June 24, 2012 Balmy and sunny today. I spent a couple of hours with Cleve Nash getting some shots of young gulls just out of the nest. The adult falcons have had a banquet with them, but in a few weeks they will be too big to carry. The only juvenile that I have seen at the rock is Solo chasing Mom and Dad on the north face. He has picked up his mother’s habit of harassing vultures and getting quite good. I can see the south side young with the spotting scope sometimes, off on a distant dune of the sandspit, but it’s a long way off.
I talked to some birders this morning that had seen both Lazuli and Indigo Buntings on Turri Ranch Road near the windmill. Also peregrines, adult and juvenile, near the heron rookery.
The photo of the Indigo Bunting is by Roger Zachary, one of the counties foremost birders.
Beautiful bird!