Flycatcher at Butano State Park

Fall has come to the Bay Area as slightly chilly air. We can all feel it; it's very exciting.

Yesterday we headed to Butano State Park in Pescadero, CA. There weren't many birds, but the clear sky allowed for some beautiful photos.

I really like these trees because of all the layers. They look like they're peeling year round.

We headed to the forest in the hopes of finding some chickadees or nuthatches. I heard lots of birds, but didn't get to see them.

There was evidence of spiders.

I learned not to leave my camera unattended because it could be used to take funny pictures of me.

I did see a new flycatcher. I believe that this is a Cordilleran Flycatcher.

There are eight kinds of flycatchers in Northern California, but only half of them have the triangle shaped top. The only two that have both the triangle shaped top and the eye ring are Pacific-sloped Flycatchers and Cordilleran Flycatchers. It appears that the Pacific-sloped Flycatchers have less of a triangle and are smaller, but many sources say the birds are visually identical and only distinguishable by sound.

Below, the triangle part on his head is even more raised!

I think the picture below is a Pacific-sloped Flycatcher from another part of Pescadero, CA, but it could be a Dusky Flycatcher. If anyone has a different opinion, please comment. I'm still learning.

It is so hard to tell the difference. GrrlScientist posted a picture of a flycatcher last week that she identifies as a Willow Flycatcher, but I swear is a Gray Flycatcher or at least some kind of hybrid. The bird has eyerings, which are associated with Gray Flycatchers and not Willow Flycatchers. I'm planning on getting a more detailed field guide soon that I hope will help with these identifications.

Warbling Vireo

Do you know how many grey birds there are in San Francisco? There are flycatchers.

There are bushtits.

And there are vireos!

This is a Warbling Vireo. You can tell the difference between a Warbling Vireo and other types by the faint line that goes from the right of his eye to the back of his head.

They can be hard to capture because they move around so much. According to my guidebook, their song is "iggly wiggly iggly piggly iggly eek!"

I was lucky to get these three shots.

Babies!!!

I went to the marine preserve this weekend, and the place was filled with babies!!! I found a bush filled with baby flycatchers and sat taking pictures of them for 30 minutes. I finally captured some good pictures.


This is a dusky flycatcher.


Below is a gray flycatcher. This baby was very curious and too young to know that I'm dangerous. He came within three feet of me. After a few minutes, his mother came by and fed him!!! I wasn't sure if he was the same bird as the one above, because they came out of the same bush, and the lighting was different. But if you look at the beak, the bird in the picture on top has a beak that is curved at the tip.
This guy looks to be a baby flycatcher as well. I think he's younger than the others because he's incredibly puffy. But the barbs on the wings and the beak suggest that he's a gray flycatcher. He was in another bush, just preening.

In this picture, the baby chickadee is on the bottom and the parent is on top. It's not a great picture, but I like it because the baby looks so huge with all the puffy feathers and the big warm belly. Baby chickadees make a remarkable amount of noise. The entire tree was filled with baby chickadees. The whole town seems to be covered in baby chickadees. These were taken yesterday and today, I was standing outside in the middle of errands and noticed that all the trees had baby chickadees making racket and flying around.

Spring is the best time of year!