Pleasanton Sports Park Birds and Squirrels

Last month our church had a picnic at the Pleasanton Sports Park. I was one of the photographers for them. :) (Yay! Talent finally recognized by a group of people. LOL) Anyways, I thought it would be great for me to utilize the time I was there to also take photos of the birds and squirrels there. I didn't take too much photos when I was there because:

1. I was taking photos for the church event.
2. There wasn't many birds or squirrels at the park.

So the church photos I took for them went to the church, and the other photos I took, I'm here to share with you! I hope you enjoy viewing these photos! Pleasanton Sports Park is located in Pleasanton, CA.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best Pleasanton photos of 2012, use this link. To see my best wildlife photos, use this link. To see all of my Pleasanton photos of 2012, use this link.

Quick Photography Lesson: See how the background is out of focus and has lots of circles? In photography, this is called the bokeh effect. Generally you will need some light source (don't have to be strong) to achieve this effect. To take a photo of this effect, you will have to shoot with a wide aperture (small f-stop number), and the part you want the effect to be has to be out of focus (use manual focus). On cheaper lenses, the bokeh may be a hexagon or some other shape instead of a circle. This is due to the less rounded cheaper aperture blades in cheaper lenses. Some people may even use this effect to do special effects. One of the most popular type of DIY effect is taking black construction paper and cutting a shape on it to change the bokeh. You can find out more about this by using Google and searching "diy custom bokeh". 

Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans)

Stupid bird didn't turn around so here is a photo of its butt. 

The black phoebe standing on a fire hydrant in the middle of the park. 

Looks like the only bird I got a photo of in the park was the black phoebe... There really wasn't much wildlife there. Maybe they are hiding from all the people. 

The only squirrel I saw in the park that day... I saw a lot more back then in Fremont Central Park. Maybe not enough people are feeding them at this park... (Please don't feed the wildlife...)

This is all the photos for today! I hope you have enjoyed viewing today's post. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family! In the next post, I will begin my Monterey photos. I know a lot of you are looking forward to those so please check back often! I generally do one post every two to three days. Again, those times may change as I said in a post of mine before, college is starting for me, so I have been pretty busy.

Backyard and Pleasanton Trail Birds

As the title suggests, today I have bird photos I took in my backyard and on Pleasanton Trail (Arroyo Del Valle Trail). Well it was actually the Pleasanton Sports Park, but I'm going to call it Pleasanton Trail anyways because it was kind of the border between the trail and the park. LOL So anyways, if you are new here, the trail is located in Pleasanton, CA. (Duh!) So here are the photos! I'm going to start off with my backyard photos.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best bird photos of 2012, use this link. To view my best 2012 backyard photos, use this link. To see all of my at home and backyard photography shots of 2012, use this link. To see my best photos of Pleasanton in 2012, use this link. To see all of my photos from Pleasanton in 2012, use this link.

Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans)

The black phoebe really loved to perch on my bird cage (the one I'm not using). There are a lot of bird poop on the top... If you are new here, I used to have a lot of pet birds. 2 died and 1 flew away. Now I only have 2 parakeets left, which I keep in my smaller cage now, which I can bring indoors easily. I don't use my big cage now. My big cage is located near the nest, and the black phoebe enjoys using it as a perch before flying up to its nest. 

Nom nom nom... HAHA It caught a bug...

Well anyways, here is the story of this family of black phoebes. The family nested in my backyard and had baby birds. Now they flew away because the babies hatched. I enjoyed their company though. I got some great photos! :D

That looks like a dragonfly in its mouth. Nom nom nom... 

 Another photo of it perched on top of my bird cage. My big bird cage had a small bird play gym at the top. 

 Fence post got in the way of this shot... That's the thing in the bottom right corner. I was taking these photos indoors to not startle the bird. I temporarily removed my window's mesh screen to get these photos.

The bird standing on my wire vine crawler thingy I stuck in my flower pot.  

You know what bugs me... How a bird can grip such a thin round piece of wire and not flip upside down. LOL

The black phoebe was from my backyard. The rest of the robin photos are from the Pleasanton Trail/Pleasanton Sports Park border...

Looks like it found a worm. 

American Robin (Turdus migratorius)

This is all the photos for this post! I hope you have enjoyed viewing them. Next time, I will have some bird and squirrel photos from Pleasanton Sports Park. After that post, I will begin my Monterey photos! :) I know all of you have been looking forward to those, so 1 more post before I start! Please don't forget to share the blog posts with your friends! Also, if you would like to get notifications next time I post, you can "Like" me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Butterflies, Birds, Trees, and Airplanes

I know what you are thinking. What kind of combination is butterflies, birds, trees, and airplanes? Well yes, I agree it is random, and it is! I had a bunch of random pictures I took and I wasn't sure how to group them into blog posts. So I thought, hey why not a blog post of a little bit of everything that doesn't really relate? So here I am! Random combination of photos. LOL

The butterfly and leaves (tree) photo was taken at Shadow Cliffs Park in Pleasanton, California. The Black Phoebe (bird) photos were taken in my front yard. The airplane photos were taken on the Arroyo Del Valle Trail located in Pleasanton, California.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best Pleasanton photos of 2012, use this link. To see all of my Pleasanton photos of 2012, use this link. To see my best bird photos of 2012, use this link. To view my best 2012 backyard photos, use this link. To see all of my at home and backyard photography shots of 2012, use this link.

I saw a butterfly land on the grass as I was taking photos of the solar eclipse a few weeks back. So I adjusted the camera settings and took a photo of the butterfly. If you missed my solar eclipse post, you can find it here.

Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans)

So the other day I was bored, so I decided to set up my tripod in my front yard and get some bird photos. I get a lot of birds coming to my front yard as I have 2 parakeets and they spill a lot of food. LOL The wild birds around my house never gets hungry. XD If you want to see the other photos I took in my front yard, check out this blog post (of the Northern Mockingbird) and this blog post (of the American Robin).

The new leaves of spring. This was taken at Shadow Cliff Park.

 So we were looking after a family friend's kid for the afternoon. She was all like, there is an airplane in the sky, take a photo of it! So I did. :P Turned out better than I thought!

I hope you have enjoyed these photos! Next time I will probably continue with Augustin Bernal Park photos. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar. Thanks for looking! See you next time!

Arroyo Del Valle Trail Squirrels and Birds

Like I said last time, this post will be on the animals of Pleasanton Trail (or the Arroyo Del Valle Trail, but I can never remember the spelling. XD). I hope you enjoy the photos! Arroyo Del Valle Trail is located in Pleasanton, CA.

Just as a reminder, if you love my blog, you can also "Like" us on Facebook. You can also do that in the Facebook box at the top of the right sidebar. This will give you updates on your Facebook feed as I post more photos.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best squirrel photos of 2012, use this link. To see my best bird photos of 2012, use this link. To see my best photos of Pleasanton in 2012, use this link. To see all of my photos from Pleasanton in 2012, use this link.

It's a boy! :P

I did not see that until I was sorting out the photos. LOL I showed it to some of my friends, half of them think its his "thing" and the other half thinks the squirrel is just doing #2. Tell me what you think in the comments!

I was actually thinking about whether or not to post this photo as some people may find this inappropriate for younger viewers, but I decided to post it anyways. I mean, it's just nature right?

If you want to see more photos like this, visit my portfolio gallery here. 

There are a lot of walnut trees on the trail. The squirrels eat a lot!  

This photo makes me think of Spiderman... Maybe because of how the squirrel is hanging on the tree sideways...

Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)

I tried to get a still image without blurring up, but this bird was just flying all over the place. LOL So there is a slight motion blur. 

I'm guessing this is a Little Blue Heron (Egretta caerulea).

I think this is a Snowy Egret (Egretta thula).

I'm guessing this is a Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans)

I made my best guess on the names of the birds, but I could be wrong. If you think I'm wrong, please leave me a comment below! :) Thanks for viewing! Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and coworkers! If you love my blog, you can also "Like" us on Facebook. You can also do that in the Facebook box at the top of the right sidebar. I hope you have enjoyed the photos!

Copyright Warning: These photos are some of my best and most popular works of art. Unauthorized usage and reproductions are strictly prohibited. Please contact me here to purchase prints and negotiate photo licenses.