It's Like The Salton Sea, But No Water

I sat in the blazing sun all day.  I bathed in my own sweat.  My skin burned from the rays of the sun.  It reminded me of the oppressive heat at the Salton Sea.  I took no photos, so I will give you the closest thing to my day today.  Old Salton Sea crap that I guess I never posted on TPAD.

I dunno if you can tell, but these American White Pelicans are about 115 degrees F.

These shorebirds are also well over 100 degrees.  Much like my day today in Palmdale (AKA Heaven).  BTW, I only see three species in this shot.  You? 

It Gets Harder The Older You Get

I owe you four again.  Don't worry, TPAD will be good again during its last gasp for air over the next 3 weeks.

Anna's in Adam's Uncles Irises.  Say that shit 5 times fast.

This kinda looks like the ocean, except that those are all Wilson's Phalaropes.  Yep, it's just an ocean of human waste in Lancaster. (Actually there might be a single Red-necked, but who's to say...)

Elegant Tern, Bolsa Chica.  Surprisingly, this is the first TPAD ELTE.

Don't know.  I just needed a fourth.  Perhaps Cory will hook a brother up again?

4PADs Are Embarrassing For Me

Yep, it's a 4PAD.  I couldn't manage to get my TPAD in last night.  Too much Palmdale shenanigans.  I'm tired.  Here's what I saw.

An inseparable pair of bushtits on Angeles National Forest.

Tarantula Hawk-Wasp?  I think that's what someone said this is called.

JFeen found this unexpected Willow Flycatcher this week on the ANF. Mega score.

Orange Sulphur?  Clouded Sulphur?  I dunno.  Haven't looked it up yet.

Sooth My Itchy Burning Skin

My PoodleDogBush is almost cured.  Any day now, it will disappear entirely.  This is what it has been like living with the PDB.  All photos by ASearcy.

This is what it feels like most of the time with PDB.  Simply horrendous.  

The only thing that helps are hot girls and Calamine lotion.

To learn more about the horrible plant known as PDG, see: 


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turricula_(plant)

I Had To Write About A Dead K-Rat

Yep, my no birding streak continues.  I was about to leave for the sewage ponds when I was rudely interrupted by work that needed doing.  So inconvenient.

A few Sooty and Pink-footed Shearwaters, which were part of the only flock of the day on saturday. Yawn.

A bit of variation in molt among a tight group of Western Sandpipers at Bolsa Chica.

Furry Orcas

Here's the third (and hopefully final) submission from the Pelagic of Doom and Destruction.  And from something else totally unrelated.

You see weird stuff in LA.  These people are probably together.  In a romantic way.  Which is weird.

The trip did have lots of good Cetacean action.  These Orcas weren't even the best thing.  I missed an excellent shot of a Cuvier's Beaked Whale.  Bummer.

Told You Once.

I told you I wouldn't be taking any photos.  Here are some more from the pelagic of doom.

I sure do miss these guys on Midway.  It's fun to imagine that I was just hanging out with this bird a few months ago and then we were reunited off Santa Barbara.

Pomarine Jaeger, one of yesterday's better birds. Wes Fritz sure knows how to chum these in.

Salt Spray Damages Boats

Yesterday was lackluster at best.  The weather was mostly abysmal, which made standing out on deck very unpleasant for most of the day.  That being said, I managed to see a few goodies that weren't new to me, but still worth looking at.  The boat sort of broke a little bit and made us super late getting back home.  We landed at about 10:30 PM and I was mostly blacked out brain dead at that point.  I have spent the morning recuperating at the house of the uncle of ASearcy.  It is lovely here, and I am forever indebted to the Searcy family for their kind hospitality.


Just to warn you, I'll probably be using these pelagic shots for a few days, so that I don't have to go birding or photographing.

This bird saved the day, sort of.  Red-billed Tropicbird, Santa Barbara County.

Leach's Storm-petrel.  There were gobs of these all day.  It was fun seing all the variation in tail patterns.

The Anticipation Is Killing Me

I can't wait to se whatever it is I'm going to see tomorrow on the Condor Express out of Santa Barbara. It will be so much better than anything I saw today.

Brown Pelican.  Wings only.

One of Bolsa Chica's million Elegant Terns.

Just Bugs

This is still my life.  As thrilling as it seems.  I am driving to Santa Barbara tomorrow for the Condor Express pelagic.  It gonna be sick.

White Praying Mantis?  Is that normal?

Dunno.  ID later.  It was really big.

Working Hard, Playing Hard

This is TPAD.  This is my life.  

Great Egret yum yums.

Yet again, I dunno.  Ayudame.

TPAD Is Almost Gone. You Will Cry When It Ends.

Chill day.  I found no new nests at my job where I find nests.  Then I drove to Palmdale.  My homeland.  The hotel I like turned me away.  I guess I looked/smelled bad or something.  How embarrassing.  Now I'm at the Easy 8, sitting on my bed with cigarette burns in the bedspread.  I think I'm gonna host a smoking party later.  Mahalo.

Marine Blue.  My first. 

Another California Gnatcatcher, for your viewing pleasure.

Up Too Late, Up Too Early

Fell asleep without PADing my T.  So now I'm up early getting it done before work.  Nothing very cray happened yesterday, so I'm skipping the photos I have of butterflies and putting up two more Bolsa shots.

Black Skimmer

Western Sandpipers.  I will be combing over thousands of these things in the coming weeks looking for semipalmated and other goodies.

Bolsa Chica Means Bag Lady In Spanish

Bolsa Chica was fun today.  I hadn't been there in forever.  I got some shots of birds that have never appeared on TPAD before.  You're welcome.  

This Brown Pelican was very good at murdering fish.  It murdered hella.  Over and over again.

Reddish Egret.  A beautiful bird that I had previously not photographed.  A few of them are always poking around Bolsa.

Living In The Sewage Of My Past

I spent the day watching people work.  It wasn't very fun.  Now I'm in Hollywood.  I just had a beer or two with birthday boy ASearcy (an excellent ping-ponger) and am feeling my 6 day work week.  Hella cansado.  Since I wish I could stay at the Lancaster Sewage Ponds forever, here sre some more from yesterday.

Wilson's Phalarope.  There were hella.

Dragonfly.  is it a Meadowhawk?  I need a dragonfly book.

First of Falls

I made my way to the Lancaster Sewage Ponds today.  Saw some first of fall stuff.  Super fun.  The Lancaster Sewage Ponds is one of the gnarliest places to go birding.  The air is so thick smelling that you can chew on it.  Good birds though.

Red-winged Blackbirds hate Least Sandpipers.  Especially when they start encroaching on their sweet Lancaster territory.  

Black Terns are among the greatest of all terns.  This is the first one I've seen in hella.

Oldees.

Oldies.  I took no photos today out of laziness.  So you get oldies.  Both from San Francisco.  From the day after the GANNET.

White-crowned Sparrow.  No tail.  How embarrassing.

Parrot.  On the shoulder of some weird Parrot Lady.

Bye Chrisrich.

I am too tired for words.  If you are reading this, that means I love you.  Good night.

This was the first fledgling Rufous-crowned Sparrow I have seen.  Being fed by mommy on top.  Pretty neat.

Sceloporus.  In a tree.  Herro..

Owlet

Well, after work sushi went a bit longer than usual.  It'll probably be pretty hard to get up for work in the morning.  Today was packed full of adventure and mega high temperatures.  I even stumbled upon a bird that you don't see very often.

I could have probably reached out and grabbed this Western Screech-owl.  He was totally un-phased that I trampled right up to him in the middle of the day.

Some day I will ID this bug.  Or maybe one of you will do it for me?  Please?  Cory did it.  Red Rock Skimmer.

Dead Forest Art

I was of course just kidding about the hummingbird thing.  I wouldn't dream of limiting myself in such a way. My art would become severely stunted.  Well, I find myself back in good old Palmdale.  The home of my forefathers. It feels good to be home.  I saw some totally expected and boring things today in the Angeles National Forest.

These are the kinds of creatures you can find lurking about a recently burned forest.

This is what a dead forest looks like. And yeah, this is art.

40 Days Of Hummer

By my calculations there will be 40 more TPADs.  The end of an era approaches.  I have decided to fill the remainder of the posts with nothing but hummingbird feeder shots.  Here goes.

Selasphorous hummingbirds are notoriously violent and territorial. This male owns this feeder and will murder any hummers that come near it.

Standing vigil over his domain.

Flamingo Races

I was so tired today.  Prom kept me up til 4 AM and I just got up and kept going today.  We spent the day at the racetrack, losing nominal sums of money betting on the wrong ponies.  No beer.  It costs 7 dollars at this track, which is 6 dolars more than the track in Berkley.  So, no beer.  It's time to go back to bed now.  Hopefully I'll sleep til noon.  Goodnight.

Typical sight at the races.  WEGU eating chicken bones.  Yumyum.

I had never seen Greater? Flamingos at the tracks before.  So Socal.

4 PADs How Embarrassing

Once again, I'm only putting these up because I feel like I have to.  I am about to go to prom.  "Adult Prom".  Can you believe that?  I barely can.  Wish me luck.

House Wren eating Spider.

Indy Bunting.  Still in Rowland Heights.

Me.  Embarrassing moment on the 4th.

LEGO extravaganza at Jonfeen's sock.