Spent an hour or so at Hauxley NR today - located at the top of Druridge Bay - both bean and white-fronted goose had been reported on the 20th. Alas, there was no sign of either - just a large group of grey-lag and a few canada. Red-breasted merganser and goldeneye were about the best I could manage and with rapidly fading light (and a hungary stomach) I headed back home.
One advantage of quiet winter afternoons is the increased time available to browse through some older photographs - so keeping with the theme of the last post, here are a few more from California in May 2006, all were taken using a Canon 10D with a Canon 100-400mm IS lens - from the top down: steller's jay (pacific form - interior west birds have white forehead markings rather than blue, this bird was at Yosemite), western scrub-jay (Golden Gate Park, San Francisco), heermann's gull (a personal favorite!, this bird was at Seaside on Robert's Lake), black phoebe (Golden Gate Park, San Francisco) and finally dark-eyed junco ("oregon" form, this bird was at Presidio, San Francisco).
