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Continue reading →: Masked BanditWarblers can be notoriously hard to see. They are tiny and manically active, and most of them inhabit treetops as they go about finding their favorite insect food. “Warbler neck” is a well known affliction of birdwatchers who get aches and pains from pointing their binoculars virtually straight up in…
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Continue reading →: Eagle Nest Update: June 5, 2026What a pleasant surprise to see not one but two huge eaglets in the nest this morning. I’m so relieved that my guess last week that one had died was wrong. They both look strong and stout, and a corrected guess at their age puts them at about 8 or…
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Continue reading →: Eagle Nest Update: May 29, 2026On my last visit to the Benbow Bald Eagle nest last Friday, it appeared that perhaps one of the two eaglets had died. Over the years we have known this to happen more often than not when we have been able to see two hatchlings at first. Up to 30%…
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Continue reading →: Special GuestsTwo infrequent visitors came by the river on a couple different mornings last week. Northern River Otters are hit and miss for sightings in my neighborhood, and for many months it’s been miss. So when a pair of them came by the other day it was headline news. They went…
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Continue reading →: Eagle Nest Update: May 16, 2026On my last visit to the Benbow Bald Eagle nest it was obvious that a lot of growing had been going on over the past nine days. Unfortunately the light was very challenging and in both the stills and the video, it may require some squinting and even a bit…
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Continue reading →: Location, Location, LocationOver the past week or so I was lucky enough to visit a handful of different locations to watch birds. Almost 500 different bird species have been found in Humboldt County, some residents, some rarities, some seasonal migrants. This number is attributable to the diversity of habitats we enjoy and…
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Continue reading →: Eagle Nest Update, May 6, 2026It is so hard to see into the new-last-year Benbow Bald Eagle nest, partly because of distance (significantly farther awaythan the old one), and partly because of its placement in the tree, where it is supported by a branch whose green parts obscure about half of the nest itself, that…
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Continue reading →: Humboldt Spring BreakAlmost all the neo-tropical migrants have arrived from distant southern wintering grounds, many of them early compared to most years, and begun their nesting routines. Local year round residents are singing and gathering nest materials and even beginning to raise young. A recently restored species has shown early signs of…
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Continue reading →: Benbow Bald Eagle Nest 2026It’s been one of the sweetest blessings of my life that I’ve been able to watch a pair of Bald Eagles raise a family almost every year for the last 16 years. A handful of times they have not brought a youngster to fledging maturity, and twice they have fledged…
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Continue reading →: When the Student Is Ready, the Teacher Will AppearEarly this morning several Turkey Vultures sat in the brush just outside the fence that borders my backyard. I could see them through my bedroom window which looks out toward the river. They must have been attracted by the deathlike smell of the corpse flower that was blooming and sending…
Welcome to Free Range Photography, a photo-journal of encounters with birds and wildlife, mostly in Humboldt County, California.
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