West Coast Birder

@westcoastbirder

Retired engineer. Politically further left than most. Bleed Dodger blue. Splitting time between Portland, Oregon and Santa Barbara, California. All photos are my own.

1,351 Following3,225 Followers821 Posts

YouTube Bluesky

Is this your profile?Claim it and westcoastbirder.dirty.social is yours.Claim profile

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· 22d

A black phoebe with a snack. At the lagoon on the UCSB campus, Santa Barbara, California. R7 + RF 100-500L 🪶 #birds #birdphotography #california

The image shows a black phoebe, a small brown passerine bird in the flycatcher family, perched on a tree stump with a butterfly in its mouth. Phoebes are insectivores.

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· 24d

En garde! Little bro vs. big bro..... whimbrel and curlew at Santa Barbara, CA. Canon R7 + RF 100-500L. 🪶 #birds #birdphotography #california

The photo shows a whimbrel and a long-billed curlew, two shorebirds in the larger curlew family. The birds are facing each other with one behind the other such that their long bills cross each other like fencers crossing swords.

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· 26d

The Heerman's gull is a striking bird. This one posed for me nicely. Devereaux Beach, Santa Barbara, California. Canon R7 + RF 100-500L. 🪶 #birds #birdphotography #california

The photo shows a Heerman's gull on the sand at the beach in Santa Barbara California. The gull has a grey and white body with a white head and a striking orange bill with black legs. It is standing facing left while turning its head to the right.

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· 27d

2/n Colin Thubron - In Siberia. Excellent as always from Thubron. Written in 1999 in a very pessimistic time in Russia. The book reflects it. Absolutely amazing writing in the last chapter on Kolyma. I’ve read Solzhenitsyn, Shalamov, Ginzburg. This chapter belongs with them. Recommended.

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· 29d

1/n I want to put the phone down and read more in the rest of 2026, so I thought I would start a thread to keep track of how I do. I will share the books I read as I finish them. First for 2H2026 - a book I have been meaning to read for a long time. Pico Iyer's "The Lady and the Monk." Excellent!

Cover of Pico Iyer's The Lady and the Monk.

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· 29d

A pair of whimbrels in flight over Devereaux Beach, Santa Barbara, California. 🪶 #birds #birdphotography #california

The photo shows a pair of whimbrels, a shorebird with a long beak that they use to search for crustaceans in the sand, in flight over the blue waters of the Santa Barbara Channel on a sunny day.

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· Jul 4

I wrote this a while ago. Perhaps it may offer you some solace. ❤️

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· Jul 4

I'm smol and cute! ❤️ Snowy plover (Anarhynchus nivosus) in the golden light at Coal Oil Point, Santa Barbara, California. The California population is seriously threatened by habitat loss and great efforts are being made to rope off their nesting locations which are among tussocks of beach grass.

The photo shows the snowy plover, a shorebird, standing in the sand in the golden light of the setting sun. It is looking away partially, showing off its plumage.

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· Jul 3

A couple of Heerman's gulls soar over a turquoise-blue sea off Santa Barbara, California. 🪶 #birds #birdphotography #california

The photo shows two Heerman's gulls flying over the ocean in Santa Barbara, California. The water is a beautiful turquoise on a sunny day.

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· Jul 3

A little yoga on the beach! Long-billed curlew in Santa Barbara, California. 🪶 #birds #birdphotography #california

The photo shows a long-billed curlew, a shorebird, standing on one leg on the beach in Santa Barbara, California, while looking sideways.

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· Jul 1

The long-billed curlew is a bird that truly lives up to its name. Photographed at Devereaux Beach in Santa Barbara, California. 🪶 #birds #birdphotography

The photograph shows a long-billed curlew, a bird that has an unusually long bill. It is standing at the seashore right at the waterlline, where it uses its bill to find crustaceans in the wet sand.

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· Jun 29

The cliff above Campus Point on the SE corner of the UCSB campus is covered with dead birds. Don’t click on the photos if you are squeamish. I’ve seen the odd dead bird before but not 20-30 of them. Not sure if this heat blob related die off. Any expert here who can shed light? 🪶 #birds

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· Jun 28

The scaly-breasted munia is a South Asian native but a resident population has established itself in Southern California. They love hanging out among the grasses and eating the seeds. Photographed in Santa Barbara, California with the Canon R5 and the EF 600mm F/4 lens. 🪶 #birds

The photo shows a scaly-breasted munia, a small passerine bird with a brown upper part and a white and brown scaly underside. It is sitting on a stalk of grass and eating the seeds.

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· Jun 27

I live 10 minutes from the ocean and since I retired, I walk a lot on the beach. Yesterday, the water was an amazing shade of turquoise. The ocean is like a living thing - it changes colors and moods every day. But even when it seems out of sorts, it never fails to put a smile on my face. ❤️

The photo shows a bay with turquoise colored water a sunny afternoon in Santa Barbara, California.

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· Jun 27

I love watching pelicans fly by on the beach. Such majestic birds! Photographed in Santa Barbara, California. Canon R7 + RF100-500L. #birds

The photo shows a brown pelican flying over the ocean with its wings in a downward beat, the primary feathers almost touching the water.

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· Jun 21

Northern mockingbird in Goleta, California. Photographed with a Canon R7 and the RF 100-500L.

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· Jun 21

I walk for a couple of hours on the beach every day. It was gorgeous today, 70F/21C. The ocean was impossibly blue. Days like this remind me that while strife in the world will ebb and flow, Mother Earth remains gorgeous beyond compare. Go out and enjoy each day like it is your last, my friends!❤️

Blue waters of the ocean off Santa Barbara, California.

Surfers catching a break off Campus Point, Santa Barbara, California.

The waves roll in on the beach in Santa Barbara.

The beach at Campus Point in Santa Barbara.

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· Jan 28

White tailed eagle in Rausu, Hokkaido Japan. Really pleased with how this came out - I usually don't make prints, but I think I'll print and frame this one.

The photo shows a white tailed eagle, a large raptor that lives all over temperate Eurasia, soaring over the sea. The photo was taken in Rausu, a fishing village in Hokkaido, Japan.

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· Jan 27

Eurasian tree sparrow in Rausu, Hokkaido Japan. These fluff balls are tough little creatures - they remind me of our own black-capped chickadees that survive winters in the boreal forest in North America. It was 8F (-13C) that morning in Rausu when I took the photo. Click on photo for full size.

The photo shows a Eurasian tree sparrow sitting on a branch in Rausu, Hokkaido Japan. The bird has its feathers fluffed out because it was a very chilly morning in Rausu with temperature of 8F (-13C).

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· Jan 27

Just got back from Japan and managed to sneak off to Hokkaido for a couple of days to see Steller's sea eagles. Still processing all my images but here is a quick view of the two eagle species on the ice - white tailed in the foreground and Steller's. Amazing how much bigger the Steller's are! 🦉🦅

Image shows a group of eagles sitting on drift ice in the Sea of Okhotsk off Hokkaido. In the foreground is a white tailed eagle and in the background are several Steller's sea eagles.

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· Mar 27

Pied-billed grebe in the UC Santa Barbara campus lagoon. The area around Campus Point and the lagoon is an extremely productive birding location. Easy to get 50+ species on a 2-hour birding walk around there. #birds 🦉 Canon R7 + RF100-500L.

The image shows a pied-billed grebe, a waterbird somewhat like a small duck (but not in the duck family) floating on the water. It is a small brown bird with a striped beak.

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· Mar 25

It is spring time and the red winged blackbird males are on full display with their epaulets and their song. Here is a magnificent specimen, photographed in Goleta, California. Click on photo for larger image. Canon R7 + RF100-500L. #birds 🦉

The photo shows a red winged blackbird, a small North American passerine (perching) bird with black plumage and red and yellow epaulets, perched on a shrub.

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· Mar 24

Post a warning.

A sign on a gasoline pump in Goleta California exhorts customers to remember to remove the gasoline nozzle and hose from the car’s gas tank opening before driving off.

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· Mar 24

Spring is here. The weather is gorgeous in my little corner of paradise and the California poppies are in riotous bloom! 🌿 #Nativeplants

The photo shows some California poppies, a native plant with yellow/orange flowers. Photographed in Santa Barbara.

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· Mar 19

Can confirm. I just asked the same question and Grok replied with this. A bit more verbose but essentially the same answer.

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· Feb 20

I sympathize with every individual’s predicament, but should I file this under the “voted for the leopard eating face party, surprised when leopard eats his face” file?

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· Feb 19

Semipalmated plover (Charadrius semipalmatus) at Devereux Beach, Goleta, California. Canon R7 + RF 100-500L. #birds 🪶🦉

The photo shows a semipalmated plover, a small shorebird, on Devereux Beach, Goleta California. It is called semipalmated because the webbing on its feet only extend halfway up its toes.

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· Feb 18

Long billed curlew at Devereux Beach, Goleta California. I love watching these birds use their amazing bills with the skill and precision of a surgeon wielding a scalpel. Canon R7 + RF 100-500L. 🪶#birds

The photo shows a long billed curlew, a shore bird with an extremely long bill. Photographed in Goleta California.

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· Jan 26

If you see this quote with flowers from your gallery. 🌿 #nativeplants This is my photo of wildflowers on Skyline Trail in that most beautiful of places, Mt. Rainier NP.

The photo shows a stream running from left to right in the foreground, surrounded by wildflower meadows. Mt. Rainier is in the background. The photo was taken in Mt. Rainier NP.

West Coast Birder@westcoastbirder· Jan 24

I switched from sunflower seeds to safflower seeds for my backyard feeders last season. They are just as nutritious from what I have read but considerably less expensive but the birds seem to love them just the same. A male house finch partaking of the bounty. Canon R7 + RF100-500L #birds 🪶🦉