I went to the South Bay to look at birds, but, unfortunately, I couldn't get any decent photos because they were a bit far away. Above is a photo of a massive pile of willets and godwits molting. Some of them are still in breeding colors.
The stilts liked to hang out in their own section.
The resident peregrine falcon flew by and harassed everyone before catching something from one of the berms.
It looks like a cliff swallow who had been out getting bugs for his babies and I think he was still alive and stunned:
The falcon went behind a berm, but then I saw him jump up a few minutes later and give a couple of hard hits to a small raptor that I couldn't identify. I think it was a kestrel or a Cooper's hawk who begged for mercy from the falcon and left the area. Next time I saw the falcon, its talons were empty, so the swallow may have gotten away during the dispute between the two raptors.
A lot of the willets and godwits went into the middle of the water.
Then, they began to go back to their roosting area:
I have been practicing digiscoping for quite a while and haven't gotten the hang of it at all. I think I'm going to have to use a different scope for that. Here's a digiscoped photo of the willets. Even though I had both the camera and the scope well focused, the photos came out blurry. I think the eye relief on my inexpensive scope is not good enough for this. All the photos have this kind of fuzz on it. I will keep practicing as I can't get a new scope right now. I might try a smaller camera, too.
Willets climbing up on a berm:
Why did the willets cross the road?
To look at the stilts in the grass:
There was also a pretty good fire going inland near Sweetwater reservoir about fifteen miles away, but it was mostly out within an hour or so.
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