Corvids

Crows are actualy pretty common at Lake Merrit, but they're even harder to photograph than Goldeneyes. They just hate it when you look at them. Maybe they're embarassed to be such a goth symbol when they just want to frolic in the daisies.

They prefer when they can glare disdainfully at you from the safety of a tree.

I also spotted a pair of ravens up in Redwood. One of the pair took up the traditional "mock-humans-from-a-tree" post, while the other one...

...did some strange jumping jacks near a picnic table.







It hopped up and down several times, gworked, and flew away.

But the winner of "Best Recent Corvid Picture" goes to Judy, who went on location to the Grand Canyon:

I read Bernd Heinrich's Mind of a Raven... I think this one might be showing a bit of the "fuzzy head" he describes as being typical of a bird being submissive. And look, here you can even see its niticating membrane (the bluish eye) as it blinks.


Both of these behaviors (blinking and fuzzy head) at the same time, plus a sound called "knocking," might indicate a female. Hard to know for sure though without more context; I'm no expert!

Uccelli Roma

Last month I went to Italy--Rome for a few days, then a week and a half in Sicily. I knew the birdwatching wouldn't be stellar, but I had hopes of seeing at least some common birds that were unfamiliar to me. Heck, even the house sparrow has an Italian version that's all redheaded and crazylooking.

In Rome, I found plentiful evidence that birds had been seen in the past, at least by sculptors:




Hmm, on second thought I kind of doubt anyone saw this whale-bird.

Aaaand unless there were some sculptors observing during the Permian (age of 8 foot scorpions), they probably never saw a peacock THIS big:

On Palatine Hill I managed to find some live-action birds doing a love scene:


Unexpectedly, there was also a small flock of parrots hanging out there. They reminded me of the parrots I see in the Presidio. I don't know my parrots, but I think this is probably a Monk Parakeet. What's the difference between a parrot and a parakeet? DNA. How could a parrot-keet live in a non-tropical location? Well, Rome's not exactly cold, and there's plenty of tourist trash to eat. Also the berries from this tree, which looks like it's a yew.

Hooded crows were also ubiquitous throughout Rome. In fact this was the first kind of bird I saw after landing--perched along the roadside enroute from the airport.


Once we reached Sicily, there was still more artistic evidence that sometime in the past, it was inhabited by grotesque, bug-eyed eagles:

And some human-swan horse-swan hybrids:

In search of actual, living birds, we journeyed to one of Sicily's giant regional parks: Madonie. On the way we stopped at a tiny town called Castelbuono, which was inhabited quite picturesquely by a flock of what I think were crag martins:


They taunted me, perching on nooks in the sheer wall and poking their little heads out.

Also enjoying the nooks of Castelbuono was a big flock of jackdaws. They look like stubby-faced crows. Later on, we saw them perched along the highway, hundreds of them, but all spaced out in pairs.
Another common bird was the collared dove, seen here mooning the photographer with its distinctive white tailfeathers.

Finally, we made our way to an actual wildlife reserve, Vendicari, where we hoped to see the thousands of flamingoes that winter there. Alas, they hadn't arrived yet, but we spotted a few other friends, including this guy, which I think is a redshank:


We didn't find my dream bird (the hoopoe). We asked our host at a bed and breakfast we stayed at about it, but he didn't know the word "upupo." Then I tried to describe it as similar to a parrot, with a crest. He thought we meant the "ghiandaia," (literally "acornist") (turns out that is a jay), and explained that during this time of year they are all up in the mountains eating olives. Something to look for next time, I guess!