My third photo from today is also from the Sun River Nature Center. As mentioned in a post from yesterday, we saw Yellow-rumped warblers (Setophaga coronata) fairly often on our trip. This one, I think, is a better photo than the one I posted yesterday, or I wouldn’t have repeated so soon. From the area where the nature center has its captive birds, we walked part way around the pond and then out into an area of scrub. That’s where this bird was, along with others of the same species. In fact, when it comes to songbirds, this is all we saw here. But it was enough, I suppose. They’re lovely little birds.
Daily Archives: September 19, 2024
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata)
Eurasian Eagle-Owl (Bubo bubo)
This morning, Cathy, Lisa, and I drove down to the Sun River Nature Center about 25 minutes south of Bend. It’s a nice, little nature center with a pretty and very peaceful pond in the back. There were swans, as well as ducks and geese on the pond. They have a few birds kept in captivity, including Luna, a Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo). She was hatched at a wildlife center in 2020 and was brought to Sun River Nature Center at the age of one month. Because she grew up with significant human contact, she is very comfortable with the staff and volunteers. She’s also beautiful.
California Quail (Callipepla californica)
I’ve been waking up fairly early, partly because we’re in a time zone three hours later than home, but also partly because it’s what I do. In the early morning I do one or more of reading, editing photos from the previous day, and writing in my journal. This morning, after the sun came up but before we went out, I noticed a small flock of California quail (Callipepla californica) in the garden in front of the house. I took a few photos through the front windows and then risked opening the door to get a few more. Sadly I didn’t take the time to look closely at the camera settings before I did that, so the images were all underexposed by over three stops. I was able to get reasonable images from them, but they aren’t nearly as good as they could have been. We saw them a few more times, but never as close and never when I had the camera handy.