March continued to be very busy for both of us. It’s the month of the spring break, and we did take a few days off to travel to California. We met some good friends, had great food and of course spent most of our time birding! We ended up with zillions of images, but it might not be a great idea to include all of them in a blog titled “Oklahoma Diaries”! To be honest, we haven’t got any time to edit much of these images anyway as we got swamped with work as soon as we returned. Here are a few examples of what we saw in California. We look forward to sharing many more images that we are excited about. Meanwhile, we hope that these bright orange poppies make your day a little more vibrant!
Poppy blooms along the central California coast.
Poppies were everywhere.
The slope towards this beach was vibrant with wildflower blooms and the beach was full of beautiful pebbles!
Standing tall against the blue ocean.
Pollen bed - a close up.
A Snowy Egret nicely framed by some waterside bloom!
California Poppy soaked in the dew and ready to spread its petals. Mornings were chilly, followed by bright sunny days!
It was worth spending a morning taking a stroll at a relaxed pace along the central CA shores full of wildflowers. The White-crowned Sparrows were singing their heart out (cover image). Grounds squirrels, otters, nesting Pelagic cormorants, Pigeon Guillemot and Brown Pelicans flying around kept us entertained. A Canada Goose seemed to be on the nest… A nest with some wonderful views!
Canada Goose on its nest.
If Pratyay has to pick one favorite critter from California, it has to be the sea otter! We didn’t have good luck with lighting on these otters this time, but it’s always so fun to watch them do their thing. Here’s one chilling at the bay.
Sreemala’s favorite bird Black-necked Stilt. Always so elegant!
Something different here! The Wingmates busy caprturing each other? Not really. More like photographing sea critters!
Back in Oklahoma, we spent one evening at our favorite local lake watching and photographing a beautiful sunset. Sunsets like these always bring such calmness at the end of a hectic day.
Some nice cloud cover during sunset.
American Coot family heading home after one last feeding session for the day.
The absolute last glow of the sunset. You might have to look really hard to see the Coots from the previous image at the middle of this frame. The previous image was taken at focal length 500mm, and this one is at 16mm.
The weather is finally getting warmer after some cold spells during February and March. There is no doubt that spring has arrived! Little wildflowers are popping up everywhere. Henbits were the first to show up, and now the tiny little field pansies are popping up on our lawn. I don’t care too much about the grasses, and let the lawn be “weedy” during this time of the year. We had amazing blooms of pink evening primroses last year. Let’s see what works this year! Of course, some neighbors are not very happy about our yard being “weedy”, but at least we don’t have a home-owners’ association!
Field Pansies are popping up.
Spring in Oklahoma can be very windy. Weather forecast often casually says “a tornado or two are expected”. Hot and windy days are the worst for wildfires as we are seeing several in recent times. Hope they don’t cause too much damage.
Over the next month, we will be looking forward to more spring blooms and our favorite birds, the Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, arriving in numbers. Hope to bring more images to you next month.