Ah, the boredom of the summer doldrums has been broken by the arrival of fall migration.
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Sepulveda Basin 8/26/2012
Dragonfly 1
9/1/2012
Baker Sewage Treatment Plant, Baker, California
Dragonfly 2
9/1/2012
Baker Sewage Treatment Plant, Baker, California
Zebra-tailed Lizard
Callisaurus draconoides
Baker, California
Wait, what's with the pictures of dragonflies and lizards? Oh, yeah! Johnny Bovee found a White Ibis at the Baker Sewage Treatment Ponds. Woo-hoo! There hasn't been one reported in California since I started birding in 1992. I haven't seen one since my last trip deep down into Baja California, 700 miles south of the U.S. border. Yeah, yeah, I know: they're in Texas, Louisiana, and Florida, but I'm not. So why did one show up halfway between my house in Claremont, and Las Vegas???
Needle in a haystack?
No: White Ibis in a flock of White-faced Ibis.
White Ibis
Baker, California 9/1/2012
This stupid White Ibis did the same thing that the Roseate Spoonbill did in Phoenix, Arizona: it kept hiding among the local birds, in places where you can only see if by staring into the sun, as a safety precaution. Lost e.g. vagrant birds use this tactic to survive in an unfamiliar environment.
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