I spent the morning and early afternoon out at Bodega Bay today, trying out my new Orion Grandview spotting scope. It's a bit bigger than I anticipated. It's fairly heavy and cumbersome, but considering that I'll generally use it only while touring by car, I'm very pleased. Bright, clear optics. Rather hard to focus through the camera though (I got the camera adapter). In fact, it's so dark, it's hard to see what you're trying to focus on. I think that's partly a function of the focusing screen in my camera. I will have to look into perhaps changing to a more compatible one.
The photos I took today show that I can't focus it very well. These are Elegant Terns in the photos.Birds I saw today: Scrub-jay, Common Raven, Crow, Flycatcher sp., Anna's Hummingbird, Northern Harrier, Pied-billed Grebe, Brandt's Cormorant, Pelagic Cormorant, Double-crested Cormorant, Pacific Loon, Black Oystercatcher, Brown Pelican, White Pelican, Black Turnstone, Ruddy Turnstone, Turkey Vulture, Black-bellied Plover, Western Sandpiper, Marbled Godwit, Willet, Short-billed Dowitcher, Western Gull, Ring-billed Gull, Elegant Tern, Lesser Goldfinch, and Brants.
I think the terns I've seen recently at Bodega that I've been calling Common Terns have probably been Elegant Terns. I like these birds. They look like they are balding with the hair in the back left to grow long. I can easily imagine one at a podium, conducting a seaside opera.
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