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The Broad-billed Hummingbird is an extremely rare vagrant to California from its regular distribution in Mexico and Southeast Arizona. This staked-out individual has been present and visiting these feeders for about a week.

A complete checklist of birds seen can be found here:

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S40194860

First found on July 16th, this Parakeet Auklet is one of the very few living individuals ever reported from the California mainland. It was observed over the course of an hour and was repeatedly seen being chased by Pigeon Guillemots.

This female American Black Bear and her two cubs were seen on a hillside above Hurricane Ridge Road. They were observed for about 15 minutes while the adult ate grasses and roots and the cubs explored around her.

These Metepeira are extremely common at this time of year in the California Buckwheat brush along the Balconies Cave Trail. Several specimens were collected and ID'd last year as part of the Pinnacles Spider Inventory, but these are the first living ones to be photographed in the park. They were identified using Levi's 1977 key to the genus and are distinguished by their entirely dark sternums, pale coxae, and the structure of their reproductive organs. When these pictures were taken, each of the half dozen retreats examined were occupied by both a male and female.

Several of these stinkhorns were found growing in a clearing beneath acacia trees. They were covered in ants and small flies and the caps on two of them were starting to rot (and live up to their odoriferous names!)

This was one of four bull Elk seen resting on a distant hillside. Three herds of Elk were seen over the course of three days, both in the grasslands of the peninsula and in the chaparral along Limantour Rd.

At dusk, at least a dozen calling Common Nighthawks were swarming together and feeding above a brushy field.

Despite the blurriness of the pictures, the placement of the white wing bar near the bend of the wing is clearly evident and while not recorded, their "Peeent!" calls were a constant refrain.

Was up in Denton to give a grass presentation to the Trinity Forks chapter NPSOT, and I stopped by South Lakes Park to look for some grasses. :) As usual, there were lots of other cool critters and plants to observe!

Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis)

16 April 2016
E. Lone Oak Road
Valley View, Cooke County, Texas

A half dozen Cattle Egrets were foraging amongst a fenced herd of some forty head of cattle that included both older cows and younger calves. On our way elsewhere we stopped to take a few pics. This observation presents six of these pics. In North Texas Cattle Egret is found year-round and it breeds in the region as well. While hardly present in Canada, Cattle Egret is widely present in the United States, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and on into most of South America. Cattle Egret is an authentic resident of the Western Hemisphere.

Source: "Cattle Egret," All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, range map, photographs, description, resources, accessed 4.16.16, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Cattle_Egret/id

This individual was found by @karinakilldeer at around 9:00 in the riparian while on a spider collecting trip as part of the Pinnacles Spider Inventory.

This individual was collected and its identification confirmed under permit from the NPS.

Now more than 48 hours of continuous rain. Sure wish we could get some of this in Texas! I sit on the covered deck here or at another nearby location and take photos of wet birds or look for moths on the wall.

Rancho Easley
near Rancho Naturalista
Cartago Province,
Costa Rica
10 February 2016
9.8303
-83.5630
3138 ft elevation