Urban Vultures

On my morning jog through the neighborhood I noticed that a group of turkey vultures (or buzzards as they're known locally) had set up housekeeping on a tree above a neighbor's house.

In the past I've only seen them far from urban areas. Verrry interesting!

Calipepla californica

I never tire of observing these prima donnas; they always seem to be posing for the next photo shoot.

Dancing Blackbird

I observed a strange thing recently. I was stopped at a red light and a male blackbird landed beside the vehicle and began to perform a bizarre little dance. Then, just just seconds after he began, about a dozen or more of his group appeared and began to feed on some grain spilled on the roadside.

He was, apparently, telling all the gang about his "find". I didn't find anything online about this type of blackbird behavior; and it's left me wondering if anyone else has seen this and written about it.

Clouds

With watercolor sometimes it is fun to just free-form some clouds, and see where it goes.

Open Edition Print Calendar: Persimmon Harvest

This scrub jay and mockingbird are just a few among the many characters who are partaking of this last gasp of the persimmon tree. It's really a great opportunity to get some terrific photos.