Two Seagulls

Continued from the previous post California Seagulls, 

I thought I should give this TWO SEAGULL an individual post,

just love it

California Seagulls

I know my addiction continues-watching and photographing whatever birds run into my sights...Seagull is one of my favorite, or which I should say they are the most easy birds to photograph.  They are not camera shy! I took many shots of gulls in many pose.

 Lesser black-backed gull
I like the lone feel behind the gull, he is in deep though...

...a juvenile California Seagull. Seagulls as young are most brown, successive sets of feathers are lighter until they mature and get their final coloring. 

This one is my friend Mindy's favorite shot. The gull who seemed to enjoy posing just long enough for her to take this lovely photo. I missed the chance while I was looking at the lonely bench in front two seagulls.

...another seagull give me a "feeling lost" pose

my favorite 

"Ocean Wanderer"

There is not always a blue sky, just fly...

This one, taken at Bigsur area, love the the hill and the road in the back ground.

 The lazy gulls...

...looking down to McWayFall from Bigsur

 Another shot of a seagull along 17 mile Drive, California.

Very nice setting with the rock and blue water in the background, 

but too much explored with the morning sunshine...

Where the sea is, the seagulls are. 

Thanks for stopping to see my seagulls.

Happy weekend to all my nature lovers, bird lovers blog friends.

Seagull, morning sunshine

Are they Shinny Cowbirds?

Wow, look at the eyes!

Local Birds Hang Around At Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden

I miss the beautiful Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden now.  That is an amazing place for walking around in the nature.  I was there early December last year, Although I did not get to  see beautiful desert flowers in bloom as I was expecting before going,  but I really enjoy staying so close to the nature, smell the fresh air, watching many local birds (and yeah, manage to add some new species to my list), the butterflies and the squirrels...

This is the awesome Male Greater Roadrunner! I like the spot of blue and red behind the eye! (Identify as a male by the blue and orange in his eyestripe. )

The Greater Roadrunners were seen everywhere free running in the park, do their hunting in the bush looking for lizards and snakes ...

The adult bird has a bushy crest and long, thick, dark bill with a long, dark tail, a dark head and back, and is blue on the front of the neck and on the belly. They are large ground bird which very seldom flies, they can  grow to almost two feet in length.

I was told there are also the Lesser Roadrunners which are a bit smaller than the Greater, but I can really tell which one is the great and which one is the lesser...

Gambel’s Quails! Yeah, one of my unexpected surprises was meeting a few of the local wildlife in the garden. Seeing roadrunners, hummingbirds, Gambel's quails in very close distance was a real novelty, of course the ground squirrels jumping around my feet was a definite highlight, which I should have an individual post.

Unlike those roadrunners,  the Gambel’s Quails did not show up a nice posture in front of my camera, but I could not resist trying to capture some image of this dude...

...the male Gambel’s Quail above and the female below

I manage to capture a few of clear pictures of other local birds to add to my collections... 

verdin

They are entirely gray (of various shades) with a striking yellow head and a small red patch on its medium coverts.

See some Hummingbirds feeding from flowers, and finally take a photo of one lonely hummingbird perched on a branch

House Sparrow ?

Sun Birds & Their Nest

The sunbirds have made a nest in our flower shop again, a HDB shop house at Ang Mo Kio, this is the 3rd time they built a nest. First time, the work was not done as I shifted the small plant which it built the nest. 2nd time the two sunbirds came back again and made a delicate nest on our Money Tree,  that was around Aug last year...I have been watching and photographing the sunbirds nesting, feeding, baby bird growing up...Ha, this round they choose our newly arranged cherry blossom silk flowers for their home. The sunbirds fly in and out from the window, they doesn't scare of us at all. Can you imagine the birds built their nest inside HDB House, and they are so close to us, the nest just built at my eyes level...Well here are some photos...

Lovely and Lonely Benches #85: Two Sea Gulls

at San Simeon Bay

Olive-backed Sunbirds nesting in our balcony

I was too busy in the past 2 months...I should post out this much earlier around 2nd week of May when they just started to build the nest in our office coffee room... The Olive-backed Sunbird, also known as the Yellow-bellied Sunbird, is a common species of sunbird found in Singapore. often were found perched on my flowering ShuiMei plants outside the window. We have a few green plants in our office coffee room ,  A pair of couple sunbirds built their nest on a money tree (pachira plant),  I was busy following up on their status, watching and photographing the sunbirds nesting...

Sunbirds form monogamous pairs.  See my sunbird nest pictured on the left? It was built pretty quickly – in just about one week time.

They built a hanging flask-shaped nest with an overhanging porch at the entrance, and a trail of hanging material at the bottom end. Materials used include plant fibers, mosses, dried leaves and even cotton wool, thread and some plant material.



It is very interesting, they even know to pull a  leaf to cover their nest...

...the nest was almost built.

It took another one week time, finally I saw the work done, the nest look very solid, but the birds disappeared, I had not seen them for about one week time...I was wondering where they go and why they haven't laid egg yet, "maybe they divorce? " my friend was joking.   

I took a picture of close up of the nest, it is really amazing. The nest is lined with soft fluffy seeds (all kinds) and some fur, I find them took my cotton which I left somewhere near the plant, they used them for the inner lining of the nest!  The outside of the nest is decorated with lichens, dried leaves and some seed cases. Nature works in amazing ways…

It is a very beautiful bird nest, I was thinking to bring them down as a decoration if the birds never come back again. I was check on them every day...And one morning, I heard the birds sound again out side the window, and two of them kept coming in and out...

I never seen any of them siting inside the nest for long periods of time, most of the mornings I heard them singing out side the window and flying in and out...I believe they laid the egg already...I looked inside the nest but unfortunately the eggs were too deep inside for me to see.

I was about to give up checking on them, I though they are a couple of birds dont want baby bird, Lols. One day morning, you guess what I heard? I heard the sound of the baby bird came from the nest, it was very weak, but ya, it was the baby bird.

The little bird was totally devoid of feathers. It resembled a naked brown red thing with bulging black eyes that do not open till about one week later? It really looks odd.

One bird inside the nest only. It was hiding quite deep inside the nest, I used hand phone to take a picture...I think it was about a few days old?

...pictured after three weeks time, and then suddenly it flew out from the nest when I was trying to use my Iphone to take some close up images...