By the way, I just arrived home for the holidays, in the southern peninsular area of the San Francisco Bay Area.

I didn’t even really try to go birdwatching, but this neighborhood is so filled with birds that you can catch sight of a dozen species without even trying. I missed some small species flitting around in trees and couldn’t identify, as well as a few mid-sized ones, but just by pointing the camera easily in a few directions I got these birds:

First, what is probably an Anna’s Hummingbird, but hard to tell because it stayed up in a tree and there was too much contrast to get many details. I asked my dad to put up a hummingbird feeder, and this one actually staked the feeder as his/her own, chasing off other hummers that tried to feed there–but he himself/she herself fed only infrequently.

Also on a wire nearby was a Mourning Dove, a bird I recall well from childhood. They often make a “mournful” hoo-hooting call when they take off in flight. I guess that they are kind of the equivalent of a Eurasian Turtledove in Japan, except this dove is more common to find.

From a treetop fairly far away I saw a bird take off and snapped this quick long-shot; it’s probably a red-tailed hawk, though it might be a bit small for that–but definitely a bird of prey of some sort.

And finally, a bird I don’t recall seeing before, a Black Phoebe, maybe not all that common in suburban neighborhoods like this one.

My dad tells me that Cedar Waxwings are around recently, feeding on pomegranate fruit. I’d sure love to get a few pictures of that bird–I’ve never seen it before.