Roadrunner, Nuttals woodpecker, Black Phoebe, Hello from California! (20130301)

We are visiting our daughter in Irvine for a week, and the weather looks to be glorious. Today was in the Mid 80’s F, which was hot when you consider we were living in the 25-35F range for the past couple of weeks. L.D. bicycles to work quite often, and travels through one of Irvine’s city parks. This was our destination this morning. I was hoping for some new birds, and this time I was the one being guided” J

We checked out an area on the UCI campus where there were flowers in bloom to grab our first “hummer” shots of the day.

We also spotted this Yellow Rumped  Warbler (the first of many!)

I believe this is a Bush tit, which would be a first for me. I am hoping that Amy can assist me with this ID!

And we found some house finches flitting around as well.

As we approached the park we found this Black Phoebe, this is another first for me.

Now that we are in the park, the first’s just keep on rolling. Here is an Allan’s Hummingbird, I will be looking to get a shot that shows off the colouration under the chin better in coming days.

We were constantly in the company of Turkey Vultures. We found this unit next to the trail. I initially thought might be a Catbird, however to my great fortunate I ran into a biologist from the area and Amy informed that this was a California Towhee, a first for me!

Yellow rumped warblers seemed to be everywhere, and humming birds buzzed around every now and then. Apparently the heat also brought out these smaller lizards! I don’t know anything about lizards/geckos/iguanas so I don’t which specie this is. They appeared to be 3-4 inches in length.( I spoke with Amy today and she tells me it is likely a Western Fence Lizard (oohh -rahh!!!)

What would be quick enough to catch these speedy little lizards? One of my most hoped for birds on this trip—a Road Runner (Beep Beep).

Almost out of the park we spied this woodpecker, a Nuttall's I believe, we had heard and seen other woodpeckers but this was the first to give us a shot.

The last “new” bird for me to provide an photo opportunity was this female Western Bluebird, the male was there, but I missed my opportunity. This is a bird I will try to get better images of during our stay.

So over all a very successful day with at least 10 new birds and a little bit of evidence to back up the storyJ

I hope everyone has a great wildlife week!

Turbo