BirdingGirl

Green-backed Lesser Goldfinch:   I was in San Jose, CA last month for a work conference- SMX West. It was great to get the latest SEO strategies and tips from the experts. I was there for 3 days, but I was so busy attending sessions I didn't have a chance to bird until the last day. It worked out better that way anyway- it was finally sunny and in the 60s for my final afternoon in San Jose when I had an hour to kill before my flight home. Although San Jose is a large city, I was confident I could find a nice city park to bird. My strategy is to plot my central location (San Jose Convention Center) on Google Maps and then zoom out until I spot a green patch. I found Guadalupe River Park, which runs throughout the city. There was an entrance just a couple blocks from the Convention Center, which was convenient. I spent some time reading the Google Place reviews, which were helpful because they made me aware that it might not be the safest place to go alone. ...

I only birded for a couple of hours in Presidio Park while in San Francisco, but I was excited to see some birds I had never seen before. Female Anna's Hummingbird: Male Anna's Hummingbird: I especially like this profile one: The hummingbirds at Presidio Park were so fun to watch. I first noticed them as I was walking down the Park Presidio Blvd. corridor of sequoia redwoods. I kept hearing this weird wheezing noise and would stop to look for the bird but couldn't find it. It wasn't until I got into the main park, near Mountain Lake , that I realized that wheezing noise was coming from the hummingbirds! I'm no expert at hummingbirds (and especially not West Coast ones) but Anna's Hummingbird was the closest match to my photos and is also very common in the Presidio Park. I also saw my first Wilson's Warbler: This was another tricky ID for me because I had trouble finding pictures where the black cap comes down the nape of its neck as you can see in the fi...