Bird Spotlight! Brandt's Cormorants in Breeding Plumage - Natural Bridges State Beach Santa Cruz California April 2025

One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Santa Cruz was to see the beautiful Brandt's Cormorants on the colony atop the Natural Bridge!  

It was the beginning of breeding season and I was excited to see these birds in their beautiful breeding plumage.  Brandt's are black birds with electric blue gular patches to match their beautiful blue eyes so of course I wanted to see them relatively close up and try to get some photos.

I was successful and yet, unsuccessful due to hard winds and camera shake. It's so frustrating as I get older.  But luckily Topaz AI is able to help with my shaky photos without looking too artificial (I hope). 

So, after my wonderful morning at the University of California Santa Cruz Arboretum and Botanical Garden and a brief stop at my hotel which is right on the way, I made my way to Natural Bridges State Beach to check it out!

There is a parking lot dedicated to parking for viewing the Natural Bridge rock where the colony is. Time limit (I think 30 minutes?) so you can't park for the beach there. But it was perfect to back right up to where the rock is and pop open my rear door for easy access to my camera and a place to sit. 

 You feel so close to the birds and the ocean and beach is beautiful.   

Nikon D600 Nikkor 28-300 lens at 28 mm

The rest of the photos were taken at 600 mm and then cropped, at least a little and some a lot, in Lightroom and Photoshop.  

These California Gulls wanted their photo taken.  :)  But the rest of the photos are of the Brandt's Cormorants.  It's possible there are some Double-crested Cormorants in the colony too.  

And there some Brown Pelicans hanging out too!

This next one has a pretty good look at the nests which are built upon the ground out of seaweed, eelgrass, weeds, etc.  It was very cool to see birds flying to the rock carrying nesting materials. 

This bird looks like it has a red eye but it is part of the seaweed it's carrying to the colony. 

These guys are bringing fresh nesting material. 

I think it looks kind of cool that you can see the people across the cove on the tidepool shelves.  I went over there later but didn't see any tide pools such as I'm used to...even though it was low tide.  But supposedly Natural Bridges has good tide pools so I guess I just couldn't find them.  

Reliving this adventure through my photographs reminds me that I need to make another trip to see the chicks!  Hopefully I can fit that in.  

xoxo

Nikon D7200  Sigma Contemporary 150 - 600 Lens

Photos edited in Lightroom, Topaz Photo AI, and Photoshop

Birdwatch - The Art of Sandhill Cranes - Cosumnes River Preserve February 2020

Sandhill Cranes are a beautiful, fascinating, awkward-looking bird.  When you catch them in person at dusk, it can be an awe-inspiring encounter.  

I had the perfect opportunity when cruising the back roads of the Cosumnes River Preserve mid-February of 2020.  I drive along these roads from time to time but had never seen a crane here before.  I guess the timing was right as I drove along slowly with my borrowed Olympus camera and 300mm lens in hand, windows down, and heard the familiar sound of cranes flying overhead.  

I quickly pulled over in the misty twilight and saw cranes coming in  to land.  I jumped out and steadied the camera on a fence to take some shots of the lavender-tinted wonderland I found myself in and the cranes did their nightly fly-in to the shallow water for safety from nighttime predators. 

Magical.

xoxo

Olympus E-M1 Mark 11 M.Zuiko 300mm lens

Birdwatching at Vic Fazio Wildlife Area - My First Bittern!!!

On a beautiful Saturday evening, I decided to go out to the Vic Fazio/Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area to see what birds may be out and about.  I was tempted to go because my co-worker got some great phone pics of a bird that may have been a Bittern although we both weren't quite sure.  

I've always wanted to see a Bittern and have stared at many a bunch of reeds hoping to spot the elusive creatures.  

So off I headed.  First I did a little wandering around Plainfield and came across a hawk standing guard over some beautiful farm fields.  It's a little blurry, but I had to include it.  

I headed out on the auto tour, totally bemused by all the beautiful flowers which shall be in another post. :)  I was happy to spot birds right away, but a little surprised to see this gorgeous Gull near one of the first rice paddies.  It looked almost like it was sitting on a nest!

Add caption

Just past it on the other side of the road was a beautiful egret stretched out in a towering pose.  

And on the next paddy was a gorgeous juvenile gull of some sort.  Perhaps a Herring Gull?  I'm not sure, but he was pretty big and definitely a looker. 

And then, right near where Yvonne had told me she saw her possible Bittern, I rounded a corner of and there it was!!  Not at all where I normally keep my eyes peeled.  He wanted me to see him!

Hi Hooman!

Amazing!  And so were the 7 or so Cattle Egrets that were hanging out just down the road as well.  

Along with a much bigger cousin! 

There were a couple brave birds in the water of the irrigation ditch along side the road and they were happy to pose for me!

On the other side of the road, another Egret and a Great Blue Heron were hanging out!

Golden hour was in full effect and this hawk was enjoying the sunset.

And OMG, this little Killdeer hanging out in the middle of the road made for a perfect photo op!

The sun was setting and (little did I know) that the gates were about to close.  I was so happy to see and hear a flock of blackbirds in the reeds and capture this beautiful silhouette in the sunset!

Then I headed for the exit.  I was startled to see many people sitting and standing on the hill around the entrance.  I literally thought I was about to be murdered and hesitated before proceeding.  

As I drove up the hill, I asked some of the people who were now walking up to the parking area what they were all looking at and was told that there is a colony of bats there that had just flown out in a magnificent cloud.

So cool!  I definitely have to go back to watch that!

And then they mentioned, that they believed the gate at the top of the hill was locked. 

Ummm, WHAT????  Sure enough.  Me and my daughter's car were locked in.  Holy shit.  When they say sunset apparently they mean as the sun dips below the horizon because that had just happened.

Another lady told me that the maintenance person had literally just driven away a minute before and pointed out a vehicle about a 1/2 mile away.  Which of course did me no good as I was LOCKED INSIDE THE GATE!

More on that in the next post!  =D

xoxo

Sony A350

Bird Spotlight - Red-Tailed Hawk, Black-Crowned Night Heron & Barn Swallow

In my last "Bird Spotlight" I posted some gorgeous Red-tailed Hawks and White-faced Ibis. And then I promptly found two more photos of a beautiful Red-tail, so I'm going to start this post of with them! 

And I'll follow up with another bird on a post.  This time an adorable and colorful Barn Swallow.  I love these vibrant little caped crusaders with their purple-blue capes and helmets and orange bodies.  Notice that these plentiful little birds have a forked tail which adds to their air of mystique. 

Our last spotlight for the day with be this Black-crowned Night Heron.  Everyone is familiar with the Great Blue Heron which is gigantic compared to these birds.  Chances are you've driven or hiked right past these little guys.  I spotted about 15 on this particular trip and one of my best memories was finding a Night Heron rookery where there were about 30 flitting from tree to tree. 

This guy was patiently waiting for some dinner to swim by. He had that vibrant red eye looking out!

Closeup 

xoxo

Nikon D600