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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 14h

thought to have fledged 30+ offspring. Imagine a human nurturing 30 kids to independence! LAAL are typically pair-bonded for life, but it’s believed that due to her longevity, Wisdom has had at least 2 male partners in her lifetime. 🪶 If you like albatrosses, you might like to watch one of the live

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 14h

who have injuries that prevent them from flying. They’ve become public education ambassadors instead. In the wild, LAAL typically live ~60 years! 🪶 Incredible. You may have even heard of a famous Laysan Albatross named Wisdom (her human name, or #Z333, her band designation), a female who was banded

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 14h

between I saw some great sights. The term “pelagic” means that these are #birds of the open ocean, those that may come to land only to raise offspring. We did see LAAL that day, from afar, but while at the Monterey Aquarium I was able to observe one more closely. The aquarium has 2 female Laysans

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 14h

#Bird of the Day: Laysan Albatross (LAAL) Some years ago, I joined friends for a boat tour designed to find pelagic birds off our Oregon Coast. It was a fantastic day, dampened only by the fact that I was seasick during the majority of the 6-hour journey. I was hanging over the rail at times; in

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

A friend gave me some foraged chanterelles! I ended up using them tonight in a cheddar quiche with Canadian bacon, yellow onion and zucchini. Delicious combo.

Finished quiche packed with veggies and topped with melted cheese.

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

#Birder Joy: the golden-crowned sparrows who winter in my yard arrived ~2 weeks ago. I'm tickled that the single white-throated sparrow that's migrated with them the last 2 years is also back. It's so fun to recognize it as an individual bird & I love that they find my yard a welcoming habitat.

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Decided to take out the tomatoes today. Cool nights coming, so these have a better chance of ripening indoors. Hoses and sprinklers put away. Another year’s vegetable garden in the books.

A tub holding a collection of green tomatoes.

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

study in Costa Rica, examination of their “fecal droppings” found traces (seeds, etc.) of 70 species among the fruits consumed by this small passerine #bird. RCMA are found year-round throughout Central America in humid, mid-elevation forests.

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

these small red fruits like she didn’t have a care in the world. 🪶 Manakins are frugivores, fruit-eaters, and have evolved in such a way that the fruit passes through them very quickly. This means they don’t actually get very much nutrition from each item they eat, so they have to eat a lot! In one

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

that means the male #birds are typically strikingly patterned and colored; RCMA males have a red hood and white thighs to set off a glossy black body and when lekking they perform incredible moonwalk-type dance rituals while making an irresistibly sexy snapping sound with their wings. But have I

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

#Bird of the Day: Red-capped Manakin (RCMA) I have a thing for manakins! In the bird world, manakins are famous for their lekking behavior. That’s not a typo—a lek is when male birds, sometimes in multiples, put on a fabulous display for ladies to make their selection from among them. In manakins,

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

This breathtaking photo was taken by one of the guides at Belize’s Black Rock Lodge. The view from the top of the summit hike. The lodge is hiding among the vegetation below at the river’s edge. I can’t wait to be there again— 15 months!

Summit view at sunrise from the cliffs in the Elijio Panti National park, looking down at the Macal River, the site of Black Rock lodge

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

This individual seemed to be playing with the sea kelp, rolling and tossing in it as the waves rose below it.

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Sometimes I saw individual otters, but other times they were in groups! One "raft" of otters numbered about 30, far out past the breaking waves but visible through the spotting scope.

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Otters eating crabs. On one pic you can see the tag on a back foot. The local otter population is highly protected and studied after being nearly wiped out.

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Trying to post the last of the pics from last November's memorable trip to Monterey, California. Sea otter sightings were shockingly plentiful! On this overcast day we had views of a several mother otters with pups aboard.

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

meat, & other foods (but typically not seeds or fruits), & well-adapted to fly, walk on land, & float on the water’s surface. They're found on every continent of the globe, typically breeding in large colonies & migrating to some degree. If you're an expert on gulls, I take my hat off to you! 🪶

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

to let them swallow large fish, sea stars, & other creatures from the tidal zone. There are ~30 species of gulls in North America, 54 worldwide. These pics also show terns & other wading #birds that often overlap with gulls on coasts & mudflats. Gulls are generalists, eating a wide variety of fish,

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

adapt & thrive as humans change the natural world. Gulls live 10-15 years in the wild; certain species as old as 49 have been documented! That’s plenty of time to learn how to raid dumpsters for discarded French fries & hotdog bun scraps. 🪶 When eating more traditional prey, their lower jaws unhinge

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

I’m pretty happy when I can figure them out, but my patience for the attempt is limited. Juvenile gulls take 2-4 years, depending on the species, to achieve adult plumage, which makes it even harder! 🪶 Still, gulls (“seagull” is not an official name of anything) are impressive for their ability to

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

#Bird of the Day: Mixed Gulls and Terns Some serious birders love gulls, terns & other shorebirds, relishing the difficulty in telling one species from another among similar patterns of white, grey, black, & beige accented with bits of yellow & orange. I’m not one of those people, at least not yet!

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Bee video 3 of 3. The rains are coming, so this is probably the last time I’ll open the hives until Spring. Let’s hope they make it!

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

of the fence. Painted the same color blue, the pristine wood siding must seem irresistible to the industrious #birds; I saw a few stuffing acorns into the exterior mount for the cable connection, where they were likely filling up the spaces between the studs & slats, never to be seen again.

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

function of the shed was not a recent development, & so it amused me to think of someone scheming how to put a stop to it—or perhaps deciding to just roll with it! However it came to be, the #birds might find more resistance at their next conquest—the newly-constructed homes just on the other side

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

they had perforated the corner posts & were making a good job of tucking acorns beneath the weather-warped layer of roof shingles, filling every crevice they could reach. 🪶 I can only imagine that many fell to the shed interior, bouncing off the angles of the contents below. It was obvious that this

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

acorn-sized cavities ready to be filled with food supplies to last the winter. ACWO tend to favor dead or dying limbs for this task. But why stop at the oaks when there’s dry lumber just waiting to be drilled? 🪶 I didn’t get too close to avoid disturbing their work, but through my lens I could see

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

shed full of tools & equipment, but it had come to serve a more vital role—at least for the family of acorn woodpeckers who had claimed this small patch of ancient trees as their own. 🪶 As I watched, I could see they had established granaries in the high limbs of several majestic oaks, hundreds of

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

#Bird of the Day: Acorn Woodpecker (ACWO) Perhaps my pictures tell this story better than I ever could, but I’ll do my best. Along one edge of the Ashland Cemetery stands a small peak-roofed hut, locked with 2 padlocks, an incongruous heart sketched on the door. It seemed to be sort of caretaker’s

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Sometimes I photograph mammals.

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

attracting unwanted attention. In fact, the more drab, subtle coloration of females allows them to better camouflage, staying hidden for their parental duties. Among #birds, females display feathers in unlimited variety of brown, olive, grey & yellow. All just part of the fun challenge of birding!

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

bring her food. 🪶 Once chicks hatch, both parents help with feeding, but the male is more likely to do so by passing captured prey (typically flying insects) to the female who consumes it & then feeds the hatchlings by regurgitation. This keeps the bright male from visiting the nest & perhaps

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

minimal), pair bonding & shared care for offspring is the norm. In those #birds where sexual dimorphism is marked, they're more promiscuous, & the female does more of the childcare. In the case of SUTA, a female builds her nest alone & alone incubates the eggs, although while so occupied, a male may

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

dimorphism, differences in appearance of adult birds of each sex, can be one of the most challenging aspects of #birding. The difficulty is exacerbated by the fact that some names are given for characteristics seen only on the male! As a rule of thumb, in birds where sexual dimorphism is lacking (or

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

#Bird of the Day: Summer Tanager (SUTA) As a beginning birder in 2013, in Costa Rica for the 1st time, I remember being flummoxed by the plumage differences between male & female SUTA! How would I ever remember that although a male was deep crimson red, a female was instead a sunny yellow? Sexual

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

September, the ground was littered (😉) with thousands of acorns, and several times as I wandered, I had a near miss from the falling bounty. Among the #birds collecting the riches were not only crows but ravens, woodpeckers, & jays, as well as dozens of deer nibbling acorns in the grass.

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

questions about why we humans are so trashy in the first place! I recently watched a group of American Crows in action, collecting acorns instead of refuse, in a cemetery populated by huge oak trees. 🪶 The trees likely predated the cemetery itself, the earliest graves from the 1870s. In late

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

health implications for the #birds (even butts of cigarette contain a nasty cocktail of toxins) that needed to be further studied. Digging in further on the internet, it seems the pilot program ended without expansion, but it did prove a point about the feasibility of such an endeavor & raised

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

#Bird of the Day: American Crow (AMCR) Are crows smarter than dogs? That question's open to debate & may depend on both the dog & which aspects of intelligence are measured. But it’s safe to say that both dogs & corvids can be trained by humans, given the right incentive. This 2022 article describes

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Made a trip with the folks to the chocolatier’s for some autumn treats. #DarkChocolateSeaSaltCaramelApple

Chocolate covered pretzels and caramel apples

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The top 10% hold almost 70% of our country's wealth. And what's even crazier, the top 1% hold about 1/3 all by themselves. And the very tippy top, the 0.1% (one household in a thousand!) hoard 15% of our wealth all for themselves. And we're watching them use it to rig things to get even richer.

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

His wife wears a white cravat, and, according to my idea, she is a good deal more important in Warbler affairs than he is. This impression was gained by watching at the nest after the eggs were hatched and the young #birds being fed. Mr. Warbler seemed to be away from home practically all the time.”

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

individual is a male. American conservationist William L. Finley (2nd President of the Oregon Audubon Society) wrote in his 1923 Birds of America: “When the wise men gave names to the different #birds, the Black-throated Gray Warbler got its name from the male, for he only has the black throat.

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Kris Gates @krismgates.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

named this “Ah Kah a qual”. This warbler is two-toned, in black & white, but for a spot of bright yellow on either side of the head between eye & beak, an area called the lore, barely visible in my photos. It’s present on #birds of both sexes; the female has a less extensive black throat. This

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