The weather in Santa Rosa was not very cooperative with heavy rains for at least two of the days, but I did get out and walk from Lake Ralphine to Spring Lake twice, though the best birding area on Spring Lake was closed because of flooding.
I’m definitely not going to complain when the days it wasn’t raining were bright and sunny. There were lots of birds and in general they seemed to be accustomed to having people around and it was easy to get good shots of them. I do see lots of female Bufflehead around home, but seldom as close as this one was.
The males seemed particularly bold, though, perhaps because there were a lot more males than females, and the males had to seem courageous to attract a mate.
It takes nearly perfect light to capture both the black and white feathers of the male Bufflehead. It had to be tweaked in Photoshop, but I was really happy that the white feathers weren’t washed out.
There were a lot of birds singing along the trail between the lakes, but it was nearly impossible to locate them. I felt lucky to get this shot of a Yellow-rumped Warbler.
This Spotted Towhee was hard to miss as it posed for its shot instead of disappearing into the underbrush as they usually do.
My favorite shot of the day, though, was this shot of a Western Bluebird which posed even longer than the Towhee. He posed patiently while I circled him to get the best angle.
I’m always amazed by the number of birds I see at Lake Ralphine and Spring Lake despite the considerable number of people walking and riding bikes there.