Snowy Egret - Morro Bay Birding

As part of the 5-day California Photo Festival, I enjoyed an early morning photo trek to attempt to capture the soft pink light just before sunrise with Juan Pons and others.  The clouds of the past several days didn't show up... and we experienced the pink glow of dawn on the mudflats of Morro Bay.

This Snowy Egret provided an excellent subject as the tide was coming in... a fantastic way to begin the day!

 

SNOWY EGRET - early morning pink light

 

Common Cuckoo - LIFER!

This afternoon I went to Ramsey Park in Watsonville, CA... to hopefully observe a very rare bird for California or even for the entire lower 48 states in the USA!    Three days ago birders had spotted a COMMON CUCKOO in the willows along the slough.  This bird is normally found across Europe, and from Siberia to Kamchatka and Japan; winters to southern Africa... yet a bird of this species was being observed here in California.

It didn't take me long to find the group of other birders looking in the trees along the pathway... so there were plenty of eyes looking to re-find the target bird. Within 45 minutes, we had re-found the bird... down low in the branches just above the water.  Frantic looking and pointing, and eventually everyone in the group was able to see the bird!   Yea!

I got the bird and a photo!   A new LIFER for my Lifelist!   Yea!!

COMMON CUCKOO