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West Coast Birder

@westcoastbirder.bsky.social
3.3K followers 1.4K following 822 posts

Retired engineer. Politically further left than most. Bleed Dodger blue. Splitting time between Portland, Oregon and Santa Barbara, California. All photos are my own.

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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, or Alice In Chains.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
A snowy egret at Coal Oil Point, Santa Barbara, California. Canon R7 + RF 100-500L. 🪶 #birds #birdphotography #california
The photo shows a snowy egret, a wading bird with a white body and wings, black beak and legs and golden feet standing in the surf on the beach in Santa Barbara, trying to catch crustaceans that are being washed up on the shore.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
A black phoebe with a snack. At the lagoon on the UCSB campus, Santa Barbara, California. R7 + RF 100-500L 🪶 #birds #birdphotography #california
The image shows a black phoebe, a small brown passerine bird in the flycatcher family, perched on a tree stump with a butterfly in its mouth. Phoebes are insectivores.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
En garde! Little bro vs. big bro..... whimbrel and curlew at Santa Barbara, CA. Canon R7 + RF 100-500L. 🪶 #birds #birdphotography #california
The photo shows a whimbrel and a long-billed curlew, two shorebirds in the larger curlew family. The birds are facing each other with one behind the other such that their long bills cross each other like fencers crossing swords.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
The Heerman's gull is a striking bird. This one posed for me nicely. Devereaux Beach, Santa Barbara, California. Canon R7 + RF 100-500L. 🪶 #birds #birdphotography #california
The photo shows a Heerman's gull on the sand at the beach in Santa Barbara California. The gull has a grey and white body with a white head and a striking orange bill with black legs. It is standing facing left while turning its head to the right.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
1/n I want to put the phone down and read more in the rest of 2026, so I thought I would start a thread to keep track of how I do. I will share the books I read as I finish them. First for 2H2026 - a book I have been meaning to read for a long time. Pico Iyer's "The Lady and the Monk." Excellent!
Cover of Pico Iyer's The Lady and the Monk.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
A pair of whimbrels in flight over Devereaux Beach, Santa Barbara, California. 🪶 #birds #birdphotography #california
The photo shows a pair of whimbrels, a shorebird with a long beak that they use to search for crustaceans in the sand, in flight over the blue waters of the Santa Barbara Channel on a sunny day.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
variety.com/2026/film/gl... And so it begins…. Soon, you’ll have “actors” with Brad Pitt’s looks and Jack Nicholson’s acting chops all rolled into one. No need to hire humans with their inperfections, idiosyncrasies, and demands.
variety.com
Tilly Norwood to Lead New Movie ‘Misaligned,’ Marking Feature Debut for AI ‘Actor’
Tilly Norwood, the controversial AI actor, is to front her first feature film, the comedy-drama Misaligned from AI studio Particle6
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
I'm smol and cute! ❤️ Snowy plover (Anarhynchus nivosus) in the golden light at Coal Oil Point, Santa Barbara, California. The California population is seriously threatened by habitat loss and great efforts are being made to rope off their nesting locations which are among tussocks of beach grass.
The photo shows the snowy plover, a shorebird, standing in the sand in the golden light of the setting sun. It is looking away partially, showing off its plumage.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
A couple of Heerman's gulls soar over a turquoise-blue sea off Santa Barbara, California. 🪶 #birds #birdphotography #california
The photo shows two Heerman's gulls flying over the ocean in Santa Barbara, California. The water is a beautiful turquoise on a sunny day.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
A little yoga on the beach! Long-billed curlew in Santa Barbara, California. 🪶 #birds #birdphotography #california
The photo shows a long-billed curlew, a shorebird, standing on one leg on the beach in Santa Barbara, California, while looking sideways.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
That sound great. Now how about actually starting to call traveling like the rules say? www.espn.com/nba/story/_/...
espn.com
One free throw rule, embedded ball tech test set for summer league
The NBA summer league will test the one free throw rule that has been tested in the G League, as well as embedded sensors in basketballs during July's summer league series.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
The long-billed curlew is a bird that truly lives up to its name. Photographed at Devereaux Beach in Santa Barbara, California. 🪶 #birds #birdphotography
The photograph shows a long-billed curlew, a bird that has an unusually long bill. It is standing at the seashore right at the waterlline, where it uses its bill to find crustaceans in the wet sand.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
The cliff above Campus Point on the SE corner of the UCSB campus is covered with dead birds. Don’t click on the photos if you are squeamish. I’ve seen the odd dead bird before but not 20-30 of them. Not sure if this heat blob related die off. Any expert here who can shed light? 🪶 #birds
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
The scaly-breasted munia is a South Asian native but a resident population has established itself in Southern California. They love hanging out among the grasses and eating the seeds. Photographed in Santa Barbara, California with the Canon R5 and the EF 600mm F/4 lens. 🪶 #birds
The photo shows a scaly-breasted munia, a small passerine bird with a brown upper part and a white and brown scaly underside. It is sitting on a stalk of grass and eating the seeds.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
I live 10 minutes from the ocean and since I retired, I walk a lot on the beach. Yesterday, the water was an amazing shade of turquoise. The ocean is like a living thing - it changes colors and moods every day. But even when it seems out of sorts, it never fails to put a smile on my face. ❤️
The photo shows a bay with turquoise colored water a sunny afternoon in Santa Barbara, California.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
I love watching pelicans fly by on the beach. Such majestic birds! Photographed in Santa Barbara, California. Canon R7 + RF100-500L. #birds
The photo shows a brown pelican flying over the ocean with its wings in a downward beat, the primary feathers almost touching the water.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
Northern mockingbird in Goleta, California. Photographed with a Canon R7 and the RF 100-500L.
Northern mockingbird perched on a snag.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
I walk for a couple of hours on the beach every day. It was gorgeous today, 70F/21C. The ocean was impossibly blue. Days like this remind me that while strife in the world will ebb and flow, Mother Earth remains gorgeous beyond compare. Go out and enjoy each day like it is your last, my friends!❤️
Blue waters of the ocean off Santa Barbara, California.Surfers catching a break off Campus Point, Santa Barbara, California.The waves roll in on the beach in Santa Barbara.The beach at Campus Point in Santa Barbara.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
A friend just pointed out to me that Trump signed the Iran deal at Versailles. You can’t make this shit up!
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Wow, what a huge loss. 😢 www.cnn.com/2026/02/21/e...
cnn.com
Salsa legend Willie Colón dies at age 75, family says | CNN
American salsa legend Willie Colon, the pioneering trombonist, vocalist and composer, died on Saturday at age 75, his family said in a statement.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
White tailed eagle in Rausu, Hokkaido Japan. Really pleased with how this came out - I usually don't make prints, but I think I'll print and frame this one.
The photo shows a white tailed eagle, a large raptor that lives all over temperate Eurasia, soaring over the sea. The photo was taken in Rausu, a fishing village in Hokkaido, Japan.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Eurasian tree sparrow in Rausu, Hokkaido Japan. These fluff balls are tough little creatures - they remind me of our own black-capped chickadees that survive winters in the boreal forest in North America. It was 8F (-13C) that morning in Rausu when I took the photo. Click on photo for full size.
The photo shows a Eurasian tree sparrow sitting on a branch in Rausu, Hokkaido Japan. The bird has its feathers fluffed out because it was a very chilly morning in Rausu with temperature of 8F (-13C).
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Just got back from Japan and managed to sneak off to Hokkaido for a couple of days to see Steller's sea eagles. Still processing all my images but here is a quick view of the two eagle species on the ice - white tailed in the foreground and Steller's. Amazing how much bigger the Steller's are! 🦉🦅
Image shows a group of eagles sitting on drift ice in the Sea of Okhotsk off Hokkaido. In the foreground is a white tailed eagle and in the background are several Steller's sea eagles.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
My son is a senior at Harvard. This week, he finished his finals and left campus with his friends on a short vacation trip. 50 miles to the south, Brown students were sitting for their exams too, except the outcome couldn’t have been more different. As a country, we have totally lost the plot. 😭
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
My younger son submitted his first grad school application today. Seems like it was yesterday when he graduated high school. Soon he will be his own man, making his way in the world. Kids grow up fast… 🥲
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
WTF…. what is your major malfunction, America? 🤬 www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
washingtonpost.com
U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses as hate symbols
The military service, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, has drafted a new policy that classifies such items “potentially divisive.”
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Wow, the Bears are 7-3 and in first place in the NFC North! However, they are -6 on points scored/conceded differential and they’ll get exposed pretty soon. As a long-suffering Bears fan, I’ll enjoy it while it lasts, I guess!
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
Calling the police on a person having a mental health crisis is a death sentence. When will people learn this? 🙁 www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/...
espn.com
Cowboys official reported Kneeland text to police
On the night of Marshawn Kneeland's death, the Cowboys' director of security called police to ask for a welfare check after Kneeland sent texts that "seemed to be saying goodbye."
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Looking for good references (books or papers) on negative externalities of both fossil fuel technologies and electrical alternatives for transportation. For example, how do we objectively weigh EV-related mining against the obvious negative externalities of fossil fuels. Pointers welcome! 🙏🏾
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
I swear, Blake Treinen is going to take a decade off my life. Roki didn’t help either.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
On Sept 30, I retired from the only company I have worked for, after 35 years of employment. It’s a new experience waking up every morning without a clear schedule of things to do, but I think I’ll get used to it! 😉
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
Just started listening to the audio book of Braiding Sweetgrass. Achingly beautiful. The story of Sky Woman and Turtle Island brought me to tears. The narrator was an excellent choice - her voice is perfectly suited for the book!
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 22/06/2025
Some nice dashcam footage in 4K of my drive through Shasta Trinity NF and over the Siskiyous last weekend. I love this section -done it dozens of times. Background music is my Tidal playlist on the car audio. Hope you enjoy it! Remember to view in 4K! youtube.com/playlist?lis...
youtube.com
I-5 California to Oregon Scenic Drive - YouTube
This playlist has 4K dashcam clips of the Northern California and Southern Oregon sections of my recent drive from Southern California to Portland Oregon. Da...
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Nightshift by the Commodores is the finest, smoothest song ever written and performed. That’s a hill I’m willing to die on. 😎 youtu.be/FrkEDe6Ljqs?...
youtu.be
Commodores - Nightshift (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by CommodoresVEVO
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
Is there anything more disrespectful than walking away from the squat rack without putting away your plates? Put me in a foul mood this fine Sunday morning. Rerack your damn weights, yo! Don’t make others clean up after you! 🤬
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
Why does the Dodgers-Braves game have a 715 pm ET start on a freaking Saturday?
media.tenor.com
a man with a mullet and a mustache is wearing a wig and making a funny face .
ALT: a man with a mullet and a mustache is wearing a wig and making a funny face .
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Reposted by West Coast Birder
West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 31/10/2024
The final words of “The Velvet Queen,” the amazing documentary on the snow leopard: Revere what is in front of us. Hope for nothing. Delight in what crops up. Have faith in poetry. Be content with the world. Fight for it to remain. Quite possibly the finest documentary I have ever seen. 🐆🌿🌎
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
The end of the seminal Watson & Crick DNA paper in Nature : "It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material.” Is there a more profoundly understated sentence anywhere in the scientific literature?
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
theonion.com/we-need-more...
theonion.com
‘We Need More American-Made Semiconductors,’ Says Man Who Barely Understands How A Stapler Works
TACOMA, WA—Arguing that “an enormous push” was needed in the manufacturing of the cutting-edge technology, Dalton Robinson, a man who barely understands how a stapler works, reportedly stated, “We nee...
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
My son just informed me that his first-author paper submission was accepted for publication. This will his 2nd first-author peer-reviewed paper to be published. He has at least one other manuscript in prep for submission. Not bad for a junior in college. I hope it helps his grad school applications!
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
Powerful.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
Pied-billed grebe in the UC Santa Barbara campus lagoon. The area around Campus Point and the lagoon is an extremely productive birding location. Easy to get 50+ species on a 2-hour birding walk around there. #birds 🦉 Canon R7 + RF100-500L.
The image shows a pied-billed grebe, a waterbird somewhat like a small duck (but not in the duck family) floating on the water. It is a small brown bird with a striped beak.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
It is spring time and the red winged blackbird males are on full display with their epaulets and their song. Here is a magnificent specimen, photographed in Goleta, California. Click on photo for larger image. Canon R7 + RF100-500L. #birds 🦉
The photo shows a red winged blackbird, a small North American passerine (perching) bird with black plumage and red and yellow epaulets, perched on a shrub.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
Post a warning.
A sign on a gasoline pump in Goleta California exhorts customers to remember to remove the gasoline nozzle and hose from the car’s gas tank opening before driving off.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
Mockingbird males have started their courtship singing. Bachelors will sing through the night. Goodbye to sleep for me! May need to go the store to buy a fan just to drown out the sound! 🥱🦉#birds
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
Spring is here. The weather is gorgeous in my little corner of paradise and the California poppies are in riotous bloom! 🌿 #Nativeplants
The photo shows some California poppies, a native plant with yellow/orange flowers. Photographed in Santa Barbara.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Reading Emperor of all Maladies. Wow, great book. Honestly, I don’t know how oncologists do it and what their burnout rate is. Surrounded by grief with the occasional miracle seven days a week.
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
We could have had this man in 2016. 😢 youtube.com/shorts/3F3ay...
youtube.com
Trump is Right. The System IS Broken.
YouTube video by Bernie Sanders
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West Coast Birder @westcoastbirder.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
Brilliant article on the rise and fall of American football (and as a metaphor for America itself) in Granta magazine. @grantamag.bsky.social granta.com/mucker-play/...
granta.com
Mucker Play
‘When you said so loudly that you were the best, that you were worth the top dollar, then not just every game but every play became important.’ Nico Walker on the rise and fall of American football, f...
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