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Today I saw my very first Virginia Rail and I have a new fondness for birds that only allow you a fleeting glimpse as the make their way through the undergrowth.
This one happened to give away its location with a series of quiet peeps. While it was preoccupied with its new meal it wandered into a gap in the reeds.
What a great introduction to a secretive and beautiful new bird. A big thanks to Lynntern for pointing it out.
Here are a few oldies but goodies from the raptorial bonanza at Half Moon Bay a few years ago.
A young Red-tailed Hawk flying circles around me while evading crows and figuring out the challenging wind conditions on the coast.
Looking up.
Speaking up.
Staring up.
Sizing me up.
Greening up.
American Coots are nothing if not full of character with their grunting calls, territorialistic temperament, dinosaur feet, and determination to dive - plump and buoyant as they are.
When you see this agressive stance you know a chase is imminent.
And away they go...
back and forth across the lake. They never seem to tire.
But eventually, after re-establishing the hierarchy, they settle down and get back to feeding.
Searching the lake floor for food.
Diving to the bottom takes more commitment.
Finding the surface again is easy... just stop what you are doing and a second later you pop back into the world above.
Oh the rarest of sightings... a Coot in actual flight. I think I might have hallucinated this right into the camera.
I was watching the Coots running around like mad but never expected to see the Pied-billed Grebes at North Lake adopt the water sprinting behaviour. Very cool.
Each little foot pounds the water's surface for a split second and the pitter patter can be heard clear across the lake.
The Grebe begins to transition into torpedo mode...
And just that quickly the Grebe pops below the surface and then rises as if nothing had happened.