January 5, 2023 - Bird Tour No. 1

So it took 6 months to happen from my original announcement in May 2023 but I finally got my first request for a bird tour from someone who bought a few calendars from me in early December. I'm grateful to Lily for helping to kick off this venture and for making it happen!

I had a great experience on a private birding tour with a lovely Menlo Park family at one of our local birding hot spots. I gave them 3 location options and we met on a Friday morning at their location of choice. 

I had my Nikon Z8 and Nikkor 500mm lens with me but I let the family know that my priority is to guide them on the birding expedition and that taking bird pictures was secondary but that they would get digital copies of all the pictures I took. 

The weather was a bit chilly but it warmed up halfway through our journey. We agreed on a course to walk and headed out up and over a hill to a location where I had previously spotted a burrowing owl. Unfortunately there was no Burrowing Owl but we hardly noticed since we saw a very large brown Hawk sitting high on a pole. We were able to see it jump off and dive down into the field in front of us to try to capture some breakfast. Unfortunately it was not able to make a grab but it was exciting to watch its multiple attempts. It had stripes on its tail and brown eyes so I knew it was a Juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk! 

We decided to move on and we spotted several Hares hopping through the tall grassy fields and down by the water. We decided to cut down to the trail by the water where we could see many Northern Shovellers and American Coots.

We then saw another hawk winding it’s way in the air along the shore. This one was dark brown and had a white area between the body and tail and the face looked like a cross between a hawk and an owl. It was a beautiful brown Female Northern Harrier!

We then moved along the shore and saw another hawk-like bird dive down into the brush on the shore. We walked over and saw it sitting on a wooden pole. This one was smaller than the previous two hawks and had yellow eyes. It was not very bothered by us and allowed me to get fairly closer and take multiple pictures. It was a Juvenile Cooper’s Hawk!

We took a few family photos then continued along the shore and we saw some house finches and an Anna’s Hummingbird then completed our 90 minute loop back to the parking lot.

It was a very enjoyable experience as we walked and talked about the various birds and Mom, Dad, Grandma and their young child seemed to have enjoyed our expedition. The little boy came up to me to shake my hand, which was pretty darn cute. Apparently that was a first and the parents were pleasantly surprised to see him do that.

Review from Lily, the customer :

I'm "Mom" in this story!  Our bird walk with Rick was a great family activity. He gave options for a couple locations in the area based on our interests and it was easy to schedule. We had never done any birdwatching before, so it was great to have his guidance on good locations, bird identification, and even handy bird apps. As mentioned above, we saw a variety of interesting birds and even some big wild rabbits. My 4-year-old had a fun time with "Mr. Rick" and has already asked about going to see the birds again. Shortly after our walk, Rick sent over a collection of beautiful high quality photos of the birds we had seen, along with some nice family shots, which are great mementos of the trip. 

Highly recommend a bird walk with Rick! It's a wonderful activity whether you have any bird experience or not, and fun for all ages. Really nice way to spend some time outdoors seeing beautiful things and learning a little something new. Rick is very friendly and easygoing.