Home»Jasper Ridge Galleries»A Day at a Time: Individual Visits»5/18/2018 Seen While Looking for Birds

On the monthly bird transect from Escobar Gate, I find I am still quite distractible. Yes, I do see many birds, some pointed out by the birders, some noticed on my own. But I don't just check off the species and whether it was only seen, only heard, or both seen and heard. I stop and observe the behavior -- whether it is a common or rare species, its behavior is interesting.

And along the way, I cannot fail to notice baby fawns, acorns, oak trees -- and flowers! Insects on the flowers!!

So here are several collections for you:

Birds and So Much More: an overview of the morning. Deer with fawns. Bunnies browsing at dawn. Classic oaks. And a few birds, flowers, and insects, to show the context and pique your interest for the next collections:

Kiting and other Bird Behavior: Interesting bird behavior, in chronological order. Several sequences: A kite, kiting! A small kestrel, attacking a large red-tailed hawk in the air, making pass after swooping pass. A quail sitting on a high branch, watching over the covey browsing below -- then the change of the guard, as a new guard-quail takes the place of the first. A scrub jay, sitting in some poison oak then flying away.

Flowers and their Insects: Springtime flowers abound, and if you look closely, you will often see an insect there. That's the whole point of a flower, after all. It is late spring now, and many flowers are bright yellow or white, with a sprinkling of purple. New oak leaves show bright reddish purple, vying with the flowers for vividity. The leather oak, growing in the serpentine, is particularly interesting, sporting last year's acorn cups, this year's new yellow blossoms, and a carpenter ant exploring the new velvety leaves, browsing at the base of the leaves. What is she looking for? The showy yellow flowers of the non-native weedy hawksbeard attract a variety of visitors, including an iridescent green carpenter bee.

More Insects & Flowers: Sorry, I could not resist. I like these photos too, but you may feel they are an overdose. Mostly more photos of bees, flies, and the moth on yellow flowers, and a few other items of interest.