I drove from northern Utah to Long Beach, Los Angeles, and back this weekend so I could witness the marriage of my nephew to his beautiful bride. I took one of my son's and his wife along to keep me company. I warned them that there would be some birding, which didn't surprise them, so they couldn't really complain since I was doing the driving, paying for hotels, gas, and most of the food.
I decided to leave northern Utah Thursday night after work and drove about four hours to St George to check into a hotel. I got up early Friday morning and made a quick birding trip to Lytle Ranch while my son and his wife were sleeping. I picked up some fun desert birds. There was a leucistic Wild Turkey, Greater Roadrunner, Verdin, Bewick's Wren, and a number of other birds including Red-breasted, Red-naped, and Ladder-backed Woodpeckers. The only bird with which I spent some time engaged in photography was a male Phainopepla. I captured a few images and a short video.
I captured the image below intending to have a red-rock cliff for the background. I moved my position to get some blue sky.
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| Male Phainopepla at Lytle Ranch Washington County, UT |
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| Male Phainopepla at Lytle Ranch Washington County, UT |
I wanted to show the upper side of the bird as well so I captured the image below.
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| Male Phainopepla at Lytle Ranch Washington County, UT |
On the way out of Lytle Ranch I had a Greater Roadrunner dash across the gravel road just before I got back onto Highway 91. Just before getting into Santa Clara on my way back to the hotel in St George I stopped to photograph one of my favorite morphs of Red-tailed Hawk, the intermediate or rufous morph.
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| Intermediate/Rufous Morph Western Red-tailed Hawk Washington County, UT |
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| Intermediate/Rufous Morph Western Red-tailed Hawk Washington County, UT |
I made a one hour detour during our drive to Long Beach so my daughter in law could visit her great grandfather in Upland, California. As luck would have it, I spotted my lifer Red-shouldered Hawk perched on a pole along I-210 in Rancho Cucamonga. It was just two exits before where we'd stop to see my daughter-in-law's great grandfather. I dropped off my son and his wife for their visit and then drove back to look for the hawk before the sun set. Unfortunately, the hawk was gone.
My nephew's wedding was at the Latter-day Saint Temple in Los Angeles. The grounds of the temple are beautiful and draw some really nice birds, especially hummingbirds. While everyone was standing around after the wedding and waiting for photos to be done, I went to the trunk of my car and retrieved my camera to capture images of what I believe to be an Allen's Hummingbird based on field marks and location and time of year. These guys are very similar to Rufous Hummingbirds, but Rufous don't typically have green backs like the Allen's do. Allen's seem to show a little more of a curved bill and slightly shorter wings relative to the tip of the tail. This guy was very cooperative. I'm sharing a few different angles with focus on overall bird, head, eye, gorget, and back.
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| Male Allen's Hummingbird on Latter-day Saint Temple Grounds in Los Angeles, CA |
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| Male Allen's Hummingbird on Latter-day Saint Temple Grounds in Los Angeles, CA |
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| Male Allen's Hummingbird on Latter-day Saint Temple Grounds in Los Angeles, CA |
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| Male Allen's Hummingbird on Latter-day Saint Temple Grounds in Los Angeles, CA |
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| Male Allen's Hummingbird on Latter-day Saint Temple Grounds in Los Angeles, CA |
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| Male Allen's Hummingbird on Latter-day Saint Temple Grounds in Los Angeles, CA |
The green and red/orange of the Christmas light coordinated well with the green and orange of the little bird. Wouldn't it be nice to have hummingbirds adorn your Christmas lights? This individual is separate from the one pictured above.
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| Male Allen's Hummingbird on Latter-day Saint Temple Grounds in Los Angeles, CA |
Just before leaving the temple grounds I noticed a Say's Phoebe fly catching from some netted Bird of Paradise plants and captured a few images as the sun was lowering in the sky.
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| Say's Phoebe on Latter-day Saint Temple Grounds in Los Angeles, CA |
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| Say's Phoebe Los Angeles, CA |
We drove all the way from Long Beach back to Utah on Sunday. I tried to get a look at a Red-shouldered Hawk that had been reported near Highway 91 and Gunlock Road, outside of Santa Clara, Utah (near St George). I was unsuccessful on that attempt, but was graced by one of my favorite hawks, an adult light morph Ferruginous Hawk. I love the colors in the wings (rufous, grey/blue, and white) and the large, bright yellow gape and bill these birds display. A Ferruginous in flight is a hawk lover's delight.
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| Adult Light-Morph Ferruginous Hawk Near Santa Clara, UT |
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| Adult Light-Morph Ferruginous Hawk Near Santa Clara, UT |
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