West Coast Birder
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westcoastbirder.bsky.social
West Coast Birder
@westcoastbirder.bsky.social
3.3K followers 1.4K following 820 posts
Retired engineer. Politically further left than most. Bleed Dodger blue. Splitting time between Portland, Oregon and Santa Barbara, California. All photos are my own.
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westcoastbirder.bsky.social
Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, or Alice In Chains.
July 28, 2026 at 1:22 AM
westcoastbirder.bsky.social
A snowy egret at Coal Oil Point, Santa Barbara, California.

Canon R7 + RF 100-500L.
🪶 #birds #birdphotography #california
The photo shows a snowy egret, a wading bird with a white body and wings, black beak and legs and golden feet standing in the surf on the beach in Santa Barbara, trying to catch crustaceans that are being washed up on the shore.
July 28, 2026 at 12:18 AM
westcoastbirder.bsky.social
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.
July 23, 2026 at 6:01 PM
westcoastbirder.bsky.social
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.
July 21, 2026 at 7:48 PM
westcoastbirder.bsky.social
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.
July 19, 2026 at 4:21 PM
westcoastbirder.bsky.social
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.
July 16, 2026 at 7:18 PM
westcoastbirder.bsky.social
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.
July 16, 2026 at 7:10 PM
westcoastbirder.bsky.social
variety.com/2026/film/gl...

And so it begins…. Soon, you’ll have “actors” with Brad Pitt’s looks and Jack Nicholson’s acting chops all rolled into one. No need to hire humans with their inperfections, idiosyncrasies, and demands.
Tilly Norwood to Lead New Movie ‘Misaligned,’ Marking Feature Debut for AI ‘Actor’
Tilly Norwood, the controversial AI actor, is to front her first feature film, the comedy-drama Misaligned from AI studio Particle6
variety.com
July 6, 2026 at 7:45 PM
westcoastbirder.bsky.social
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.
July 4, 2026 at 3:13 PM
westcoastbirder.bsky.social
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.
July 3, 2026 at 7:26 PM
westcoastbirder.bsky.social
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.
July 3, 2026 at 5:35 PM
westcoastbirder.bsky.social
That sound great. Now how about actually starting to call traveling like the rules say?

www.espn.com/nba/story/_/...
One free throw rule, embedded ball tech test set for summer league
The NBA summer league will test the one free throw rule that has been tested in the G League, as well as embedded sensors in basketballs during July's summer league series.
www.espn.com
July 2, 2026 at 9:27 PM
westcoastbirder.bsky.social
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.
July 1, 2026 at 9:22 PM
westcoastbirder.bsky.social
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
June 29, 2026 at 6:12 PM
westcoastbirder.bsky.social
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.
June 28, 2026 at 6:20 AM
westcoastbirder.bsky.social
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.
June 27, 2026 at 4:25 PM
westcoastbirder.bsky.social
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.
June 27, 2026 at 4:14 PM
westcoastbirder.bsky.social
Northern mockingbird in Goleta, California.

Photographed with a Canon R7 and the RF 100-500L.
Northern mockingbird perched on a snag.
June 21, 2026 at 1:40 AM
westcoastbirder.bsky.social
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.
June 21, 2026 at 12:54 AM
westcoastbirder.bsky.social
A friend just pointed out to me that Trump signed the Iran deal at Versailles. You can’t make this shit up!
June 18, 2026 at 1:49 AM
westcoastbirder.bsky.social
Wow, what a huge loss. 😢

www.cnn.com/2026/02/21/e...
Salsa legend Willie Colón dies at age 75, family says | CNN
American salsa legend Willie Colon, the pioneering trombonist, vocalist and composer, died on Saturday at age 75, his family said in a statement.
www.cnn.com
February 24, 2026 at 3:11 AM
westcoastbirder.bsky.social
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.
January 28, 2026 at 4:21 PM
westcoastbirder.bsky.social
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).
January 27, 2026 at 5:55 PM
westcoastbirder.bsky.social
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.
January 27, 2026 at 5:43 AM
westcoastbirder.bsky.social
My son is a senior at Harvard. This week, he finished his finals and left campus with his friends on a short vacation trip. 50 miles to the south, Brown students were sitting for their exams too, except the outcome couldn’t have been more different. As a country, we have totally lost the plot. 😭
December 14, 2025 at 8:49 AM