The Santa Ana River is known more as a flood control channel than as a rushing river, but it still attracts some interesting bird species, especially this time of year. I have seen White-faced Ibises in the area for years, but I don't remember any with more distinctive "white faces" as I saw this morning. First seeing the Osprey diving for prey (unsuccessfully), it soared overhead several times looking for food before settling in a tree top up the river about 50 yards. I came to this spot in search of two species: a Solitary Sandpiper, which I was unable to find, and a Yellow-headed Blackbird, which I had been searching for over the past week. Well, today I finally located a couple of the Yellow-headed Blackbirds. One was a female, which you see here with a male Red-winged Blackbird in the Bulrushes down in the river bed. The other was probably an immature bird...gender unclear. House Sparrows were introduced from Europe in the 1800's and have spread throughout the US. Still, they are beautifully marked despite their "commonness." The final shot shows my prey for the day in the best shot of it I was able to get. It was probably 150' from me, but it was fun to get a fairly clear shot of my target. All shots were taken with a Nikon D500, Nikkor 200-500mm telezoom, handheld with Auto AF (Spot) and Auto ISO. The final shot was at 1/1000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 360. I just missed tack sharpness plus had to crop significantly to get this picture. Hope that doesn't detract too much. Good health and luck to all.

jak
.

The Santa Ana River is known more as a flood control channel than as a rushing river, but it still attracts some interesting bird species, especially this time of year. I have seen White-faced Ibises in the area for years, but I don't remember any with more distinctive "white faces" as I saw this morning. First seeing the Osprey diving for prey (unsuccessfully), it soared overhead several times looking for food before settling in a tree top up the river about 50 yards. I came to this spot in search of two species: a Solitary Sandpiper, which I was unable to find, and a Yellow-headed Blackbird, which I had been searching for over the past week. Well, today I finally located a couple of the Yellow-headed Blackbirds. One was a female, which you see here with a male Red-winged Blackbird in the Bulrushes down in the river bed. The other was probably an immature bird...gender unclear. House Sparrows were introduced from Europe in the 1800's and have spread throughout the US. Still, they are beautifully marked despite their "commonness." The final shot shows my prey for the day in the best shot of it I was able to get. It was probably 150' from me, but it was fun to get a fairly clear shot of my target. All shots were taken with a Nikon D500, Nikkor 200-500mm telezoom, handheld with Auto AF (Spot) and Auto ISO. The final shot was at 1/1000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 360. I just missed tack sharpness plus had to crop significantly to get this picture. Hope that doesn't detract too much. Good health and luck to all.

jak
.

The Santa Ana River is known more as a flood control channel than as a rushing river, but it still attracts some interesting bird species, especially this time of year. I have seen White-faced Ibises in the area for years, but I don't remember any with more distinctive "white faces" as I saw this morning. First seeing the Osprey diving for prey (unsuccessfully), it soared overhead several times looking for food before settling in a tree top up the river about 50 yards. I came to this spot in search of two species: a Solitary Sandpiper, which I was unable to find, and a Yellow-headed Blackbird, which I had been searching for over the past week. Well, today I finally located a couple of the Yellow-headed Blackbirds. One was a female, which you see here with a male Red-winged Blackbird in the Bulrushes down in the river bed. The other was probably an immature bird...gender unclear. House Sparrows were introduced from Europe in the 1800's and have spread throughout the US. Still, they are beautifully marked despite their "commonness." The final shot shows my prey for the day in the best shot of it I was able to get. It was probably 150' from me, but it was fun to get a fairly clear shot of my target. All shots were taken with a Nikon D500, Nikkor 200-500mm telezoom, handheld with Auto AF (Spot) and Auto ISO. The final shot was at 1/1000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 360. I just missed tack sharpness plus had to crop significantly to get this picture. Hope that doesn't detract too much. Good health and luck to all.

jak
.