So I had one of those amazing birding encounters I get maybe 1-2 x / year. I went for a walk at #YoloBypass and got in my car and was driving out through some of the rice fields when I saw what was a pretty big bird in front of a bush. I couldn't tell what it was at first. 1/n
Then it turned around and, even with the incredible camouflage, I could tell it was an owl. At first I was not sure what kind. I kind of caught me off guard. 2/n
And so I took a bunch of pics as it sort of hid there. It eventually went into the bush and I lost track of it. So I waited. I then noticed some other birds nearby. Cool. Horned larks. More on them later. 3/n
And still the owl did not come out of the bush. I did not want to disturb it but decided to get out of my car (I was taking pictures out of the passenger window from the driver's seat). As I got out of my car a hawk took off right next to me on the other side of the road. 4/n
Then I turned my attention back to the owl and the bush. And alas, it seemed like the owl was gone. I took some pics of some harriers flying overhead. 5/n
And then noticed the horned larks again and walked out into the field to get some more pics of them. Pretty cool birds. 6/n
And then. Boom. Out of the bush. A short eared owl emerged. And I got some good pics of it in flight before it landed nearby. I have only seem this species a few times. So cool. 7/n
And it landed and I got some really nice pics of it on the ground too. 8/n
The harriers I had seen earlier kept flying pretty close by overhead and the owl was checking them out. 9/n
But eventually they headed off and the owl went back to just hanging out. 10/n
And eventually it took off again. And this time I got even better pics of it in flight. 11/n
What an experience.
Oh, and, though I am always on the lookout for birds, I actually had gone out today to get pics of Sacramento and the Sierra since it was so clear out

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Jonathan Eisen

Jonathan Eisen Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @phylogenomics

28 Dec 20
Ruby crowned kinglet near Lake Berryessa, CA
Plus a ruby crowned kinglet later in the dat at the @ucdavis Riparian Preserve
Yellow dumped warbler at the @ucdavis Riparian Preserve
Read 6 tweets
22 May 20
Mature
Sciency
PLUS ONE
Read 12 tweets
17 May 20
Reading: Scientists shouldn't rule out lab as source of coronavirus, new study says newsweek.com/scientists-sho… - personally I do not find the analysis in this new paper remotely convincing 1/n
Summary of paper: they infer many things about possible evolution of SARS-CoV-2 (the new virus) from genome analysis and from comparison to similar analyses done on SARS-CoV (the original SARS) see preprint biorxiv.org/content/10.110… 2/n
They do some detailed analyses of genomic diversity, evolution, substitution patterns and more, some of which seems interesting, certainly. However, I am concerned with both some of the methods used and more importantly how they make inferences from the comparisons they did 3/n
Read 24 tweets
9 Mar 20
This does not seem like a good plan: "Sacramento County Announces New Mitigation Efforts COVID-19" shar.es/aHbrut #COVID19 #Coronavirus - especially the plan to shift from containment to mitigation #Sacramento cc: @sacbee_news 1/n
It is one thing to say we need to do mitigation, but there is no doubt that containment & slowing progression is still important so ditching quarantine for contact at this point seems to misguided, especially due to the still limited testing #COVID19 #Coronavirus #Sacramento 2/n
Serious though - people dealing with #COVID19 #Coronavirus is there any justification for #Sacramento County to say they will be not doing any type of quarantine for people who have been exposed?
Read 13 tweets
15 Feb 20
Coming up next at #aaas2020 #aaasmtg THE @marynmck
Am wondering if @marynmck Willm be discussing Chicken - because there is a big Grill sign in the corner #AAAS2020 #aaasmtg
And now - finally @marynmck is up - discussing antibiotic resistance #AAAS2020 #aaasmtg
Read 30 tweets
21 Jan 20
I have vowed this year to make sure I focus a little bit more on my mental health & one of the ways I am doing that is by trying to embrace / enjoy the natural world; to give me a little push in doing that I am trying to post daily observations to @inaturalist #DailyiNat 1/n
So far I have done this 1/1 - 1/20 - see my @inaturalist Calendar here inaturalist.org/calendar/phylo… but I did run into a challenge last week - I got summoned for jury duty and ended up being selected as an alternate juror - trial still ongoing #DailyiNat 2/n
Although this made getting out a bit complicated but I did pull it off - Monday was easy - told in AM we had day off & had to come back Tu so, since I had cleared out schedule & worked all day Saturday and Sunday I took off for a few hours inaturalist.org/calendar/phylo… #DailyiNat 3/n
Read 9 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!