BIRDWATCHING: Theodore Payne Foundation, King Gillette Ranch

I'm actively going on bird walks to discover new places around LA to be outdoors.

The Theodore Payne Foundation, set against the hills in Sun Valley, does exemplary work educating Angelenos about landscaping, and supplying native plants to the LA Basin. 

The day I chose, to join a bird walk, there were only 3 of us, and "Ken", or "Emperor Ken", as he refers to himself on his website, led the walk.  He's Ken Gilliland, well known for his work in the film industry doing 3-D bird modeling, and his commitment to birds and habitat. 

Ken led us about, and in a low-key and easy way, told stories about the birds we saw - giving equal time to commonly sighted birds as well as expertly IDing little gray sparrows and bird songs.

Did you know scrub jays hold funerals for a member?  They gather together for a day and "talk" about the individual.  Who knew?

Sooty Sparrow

Golden-crowned sparrow

California Thrasher

Yellow-Dumped "Audubon's" Warbler

Pine siskins are about this time of year, too - will watch and try not to confuse them with this delightful bird, an yellow-rumped warbler, plentiful in the laurel-sumac bushes.

Nice to know the name of these common little fellows I see about on almost every walk.

White Crowned Sparrow

Sunday I went on a walk at the King Gillette Ranch, a wonderful Santa Monica mountains location before the hills' rise. The buildings were designed by Wallace Neff, a famous regional architect, and among other functions, was a Claretian monastery for some years. Finally it was purchased by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and became a magnificent public park.

acorn woodpecker

  An oak woodland area, it is primo for woodpeckers.  I used to love seeing them in Wisconsin as a child, taking them as a common sighting, loving the sound of pecking as new storage holes were fashioned to store acorns.  Scott, the birdwalk leader, told the group (65+), about social structure in acorn woodpecker families, and their use of granary trees, even building in redundancy if one granary fails by storing extra in a different location.  

Nuttall's woodpecker

Later, we got a very good view of a Nuttall's woodpecker as well - a distinctive ladder back pattern, but not to be confused with a ladder-back, which is a desert bird.   

Oak titmouse

 This oak titmouse I found by myself, on the bridge where a brush-covered slope permits passerines to approach the water from cover and then quickly fly back.

Lincoln's sparrow looks a bit like a white-crowned, will have to look further to feel like I really "own" this species.

American Widgeon

Among the plentiful mallards mucking about in the vivid green duckgrass, Scott found this duck, one I'd seen before up at the bird marshes, but was pleased to see again, my second special seasonal duck sighting.

 Last, a group of us watched female western bluebirds, almost indistingable, they were so dull, flying back and forth from utility wire to ground, brunching on insects.  Glad the bird leader told us what they were - this ID I will work on too.

It's lovely to catch the bright blue of a male if the sun is right.  Unforgettable blue, like a jay, or some blue fish.  Even the cinema cannot render for us that neon flashing glory color. 

We also saw mule deer and unexpectedly lovely, a pair of buckeye butterflies.