Lunch, Then Birds

I can hear wind in the eaves, along with the rustling sound of tree branches waving back and forth with wild abandon. Clouds are taking over the sky with a calm relentlessness. There is no substantial chance of rain in the forecast, but it feels like a storm is coming.

Yesterday was springlike. Scooby is in town this weekend, so a bunch of past and present camp staff met for lunch at Aqui in Cupertino. I realized that there were more past staff than present ones, with only Superfly and myself representing current staff (sure, we see Raven, Bat, and Badger occasionally, but only as subs). It was like a family reunion, and it was great to catch up with ex-staff members whom I hadn't seen in awhile. I miss them all. Earlier in the week, a new staff member who hadn't met Scooby was wondering what the big deal was. Thinking about a succinct way to explain Scooby only took me a few seconds. He's the Mr.Rogers of outdoor ed. Something special left our program when he retired.

Afterward, I wandered around the nearby Fremont Older Open Space Preserve. My goal was to photograph a California Thrasher, but when I went to where I'd last seen one, I only heard it. It must have known I'd have my camera with me this time.

I did get some photos of other birds though.

Yellow-rumped Warblers were everywhere.



Mammals were represented by a lone Merriam's chipmunk and a trio of Brush rabbits. This is rabbit number three.



I like this one for its mysterious gloominess. It's a robin, by the way.



On the way back to my car, on the tree that had contained a pair of ravens earlier, was a Cooper's Hawk. At first I thought I might finally have come across s Sharp-shinned hawk (I have distant photos of flying ones, but no close-ups), but after reviewing the photos, I concluded that it was a Cooper's. By that time, we were in the shadow of the hill I had just descended, so I had to digitally manipulate the photos a bit to bring out detail.



Another photo that I like for its overall atmosphere. I may just well be the most apocalyptic photo of House Finches ever. My phone app. had earlier warned of diminishing air quality, and it definitely showed. The colors were brought out by running the photo through Lightroom's dehazer.



My work week held no surprises. Lately, my routine has been to arrive early and take photos of birds. The Red Crossbills were back again, bustling about in a tight flock and continuing their quest to denude all of the conifers of their seeds. The kids were middle schoolers, but I had a relatively well-behaved group. I didn't do anything that deviated from my usual teaching routine either.

I did get some funny crossbill photos though, including this one: