An old friend, and some new ones

The next day after I fixed my camera and lens I headed out to the Sonoma County Park that I first visited last year. Amazingly, Acorn Woodpeckers were in exactly the same spot that I found them last year, perhaps because they’ve build up quite a warehouse of acorns.

Woodpecker With Acorn

Somehow this photo seemed to symbolize this bird for me, and finding the woodpeckers in exactly the same spot as the previous year made me more at home here than I would have imagined.

While there I also found a new friend, a Black Phoebe, certainly the first shot I’ve ever gotten of one, and, as far as I can remember, the first time I’ve ever seen one.

Black Phoebe

He was so close and his behavior was so close to the textbook description, that I would have had a hard time missing this bird. Strangely, I was to see many of these the final days we were in Santa Rosa, even in my mother-in-law’s backyard.

Though I was unable to get a picture of it, there was a Green Heron in exactly the same spot I saw it last year, too. There was even an old friend

Great Blue Heron flying

who seemed as at home as I was.

On the way out, I was treated to another California resident, or at least one that’s seldom seen in the Pacific Northwest.

Egret Taking Off

This was my first sighting of a Great Egret in California, though I saw many more in the next few days.

3 thoughts on “An old friend, and some new ones”

  1. That is a superb photo of the woodpecker Loren – the other shots are pretty good too. I wish the great egret would come over here to UK – we do have the little egret now – I believe they are even nesting in the South of England – but how i would love to see that great chap.

  2. Splendid photo of the Acorn Woodpecker!

    Black Phoebes are especially meaningful to me because the first time I saw one was three days after my mother died. It appeared and vocalized outside my parents’ house in Gualala on the ocean side. It seemed to embody my mother’s spirit. After that, when I was in Gualala, I would always be greeted by single Black Phoebes who would step forward as I was walking on the bluffs and who would say “Tsip!”

    I’m full of recommendations (-: Have you and Leslie ever been to Gualala Point State Park? It’s where the Gualala River flows between Sonoma and Mendocino counties on the coast. Full of Flickers, Ravens, Black Phoebes, Pelicans, Pileated Woodpeckers, Cedar Waxwings. Blue belly lizards. Possibly Grey Whales this time of year.

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