Great Backyard Bird Count Bird Walk at Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Area

My good friend, Keri Dearborn of Animalbytes.net, led us on a great walk around the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife area this morning in honor of the annual Great Backyard Bird Count this weekend. We spent 2.5 hours spotting all sorts of birds, including 2 new one's for my life list, a Downy Woodpecker and an Osprey and also an up close look at a vulture.

Below are 6 embedded videos streamed live and recorded with my iPhone. I hope it gives you a bit of a feeling of what it was like to be out with us this morning.

Keri's husband, Michael Lawshe, took some great photos on the walk, too.

Photos of today's Great Backyard Bird Count Walk

Cooper's Hawk in my garden this morning

This big guy was having his lunch in my back garden this morning and took his time, so I was able to get about 10 minutes of closeup footage.

iPod Ready Video

Previously on WelchWrite.com...

Video: Coopers (not Red-tailed) hawk in the garden this morning

Bird Nest with paint chips

Bird Nest with paint chip,
originally uploaded by dewelch.

One small sign of how our actions can effect the world around us.

It looks like someone in the neighborhood was scraping and re-painting their house and this bird made it part of their nesting materials.

I believe this was a hummingbird nest judging by its size and design. I noticed it today as I was typing up some vines on one of our arbors.