Early Birding

This morning I woke up at 6:30 to try my luck at the crepuscular Northern Pygmy-owl. (three hours earlier than my usual waking-up time, so it wasn't very fun *-( ) I was out on the mountain by 7:15, and it was cool and dark outside. The first bird I saw was a Western Bluebird feeding its fledgling, which was amusing to watch. The other birds I saw were White-breasted and Pygmy Nuthatches, Acorn Woodpeckers, Northern Flickers, Siskins, Broad-tailed Hummers, but no owl. I went inside for a little while, then came back out. In a dead tree next to the house there was a little bird at the top. I raised my bins and watched it. The angle that I was watching it from made it difficult to ID, but as I moved around to a better angle I saw it was a Western Wood-pewee, which was a lifer. I put my digital camera to my binocular lenses and snapped some zoomed in photos (sort of like digiscoping, except not as powerful magnification and a shaky image).I watched the bird for a while fly from its perch to catch unsuspecting insects and return to the perch to eat them. It was now very bright outside, and all the owls were probably hidden away by now.