Shades of brown at Shoreline

September 29, 2012: Shoreline park, Mountain View.

Living near the bay but not in the bay: can you identify this patterned little brown bird who kept busy hopping from twig to twig?

Expert fishing bird at Shoreline

September 29, 2012: Shoreline park, Mountain View.

This expert fishing bird pauses for some preening in Charleston Slough at Shoreline park. As a bonus, can you identify the host of smaller birds also in the scene? Some of those smaller birds aren't actually that small! See this previous post for an action shot of one such fellow from earlier the same day.

Long legs at Shoreline

September 29, 2012: Shoreline park, Mountain View.

Check out those legs! These showy black and white birds can generate a lot of volume when enough of them start vocalizing at the same time. They were quiet on this late September day though. Can you name this common south bay bird?

Birds wading in the shallow water at Shoreline

September 29, 2012: Shoreline park, Mountain View.

A bunch of little birds were poking around in the shallow waters at Shoreline park in the late afternoon. Can you identify them and guess what they might be looking to find for dinner?

Bold action at Yahoo!

September 27, 2012: Yahoo! campus, Sunnyvale.

While visiting the Yahoo! campus over lunch, this fellow swooped right down, landed, and ripped into my corn bread. Multiple shooing motions with my hand barely budged him. Talk about fearless! I have some confidence I could have grabbed him had I wished.

Do you know what kind of bird was getting all aggressive over free lunch at Yahoo!? This campus is situated right on the baylands of the southern part of the San Francisco Bay.

Update: I spent some time with the Aperture editing tools to pull out some detail in the feathers. The below photos capture more of what I saw directly: a black bird, but with notably lighter coloration in spots and a curious white patch on the belly.

Banking over Rancho San Antonio

September 26, 2012: Rancho San Antonio park, Mountain View.

Near the parking lot at Rancho San Antonio, there's a large open field where model plane enthusiasts often fly their creations. Today there were no model planes, but someone else was showing off their aerial acrobatics.

"Landing gear" ready to go! It was an impressive display.

Black and white at Rancho San Antonio

September 26, 2012: Rancho San Antonio park, Mountain View.

Exciting contrast on the head plus nice balancing work on the wire! I hoped to get a longer view of this bird perched on a wire between the seasonal creek with its trees and a large grassy meadow, but it flew off into the distance moments after I took these photos. I enjoyed the peek I did get and hope you do to.