagle. This bird just ate a Snow Goose at the Buckley Ponds. There is fresh goose-blood on the beak and talons. As you look at the images, look at the color of the blood, the beak, the tree, and the sky.

Adobe Standard profile.

Adobe Color.

Fujifilm Velvia.

I selected the Bald Eagle images above because I think the differences between the 3 color profiles are more subtle than they were, say, for the House Sparrow. You have to really study the images to pick out the differences.

Below is an immature Bald Eagle near Big Pine. She seems offended by my presence. The blurry shape above and to the side of the bird’s head is a foreground branch that is out of focus. Examine how the beak, mouth, eyes, feathers, tree, and sky change from one profile to the next:

Adobe Standard.

Adobe Color

Fujifilm Velvia

Enough about color profiles. My view is that the Adobe Standard profile is awful, but the other two are acceptable. Your mileage may vary.

American White Pelican

Usually my goal is to show how a bird looks in nature. But sometimes I prefer a picture for other reasons, even if it does not show what my eyes saw. I’m now printing greeting cards with bird photos and I have printed one card showing an American White Pelican. The card shows the bird exceptionally well, but the background fails to show what I actually saw. I’ll explain below.

White Pelicans are mostly an inland bird of the American west. They cruise ponderously over the Owens valley in long lines, the feathered version of an Air Force C5-Galaxy. The first 3 photos below show a flock passing in front of the White Mountains.

The next two pictures show Pelicans relaxing and fishing on the Buckley Ponds. Juvenile birds have a pink tinge to their beak; see left side of second image.

At Bishop City Park I saw a lone pelican boating about. In the first photo, notice the lumpy growth on the top of the beak. This bump appears during breeding season. I trimmed the image so that you can see the bird’s reflection in the water. This photo is unusual, because aside from picking Velvia as the color profile, I made no other adjustments to this picture. Because I was close to the bird, the camera correctly determined the exposure from the bird’s white body. The result was a sharp photo with lots of feather detail. You can see lines of light reflected by water onto the feathers. Because the exposure was set for the white bird, the background was underexposed.

**American White Pelican. Bishop City Park.**

Next I cropped the image to remove most of the reflection in the foreground. The result is an ethereal bird, floating in space. I used this image on the greeting card.

The photo below is the same bird, but exposure was increased, the background was lightened, highlights suppressed. This picture is closer to what my eye saw; this was a sunny day and the water surrounding the bird was nicely lit. A nice picture, but a different mood because the background is now visible. I prefer the previous images with a dark background. Call my choice artistic license.

In the last photo, below, I created the Flamingo-Pelican, a ghastly cross between a White Pelican and an American Flamingo. I used the color mixer controls in Lightroom and added red to the picture, to show how color adjustment is possible in software.

Color printing

Printing a photo on paper involves color issues. In the past I have sent electronic images to print labs. The results have been mixed. I have some excellent prints from Bishop Art Supply. But other prints are too dark or dull. So I decided to learn about printing. This year I bought my first inkjet printer, an Epson SureColor P900, and I started to learn more about color.

In order to get a print to look like the image on your computer screen, you should calibrate your monitor. I bought a device from Datacolor, a company with headquarters in Switzerland. This gadget adjusts the colors on my computer to fit a standard profile. This way the computer and printer are using the same colors. My iMac monitor automatically adjusts brightness according how much light is in the room. I turned this auto adjustment off so that the monitor remains at the same brightness level for printing. I purchased printer papers and learned to send a color profile to the printer for each paper type, such as Red River Polar 60lb Matte and Hahnemuehle Photo Rag Satin. Who knew colors were so complicated? Fortunately, this technology has been mature for a while and it works.

A Common Raven is hard to photograph. Bishop ravens are willing to let me get close, but they fly off when I point a big telephoto lens at them. I suspect they have met people who shoot at them. Furthermore, it is hard to get the right lighting to show the details in their black features. Near Fort Bragg, CA, people feed the ravens. The birds are pretty tame. Below is a Common Raven on the Noyo Headlands Trail. She posed for me against a sky of fog and cloud; the photo looks like a studio portrait. You can see texture and color variations in the feathers. I’m currently testing different papers to make a print that I like for this picture. Making prints has caused me to think differently about some pictures.

A final comment:

Roberta, who helps spot birds that I miss, sometimes can’t resist mocking my photo efforts. She likes my pictures. But when the image of a bird shows up on my computer monitor, she often says “I see you Photoshopped that bird to make it look nice.” I used to defend myself, but now I just role my eyes and smile. I can’t win.

Great Horned Owl – the silent hunter

In their book about Sierra Nevada birds, Beedy and Pandolfino wrote: “Eagles may get all the press, but Great Horned Owls are really the top predator of the North American bird world. They feed primarily on rodents and rabbits but will kill almost any animal they can carry, including birds, snakes, fish, and even animals other predators avoid completely, like porcupines and skunks. They can fly away with prey as much as three times their own weight and are known to kill house cats, small dogs, geese, and Great Blue Herons on occasion.”

Roberta and I have seen Great Horned Owls near Bishop at the Bishop Creek Canal, Airport Road, and the Buckley Ponds. One reliable location is a dirt road that branches off Dixon Lane. The road is lined with cottonwoods and owls sometimes raise their young there. In January or February, a pair of owls will occupy a nest that was built by Red-tailed Hawks. Eggs arrive in March and babies appear in April. Two months later the fledglings are learning to fly. We have seen from 1 to 4 baby owls in the spring. Dozens of people walk this road every day, often with dogs, but the owls still like the location. This year there were 4 fledglings and I was able to collect some photos.

An adult Great Horned Owl is almost 2 feet long, has a wing-span of 3.5 feet, and weighs 3 pounds; a little bigger than a Red-tailed Hawk. In daytime, the owls sit on the ground or branches and blend in with surrounding trees. At night they use incredible hearing and eye-sight to hunt.

When a bird flies through the air, the feathers create turbulence that produces sound. You can sometimes hear a whooshing noise when a large flock of Phalaropes or Blackbirds flies past. When a Common Raven flies nearby, up to 100 feet away, I often hear the sound of each wing-beat. The bird is constantly surrounded by this noise when flying. Most owls, however, use their ears to locate prey in the dark. These night hunters have evolved special feathers that smooth the airflow and muffle the sound of the wing slicing the air. Silent flight enables an owl to locate faint sounds that give away the victim’s position. The other night creatures do not hear the danger until it is too late.

Adult Owl Portraits

Below are photos of a typical owl, hiding in shadow behind branches. This is frustrating; it makes me want to carry hedge clippers so I can get a good photo. To find an owl, Roberta and I use camera or binoculars to study shaded areas. Often we spot an “owl” that turns out to be a stump or branch. One day we could not find an owl that we were sure was there; until we looked up and realized it was sitting on a branch just 4 feet above Roberta’s head.

There are two owls in this picture. Can you find them?

Sometimes adults are easy to spot. This seems to be especially true in early morning, when they are sitting with fledglings. Here are a few adult portraits.

The feathers are the same color as the tree bark.

Look closely at the “horns” in the picture above. They are just feathers. They have nothing to do with hearing. Some authors suggest they help with camouflage.

Adult owl on nest. Why does she appear to have red eye-shadow?

Fledgling Owl Photos

The youngest fledglings look ridiculous. They have white feathers and no “horns.” In just a few months they start to look like adults. By fall they go off to live on their own. Here are pictures of babies, starting with the youngest:

The white-feathered fledgling has blood on its mouth from a recent meal.

“Horns” start to appear. Feathers on legs and toes.

No “horns” yet. White feathers still on head and feet.

Left foot seems to show 3 toes in forward position.

Siblings. The owl in shadow looks older.

The “X” feet

Most birds have 4 toes; 3 point forwards, 1 points back. This is true of hawks, herons, sparrows, etc. But owls have one toe that can point forwards or backwards. When that toe points to the rear, their feet look like a large “X.” See the photos below. Having a powerful grip and sharp talons is useful for grabbing squirming prey. But other predator birds do not have this “X” formation; birds with this kind of “X” foot include cuckoos, woodpeckers, and parrots.

Same owl shows two toes pointing forward on both feet. Sharp talons.

Outdoor dining

The next section is R rated for violence, blood, and atrocious table manners. When owls catch prey, they carry it back to their daytime hiding area, so they can eat in peace. They dismember the body, often decapitating the victim. Next they choke down large chunks. Photos below show a fledgling that cuts a mouse in half and swallows the headless body. You can see the feet and tail sticking out of owl’s mouth. The faint-of-heart should skip these photos.

Siblings. The lower owl is having breakfast.

Sometimes I like to daydream about being born-again as a bird and having the power of flight. Photos like those above just kill those dreams.

Three short owl anecdotes:

1. Just after Christmas 2009, I did a loop hike in Death Valley with three friends. One morning we were walking on a dirt road which had a few inches of snow. Dan Ward, who sees things that I miss, pointed out that every 100 feet or so, there were rodent tracks and nearby feather marks. An owl had been hunting mice and it probably missed a few kills. Then Dan found a spot with similar markings and drops of blood in the snow; a mouse did not live to see the sunrise.

2. In 1985 I was leaving Kings Canyon National Park to get home to Visalia. It was late, the narrow paved road was pitch black. As my headlights came around a curve, the beams illuminated a Great Horned Owl descending over a mouse. The mouse changed direction at the last moment and the owl missed. This was a 2-second Nature Channel moment. The only thing missing was David Attenborough saying “The owl went hungry, but the mouse lived to see another day.”

3. Roberta and I like to walk; I carry a camera and often she spots a bird. We still haven’t learned to communicate well, partly because we both get too excited. We are not yet a well-oiled machine. In February of 2024, we were walking on the grassy headlands above the ocean near Fort Bragg, California. Roberta spotted a small owl in the grass just a dozen feet in front of us and she started yelling: “Owl! Owl!” I started yelling “What? Where?” The photo below was the result. We need to step up our game.

American Kestrel: Colorful Killer

Kestrels are tiny falcons, just 9” long with a wingspan of 22”, weight 4 oz. When perched, they can be mistaken for a Dove, a Shrike, or even a Blackbird. I did not start to identify Kestrels until I bought a telephoto lens and started collecting pictures in 2020. Thanks to the camera, I now realize that the Bishop area is infested with American Kestrels. They hang out on trees near fields and sagebrush flats. They like to stand on naked branches, from which they hunt insects, lizards, mice, and small birds.

Like other falcons, Kestrels have pointed wings, dark eyes, and a facial “mustache.” Their tails are flashy red. They appear to have “eyes” in the back of their heads, thanks to black feathers that form dark circles. The males have blue-gray wings, orange-brown backs with black horizontal dashes, and black spots on their white chests. A blue-orange, white-black combo. Females have a rufous back with horizontal black stripes. Their wings are colored like their backs and they have brown vertical streaks on their white chests. These little carnivores stand out for their gaudy feathers.

Falcons have short beaks that are sharply hooked. The beaks have a “tooth” that is used to sever the spine of their prey. They have big feet and long toes for striking their quarry. They may hold the victim with their talons, tearing it apart with their beaks.

Portraits of Male Kestrels

I will start with photos of male Kestrels. All these pictures were taken in the Bishop area near the Bishop Creek Canal, Airport Road, and the Buckley Ponds. The first image shows the black “mustache” that drops below the eye. Note the short, hooked beak. Black markings are on the back. The primary wing feathers cover most of the tail. The bird is looking over its shoulder, a come-hither look that is common for Kestrels.

The next five photos show a Kestrel near the Buckley Ponds. The lighting was particularly attractive that morning.

The next photo shows the “mustache” of black color below the eyes.

In the next image the bird shakes itself. This cleans the feathers of dust and dirt.

Hooked beak. Tail longer than wing feathers.

One foot on end of branch, the other lower down. Common pose.

One of my favorite images is below. The bird’s body is outlined by the dead branches.

Female on left, male on right. A mating couple? Siblings?

Same bird as the previous picture. Good view of the fake “eyes” on back of head.

Sometimes the young birds hang with their parents. Here are two females and a male. Family?

Portraits of Female Kestrels

Flight

Most falcons are built for speed. Not this bird. It can fly at 30 mph, but generally is lazy and takes its time. It is perfectly happy to eat grasshoppers, so there is no reason to rush about.

Female lands. The spots in air are from cottonwood trees or bugs.

Male below seems to be lost in thought. Female approaches. At first she looks threatening, but she is just trying to land.

Below a male lands. Then he staggers about trying not to overshoot the branch. Wings and tail wave about. This balancing act is common for these birds, as if it is hard for them to judge their final speed.

Female pivots to her right to launch from branch.

Hovering

Sometimes Kestrels will hover. They will face into a breeze and maneuver their wings and tail to keep their head steady, while they search the ground below.

Fun Facts

Pay attention. Some of this may be on the quiz.

First, Kestrels do not need to drink water. When kept in captivity, they can get all the water they need from their carnivorous diet. This makes it easier for them to live in the desert.

Second, DNA studies suggest that Falcons are not closely related to other hawks. They are related to cuckoos.

The third fact is related to defecation. If you are squeamish, you can skip this section. Kestrels do not build nests. They prefer to find cavities, such as holes left by woodpeckers. You have heard the phrase “Don’t soil your own nest.” Or, more crudely, “Don’t shit where you live.” Kestrels take this literally. Their waste, containing undigested food and a white paste of uric acid, is wrapped in a fecal sac, which is then evacuated. The bird can then throw this out of the cavity it resides in. Very tidy. Below, a photo sequence shows a bird evacuating and dropping this sac:

Other falcons

Three other falcon species can be found in the Bishop area. First is the Merlin, only a little bigger than a Kestrel: 10″ long, wingspan 24″, and 6.5 oz. They visit in fall and winter. Known for aggressive pursuit of other birds. Merlins come in 3 flavors: Pacific, Taiga, and Prairie. The photo below shows a bird with a faint mustache; probably a Taiga Merlin.

Much bigger is the Prairie Falcon: length 16″, wingspan 40″, 1.6 lb. Other birds should fear this hunter.

Prairie Falcon, Warm Springs Road. Note the talons.

Slightly bigger still is the Peregrine Falcon: length 16″, wingspan 41″, weight 1.6 lb. This bird dives from high above, can reach a speed over 200 mph, and can kill a duck or pigeon in mid-air by striking with its feet.

April 2024

During April, Roberta and I traveled the Eastern Sierra from Owens Lake to Mono Lake, collecting photos. I decided to create this month’s blog using a selection of those pictures, mostly bird images. I will group the photos by location and list the places from south to north.

Owens Lake

On April Fools’ Day, we got up in the dark and drove to Owens Lake to photograph the dawn on Mt Whitney. It was cold and windy, so I froze taking pictures, while Roberta sat in the warm car sipping coffee; smart woman.

The moon was at third quarter. The giant crater Copernicus is near the center of the photo below; this crater is fully lit and a white blanket of ejecta spreads out over a diameter of 300 miles. The crater walls are 13,000 feet high. Above and right is the crater Erastosthenes and the Appenine mountain range extends, from there, further up and right into the darkness of the terminator (the line between dark and light). The brightest area in this range is a feature that is white on its left side, dark on the right side; this is Mt Huygens, 18,000 feet, the highest lunar peak. So the tallest mountain I saw that morning was Huygens, not Whitney (14,505 ft). Lower in the picture, right on the terminator, are 3 big craters in a line. From top to bottom they are Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus, and Arzachel.

In the photo below, the tall point left of center is Whitney.

Below, a panorama shows, from left to right, Sharktooth, Mt Corcoran, Mt LeConte, Lone Pine Peak (12,944) in the middle, and Mt Whitney on the right. Lone Pine Peak looks taller because it is closer.

Mt Willliamson (14,375) is California’s second highest peak. The summit is on the left.

South of Owens Lake, along Highway 190, there was a bloom of Desert Sunflowers. The southern Sierra is in the background.

Desert Sunflowers. Malpais Mesa in background.

On April 1, American Avocets were on Owens Lake, sheltering from the wind behind an elevated road. Their bodies are facing north, but most have turned their heads to face south, away from the cold wind.

On April 20 we joined the Owens Lake Bird Festival and toured the Lake with expert bird photographer Martin Powell. It was a warm, calm day. Many Avocets were standing around on one leg. In the first photo, an Avocet was hopping on one leg.

California Gulls migrate from the coast to the Owens Valley to breed.

One Gull couple gets serious about breeding; the Gull on the right is saying “Get a room!”

Will you still respect me in the morning?

Least Sandpipers flying in front of the Sierra.

Long-billed Dowitchers have a dull red-brown plumage.

But when Dowitchers take off, they reveal intricate patterns in their wing and tail feathers.

The Dowitcher below is reflected in the lake; it look as if a wing is reaching up from the water.

Yellow-headed Blackbirds are found in the reeds.

A Snowy Egret, with breeding plumes, looks stately at first, but then shakes itself into a mess.

Buckley Ponds

The Ponds are just a few miles east of Bishop. Here a Double-crested Cormorant takes off by pushing on the water.

Great Blue Heron. White Mountains in background.

Two Caspian Terns streaked past, heading north; I was lucky to get a shot. This bird may have spent the winter on the Mexico coast. I photographed two of them at the Ponds in April of 2022. They were feeding there for at least two days.

An Osprey circled toward me, a turn that lasted 9 seconds; the camera captured over 100 images. Here are two of my favorites.

Bishop Creek Canal

This area, including South Airport Road, is usually reliable for bird pictures.

Western Bishop

California Quail, our State Bird, are common around Bishop. I find them hard to photograph; they usually run off quickly, so most of my pictures show Quail butts. But on Riata Lane, a male ignored me as I walked past.

The Sierra

Friends visited us in April. On the 25th we drove to Lake Sabrina at 9200 feet. Winter is still here. Fishing season opened in the valley at 5am on April 27, but it will be a while before fishing opens in the high Sierra.

Dixon Lane and further north

Just north of Bishop, on Dixon Lane, is a road with a green gate. Owls often nest here and other birds use the area. From Dixon Lane you can get nice views of the mountains.

A Cooper’s Hawk was present.

This year the Great Horned Owls put their nest high in a tree with a lot of leaves. This made it hard to get pictures: inconsiderate of them. Why does this owl seem to be wearing red eye-shadow?

A week later. There are at least 3 babies in the nest.

When you see a nest with one adult, the other owl is usually nearby. Finding them can be difficult, as they blend into the shadows of the Cottonwoods.

Pleasant Valley Reservoir

Double-crested Cormorant. Looks like it is sinking.

Double-crested Cormorant, preening. Eyes look like sewn-on blue buttons.

It took me years to realize that Beavers are common in the waters near Bishop. The most obvious sign of their presence is a newly-downed Cottonwood, with tooth-marks on the remaining stump. Sinuous marks from their tails can be seen on dirt roads. But getting photos of these creatures has been hard. The pictures below were taken where the Owens River flows into the Reservoir.

Convict Lake

We visited Convict Lake (elevation 7850 ft) on April 23. The ice has melted, but snow still lingers on the south shore and higher up along Convict Creek.

Mono Lake

In June, thousands of birds will come here. But in April it is pretty quiet.

Wilson’s Phalarope

These shorebirds birds are 9 inches long, have a wingspan of 17 inches, and weigh 2 oz. They mate in the Dakotas and Saskatchewan in May. The females lay eggs and promptly leave, heading south to the saline lakes of the Great Basin: Great Salt Lake, Abert’s Lake in Oregon, and Mono Lake north of Bishop. The males look after the eggs, but once the chicks are hatched, the males also head south. The chicks are born with feathers and find their own food; soon they also go south. The birds show up at Mono Lake from mid-June to August. Surveys at Mono Lake done 35 years ago estimated up to 80,000 phalaropes in a year, but survey methods then and now are pretty crude. The females arrive first, then males, then juveniles. They hang out for a month doubling their weight on brine shrimp and alkali flies — an unlimited, but monotonous, buffet. They use the time and food energy to molt, discarding their old feathers and growing new ones. Then they fly south – a 3-day non-stop to South America, about 3000-4000 miles. They spend the Boreal winter at inland saline lakes near the Andes Mountains of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile. In spring of the next year, they fly north and do this all over again.

Below are photos of Mono Lake, where thousands of Phalaropes gather every summer. The first photo was taken from the Mono Craters, a group of volcanos south of the lake. In the foreground is volcanic ash and rubble. In the middle distance on the right is an island called Paoha. Most California Gulls migrate from the coast to this island in the summer, nest, and raise their chicks. In the far distance are the snowy summits of the Sweetwater Mountains, which straddle the California-Nevada border.

Mono Lake from Mono Craters. Looking north.

The winter view below, looking south, shows the Lake from near Conway Summit. The large road is Highway 395. The town of Lee Vining is in the distance on the right. Rain and snow are coming down from the clouds.

Sunrise from the Lake’s south shore.

Lightning started a fire just a few years ago. It burned off sagebrush and rabbitbrush from a large area on the Lake’s south shore.

Mono Lake south shore. South Tufa area on left, Navy Beach on right. Burned from lighting fire.

Another view of the burned area.

Below are pictures of Wilson’s Phalaropes floating, preening, and feeding. These images were taken from the South Tufa area of Mono Lake, which has easy road access and a boardwalk that leads to the water. The female birds have a black facial stripe that morphs into a cinnamon color on the back of the neck; very elegant. Colors for the males and juveniles are muted; a blah look.

Wilson’s Phalaropes. Mono Lake. Two bird on the right are females in breeding plumage.

Wilson’s Phalaropes are wading birds, but also happy swimming about.

Lots of preening here. These birds are molting, getting entirely new outfits.

The image above shows some birds feeding. All they have to eat here are brine shrimp, which are less than a half-inch long, and small alkali flies. They grasp brine shrimp or flies with the tip of their bills, then open the bill so that a water droplet containing the food moves up to the mouth using surface-tension. Two California biologists studied this with high-speed cameras and their article shows photos of water droplets moving up a bird’s bill from tip to mouth in 0.01 seconds. (Rubega MA, Obst BS. Surface Tension Feeding in Phalaropes: Discovery of a Novel Feeding Mechanism. The Auk: A Quarterly Journal of Ornithology. 1993;110(2):169-173.)

Until 2021, I knew nothing about this bird. Roberta and I visited Mono Lake’s South Tufa beach early on July 2 and found thousands of them at the shore, floating on the water, and flying about in flocks of hundreds, even thousands. We came back on July 6 and 13 to get more photos. The birds made little noise; just faint gurgling sounds. At the shore they seemed restless, either eating or preening themselves. The scene was one of the most exciting wildlife events I’ve ever seen, comparable to seeing animal herds on the Serengeti.

Below are two images of Phalaropes landing.

This is a different bird, also landing. As they come down, they take a few steps on the water.

Every few minutes a flock of hundreds or thousands took off, zoomed about (at speeds up to 50 mph) near the water surface or high above the water, and then landed on the water. Large flocks made a “whooshing” sound as they went past. The landings looked like a controlled crash; the birds spread their wings, put out their feet, and take several steps on the water before flopping down. Their bellies are white, backs are a mix of browns. So depending on their angle in flight, they make look white, brown, grey, or black. As they change direction, the color of the flock changes — a fast moving plume of black smoke seems to turn white. Sometimes a dark-appearing flock crosses the path of another flock that looks white.

We see the bellies, so these birds look white.

In some photos, individual birds are upside down! Does air turbulence from the flock tip them over? Or are they just banking a turn very hard? How do they avoid crashing into each other? As they land, they seem to touch at times.

At the top of this group, right of center, one bird is upside down. Feet point into the air.

The more you magnify this photo, the more birds you can see. Could there be a thousand birds in this picture?

Why do they fly about so much? I assume they are getting their muscles in shape for the 3000-mile trip to South America. They are training, just as a human trains for a marathon. Are they also practicing how to fly as a group? When they head south, they usually lift off at night, head for the coast, and fly over the ocean. I wonder what it would look like to see a flock pass overhead against the stars or the moon?

Who was Wilson?

Alexander Wilson (1766 to 1813) was born in Scotland. He moved to America in 1794 (age 27) in the hope of escaping poverty. He lived in Pennsylvania. Before his death at age 47, he published 9 books of bird illustrations; American Ornithology (1808-1814). His name is attached to Wilson’s Storm-Petrel, Wilson’s Plover, Wilson’s Snipe, Wilson’s Phalarope, and Wilson’s Warbler.

In 2023, the American Ornithological Society announced a plan to revise North American bird names. Instead of naming birds for people (all white males of European heritage), names will be revised to describe the birds. They plan to revise 10 names in 2024, including Wilson’s Warbler and Snipe. Europeans did not discover these birds; they were known to indigenous people for thousands of years.

A couple of additional photos remind us that Phalaropes are not the only creatures at Mono Lake. Roberta spotted this Desert Cottontail on April 2, 2024.

Great Blue Herons

Bishop is in the high desert at 4000 feet. Despite being in a desert, we have Great Blue Herons; lots of them. They have been seen at 260 feet below sea level in Death Valley and as high as 11,000 feet near Sawmill Pass. They build nests in Cottonwoods throughout the Owens Valley; rookeries of several nests can be found. They fish in streams, canals, ponds, and reservoirs. They hunt small mammals in fields.

Compare a Heron with a Bald Eagle. Both prefer fish. The Heron catches fish with its long bill, the Eagle grasps them with its talons. They have colossal wingspans; 6 feet for the Heron, 6.5 feet for the Eagle. But the Heron is a lithe ballet dancer: 4.5 feet tall, 6.5 pounds. The Eagle is a muscle-bound thug: 2.5 feet, 9.5 pounds.

I have taken thousands of photos of Great Blue Herons. They are common and big, making them an easy target. I currently (March 2024) have 674 saved Heron photos, more than for any other bird. A heron was the first bird I managed to photograph while in flight. Their large size and straight path makes it easier to get pictures. Most photos in this post were taken near the Buckley Ponds or the Bishop Creek Canal.

Pony tails.

Herons have pony tails. Technically, these are occipital plumes. Apparently these feathers are used for mating displays. In reviewing my photos, the pony tails seem longest around January, when mating starts, shortest or absent in late summer. Or maybe this difference arises because juvenile Herons lack long plumes. Below are a few examples.

The pony tail floats above the back. Note all the holes in the wing feathers.

Shake it, baby!

Sometimes birds give themselves a vigorous shake, fluffing their feathers into a disorderly mess. Why? Are they trying to shed dust or parasites? Below is a sequence of photos showing this shaking.

Here is another example of shaking.

Note that the legs look like carbon-fiber hiking poles.

Feeding.

Herons usually hunt near or in water. They may stand motionless, or move slowly. Then they strike quickly and grab a fish. They may hold it for a while, until the flopping stops, then maneuver it so that it can be swallowed head first. If the fish is large you can see a bulge move down the bird’s neck. In addition to fish they eat crustaceans, amphibians, other birds, and small mammals.

Heron stalking fish or frogs at Buckley Ponds.

In the sequence below, a Heron catches a carp at the Buckley Ponds. The time from first to last photo is 52 seconds. Imagine if you had to eat this way.

Flight.

Herons use big, powerful, rhythmic wing-beats and tend to cruise in a straight line. I like to think of them as lumbering aircraft, an avian B-52. At the start of flight the neck is extended. Then it may coil back onto the shoulders, but not always. With the neck extended the bird often looks awkward, as if it has no business being in the air. The big primary feathers at the ends of the wings often have tears and holes, like a car riding on bald tires. Sometimes an entire feather is missing.

Flight through cottonwoods. Yellow plant is rabbitbrush.

Wings and reflection form a circle. Sometimes wing-tips touch the water.

Neck still mostly extended. The head and legs hang below the body. Ungainly look.

Birds descended from dinosaurs, but I find that hard to grasp when I see a Bald Eagle. But I can easily imagine the Heron below is a dinosaur.

Heron cruising over Pleasant Valley Reservoir, early morning.

Portraits.

I selected a portfolio of portraits to show Herons in a variety of places and poses. Their eyes look like sewn-on yellow buttons. The giant toes and hooked talons are remarkable. There is usually reddish coloration of thighs, wrists, and shoulders. They like to perch high up on poles, branches, and bridge structures. I picked many photos for unusual lighting or colors.

Herons often prefer to stand on one leg. They will do this even on windy days. They will lift up one leg and it will disappear into the feathers on their belly. All birds will stand on one leg, but this is more obvious in large birds such as Herons and Hawks. Sometimes a few toes will protrude from the feathers. The one-legged stance seems like a tricky and unnecessary balancing act. Humans have balance sensors, the vestibular system, in their ears; this helps us stand upright with our eyes closed. Birds have similar balancing sensors in their ears, but have another balance sensor in their pelvis, so they can move their heads independently of their bodies while perched on a bobbing branch. To stand on one leg they must have their foot right under their center of mass. They have a knob in their pelvis which allows them to lean on and lock-off the leg they are standing on.