Santa Clara Ranch - Day 1

Our first official day of the trip started with a delicious breakfast at 6 and then off to the Raptor Blind by 6:45 for the morning photo session.  We had a fabulous morning, with thousands of images.  The stars of the day were the Crested Caracaras (a pair seen here) and the Harris Hawks, both seen in significant numbers.  I am sure I have some better images than this, but I honestly have history with caracaras and I just like this shot.  The two of them both have crests slightly raised.  Do check Osuzanna and Wrperry as I'm sure they are both going to blip something awesome!

We headed back to the ranch house for the mid day as the sun is harsh and it's too hot for their to be much activity.  We enjoyed another fabulous Tex-Mex meal and then all worked on photos for a while.  We will meet up again at 4:30 to head out to the hides until sundown at 8.  

In addition to the raptors, we've seen a wonderful selection of the birds already today including the iconic roadrunner, a Couch's Kingbird, a Painted Bunting, numerous mockingbirds, several oriole species and more.  And an armadillo!  I'm sure we'll all get many more great images this afternoon.  And then we'll start all over again tomorrow morning.  

The cell service is minimal and wifi only available in the ranch-house, which makes it easy to just focus on nature and photography.  Precisely what I ended.  

Check back tomorrow...

xo
Debbi