Hello All. The #BirdOfTheDay theme today is #FirstWingbeat, so here's a puffin paterring across the sea during take-off. #Bird #wildlifephotography #birdwatching #birdphotography #photography #nature #EastCoastKind #Puffin

So aerodynamic! 🪶

Teenagers 🥰 Red-tailed Hawk 📷🔭🌿🪶

I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU ARE REAL 🪶 🐣

B A B Y G U L L S

Three soft and fuzzies, coming up. 🧵 🪶 🐣

Anyone near Pismo Beach, California who can check to see the western gull roosting status?

It can’t be a coincidence that the week I’ve lost another patient that a frigatebird shows up in OC Much less a patient that was obsessed with finding his peace out on his sail boat, deep at sea Monroe, I dedicate this lesser frigatebird to you May your spirit find its way to the ocean my friend

Did I see a fucking Connecticut Warbler and not realize it?! I saw a Mourning Warbler immediately after this bird and didn't even realized my first glimpse had been of a totally different bird. Holy shit. Lifer!!! Man, I'd be so screwed without my camera. 😂 #birds

Once more… what a fun vagrant! This bird is the first record of this species to be recorded in Orange County, California This is the best photo I could resolve of today’s individual Lesser Frigatebird 📷🌿🪶

Not that close. But thank goodness she’s a female. From that distance, a few of our experts in OC noticed a white hind collar that is present in female lesser frigatebirds and absent in magnificent frigatebirds! 🪶

Lesser Frigatebird — lifer 🪶

A ring-necked duck poses for a few #headshots on the Deschutes River. They get their name from the iridescent red ring on the bottom of their necks. #birds #bird #photography #ornithology #birdphotos #nature #naturephotography #birdphotography #wildlife #wildlifephotography #birdoftheday 🦉 🪶

Cutest future serial murderer you ever did see Loggerhead Shrike 📷🌿🪶

Look at that chestnut back! 🌰 Chestnut-backed Chickadee 📷🌿🔭

Yellow-billed magpies were all over Bear Valley leading up to Pinnacles National Park 📷🌿🪶

Turkey Vulture for scale California Condor 📷🌿🪶

Yellow billed magpie — lifer! 🪶

CALIFORNIA CONDOR!! Lifer!!! 😭🪶

I’m at UC Berkeley for a cousin’s graduation! Chestnut-backed Chickadee — lifer 🪶

Chapman University trained physical therapist now treating a Chapman University sitting board member is some great karma

Babes 🥰 ft. dark-eyed junco, bushtit, and northern house wrens @ Canyon Park, Costa Mesa 📷🌿🪶

Willow flycatcher 5MR year bird #190!

Black-necked Stilt! 5MR year bird #189

Northern Red Bishop 5MR year bird #188!

RIP Brandon Clarke, absolutely tragic news at 29.

While watching the Eagles, I heard my mom exclaimed! “Look there’s a yellow bird!” It was great to see her as a wide eyed person, seeing something she’d never once had an inkling she’d see when growing up a farmer’s daughter in Vietnam Happy Birthday, Mom! Western Kingbird & Bald Eagle 📷🌿🪶

Yellow-headed Amazon #580 — lifer!

Being a good son pt.fin

Being a good son pt. 3 Yes… I own two scopes

Being a good son pt. 2 Yes! That’s a bald eagle nest!

Being a good son pt. 1 Oh it’s also my mom’s birthday

Bird of Prey is TRENDING ON BLUESKY?!? You got it! Del Hawko III a THIRD generation of Red-tailed Hawks are doing wingers in their nest this morning I met Del Hawko when I moved to Costa Mesa in 2020 and learned birding though pandemic shutdown #raptors #BirdOfTheDay #birdsofprey #nest 📷🌿🪶 🧵👇/1

Our babies are doing wingers!! 🥹 Red-tailed Hawk 📷🌿🪶

Cassin’s vireo 5MR year bird #187! 🪶

This is a still photo taken from a Leica MP240 Having a modern autofocus and telephoto lens is convenient and allows me to show all of you some incredible moments But being able to take this photo, albeit with a scope to assist, with a manual focus 50mm lens was just an idiotically fun project 📷🌿🪶

Eastern bluebirds.

Western Bluebirds have a scintillating blue Let me take this time to remind everyone once a year… you’re not looking at blue pigment The feather barbules are structured so that blue and only blue is reflected towards your eyes Nature’s magic trick 📷🌿🪶

I hope yall like bluebirds

5MR year bird #186 Bell’s Vireo (least) threatened subspecies in SoCal

Very secretive! This warbler prefers to stay in the shrubs, rarely coming out for a small peek MacGillivray’s warblers migrate through Southern California, and I have seen their breeding grounds in some of the canyons of the eastern Sierras! I’ll be visiting them in about two months! 📷🌿🪶

We had TWO hermit warblers at our local patch today. Not the most rare bird, but you better catch these uncommon migrants as they pass through SoCal to breed further north I found a male flitting about in the morning during a solo walk. And my wife spotted a second female in the afternoon 📷🌿🪶

MacGillivray’s warbler for 5MR #185! Wowowowowo.

It’s always fun to catch an fun empid in my hood 😎 Gray flycatcher 📷🌿🪶

Olive sided flycatcher 5MR #184!

5MR year bird #183 and it’s a good one! Gray flycatcher!

This Cooper’s hawk pair I’ve been tracking for 5 years 14 fledglings in the last 5 years. Likely on some more eggies! 🥚

Season of the babies! Introducing GREBELETS 🥰 Pied-billed Grebes 📷🌿🪶

This parent red tailed hawk is presumably the daughter of Del Hawko. Del Hawko is a red tailed hawk we’ve gotten to know over the past 5 years living around Fairview Park This adult was a juvenile that we noticed stuck around and fly with her parents over the three years for her to mature! 🪶

A photographic nemesis! I’ve been doing my best to find and observe waterthrushes for longer periods! I got my wish today when someone reported one in a wetland I know well The bird was a nice and patient guy that was foraging and bobbing its tail for long observation 🥰 Northern Waterthrush 📷🌿🪶