Birding while ill ...

OK so am pretty sick with bronchitis and such.  But I had to get out.  So I went for a brief birding outing, mostly in my car (I walked around a bit here and there).  I went to Yolo Bypass and then drove briefly around rural Davis on the way home.

I posted some of the pics to iNaturalist.

See https://www.inaturalist.org/calendar/phylogenomics/2019/12/15

Posted the best pics to Smugmug.  See here

The benefits of having a #traildesk #iNaturalist #Birds #BirdPhotography #Yolo

Yesterday I had seven meetings or interviews for work which were by phone and one which had to be in person.

So I decided to do the phone calls at what I call my "trail desk." That is, I do the call while out walking around and/or birding and/or at least doing something outdoors.  Sometimes I have to sit down and look at my phone to see someone's slides or google doc but most of the time I can do things just as well when walking.  And taking pictures every once in a while.

Basically I drove to a few different spots around the #DavisCA area that I like including the Davis Wetlands and Yolo Bypass and did calls from there. Here are some of the better pics I took during these calls.  I also posted a bunch of these and others to iNaturalist.  See here: https://www.inaturalist.org/calendar/phylogenomics/2019/8/16 (where you can find IDs for things and locations).

Bats at Yolo Bypass and a very very very fast visitor .. #NikonD500, #Bats #YoloBypass #PeregrineFalcon

Went out to see the bats of Yolo Bypass tonight and was not disappointed.  

Got to the entrance around 7:45 and since this was 45 minutes before sunset and the bats were supposed to come out around sunset I went into the park for a few minutes to tool around.

Got a few pics of flowers, birds and Sacramento









And then headed back out b/c they lock the gate at sunset. I parked on the levee outside the gate and got out my camera gear and set up awaiting the bats. The bats came out just after the sun went down. A person there said that yesterday they came out 10 minutes before sunset.

And they streamed out ... and it was awesome to behold.

But then came the even more awesome stuff ...

A shadow of a thought.  

It was a peregrine.  I did not get great pics but got some OK ones (my lens is not good in low light).  And it did catch and eat a few bats on the wing.  And then headed off.

And then it headed out and the bats came back.