[arunrajk81]

The pandemic affected our routines, and this is an insight into how we managed during Shelter-in-Place order in Sunnyvale, California. Like everyone else, I also saw the news about Corona Virus spread in Wuhan Province, China and initially didn’t give much thought or was not really concerned about it.

Then day by day the situation started getting worse and the virus started spreading all over the world. By Jan-31st, the first COVID-19 was reported in Bay Area in Santa Clara County which Sunnyvale is also part of. Sanitizers started appearing in every corner of the office, office teatime gatherings reduced dramatically. Most online as well as offline shops ran out of Sanitizers, masks, gloves etc. The company provided lunches stopped, and employees were given the option to work-from-home. At this point schools were still functioning as usual.


As the disease started spreading, some companies implemented mandatory work-from-home policy. By 20th-March-2020, California became the first state in USA to issue Shelter-in-Place. The effect of shelter-in-Place was immediate. People started panic shopping and started buying unusually huge quantities of food, toilet rolls, cleaning products etc and some shops ran out of stock of essential items. They were trying to restock items expecting a complete lockdown in the upcoming days. I also went grocery shopping on the 20th evening and seeing the unusual crowd in the shops like Walmart, Smart-n-final etc. decided to stay away from these shops for a while. My Costco purchase few days back also helped. Also, I have family member who has dust allergy and breathing issues with climate change etc and hence I must be extremely cautious because of the nature of this virus infection. Same evening my company announced compulsory Work-From-Home for all employees except some essential staffs.


With that said am I set for shelter-in-Place? No.
We were planning to shift to nearby City, Fremont for some time and I already finalized a house there just before the pandemic started. There is no U-turn from that decision without a huge financial loss which I couldn’t afford. We had also informed our leasing office about not renewing hence had to move to Fremont within 2 months. Only consolation was there was 25 days overlap between my current lease end date and planned move date. Also, relocation is excluded in shelter-in-Place order.

Now the question is how am I going to manage the move? Last time I moved, I managed with the help of my friends and didn’t use any packers and movers. We used to rent a U-haul truck and do the loading unloading ourselves. Given the current COVID-19 situation, I decided not to drive a rental truck. Also, I didn’t want to involve my friends during the shelter-in-place order. We have a small patio and me and my wife loves gardening and used/tried to grow some veggies and plants there. Some of these plant pots were heavy and I didn’t want to transport those in my car.
So, I decided to move all essential stuffs like food, clothes and kitchen items myself in my car. For the heavy items like furniture, plant pots etc. I hired a packers and movers and asked them to leave those in the garage. The plan went fine, except that I had to take 8-10 round trips in my car to complete the move.


At the new place, some neighbors welcomed us by waving hands from across the street. Some talked to us by staying at a comfortable distance and wearing a mask. Because of the mask, I still don’t know whom I talked to during those initial days. The First week was busy for everyone arranging/unpacking stuff and even our kids were busy arranging their toys.


The house we moved in to is a 2-Bed unit with a small backyard. I noticed a lot of aquatic and other birds flying around and that shows the presence of some water bodies nearby. My guess was right and after looking at the Google map, I found a river with a small reservoir and a lake in the vicinity. These brought lot of birds in and around my backyard. The presence of birds makes me super excited because I am a hobbyist wildlife photographer. There are also some trails around these water bodies.

Now coming back to backyard, we added a hummingbird feeder, a bird feeder and a birdbath in my backyard in order to attract tiny birds. The first visitor at the hummingbird feeder was a Rufous Hummingbird. This is a migratory hummingbird species that travel around 2000 miles from Alaska. I have read about these birds but seeing one in real for the first time. Then the Anna’s Hummingbird came for a sip. Anna’s hummingbirds are native to the area. Male Anna’s got beautiful metallic colored feathers around its neck that looks dark purple or red, greenish black based on the direction of light. Another species, Allen’s hummingbird also visited my feeder and is also a migratory species. Allen’s are somewhat like Rufous and is not easy to distinguish between.



Our Hummingbird Feeder



Male Annas Hummingbird



Female Annas Hummingbird



Rufous Hummingbird Male



Rufous



Allens Hummingbird


There is a resident Redtail Hawk at a big Eucalyptus tree near the house and usually it will be there during early mornings. Proximity of hills and farms brings lot of turkey vultures as well as raptors since there are ground squirrels and small mammals in abundance. Unlike Indian or Himalayan vultures, turkey vultures are tiny, almost the size of a hen. It got a wingspan of 3.5 to 4 foot and color range from black to brown. Male turkey vultures have red color neck and head and for females or juveniles, it varies from grey to black.




Our Neighbor - Red-tail Hawk



Red-Tail Hawk



Red-Tail Hawk



Turkey Vulture



Turkey Vulture



There is a crow’s nest nearby and they were busy driving away Turkey vultures and Redtail hawks throughout the day. Crows handle turkey vultures easily, whereas the Redtail hawk knows how to tackle crows to some extent. During one such faceoff, I thought the opponent was a Redtail, but a closer look revealed it's a Bald Eagle. It’s a rare bird in most of Bay Area. Even though they are huge, crows can easily scare them away.




Bald Eagle - Not lucky enough to get a good shot



My birdbath soon turned into a favorite hanging spot for tiny birds like House Finches, Lesser Goldfinches, House Sparrows and California Towhees and wrens. Male house finches got red/purple colored feathers and is a bright looking songbird. Lesser goldfinch color ranges from green to bright yellow and is a tiny bird. House sparrows are like the one we see in India.




House Finch Male



House Finch Male



Sparrow



Sparrow



Lesser Goldfinch - They are tiny



California Towhee - There is a similar bird in India




Bewick's Wren



Bewick's Wren



Bewick's Wren



A killdeer also came close to our backyard and it has beautiful big eyes compared to size of the bird. Another bird is Eurasian collared doves which is slightly bigger than Mourning doves. Scrub/Stellar Jays are beautiful blue colored birds and are common in the area. They are very territorial and aggressive.



Kill Deer



Eurasian Collared Dove



Scrub Jay



Occasionally there are flocks of Gulls and American White Pelicans soaring high at the sky. Once during night, we heard the call of two Horned Owls up in the hill, but unable to spot them since it was dark. One shortcut to stop owls during daytime is to watch crows or Jays behavior as they are aggressive towards owls. Since there are lots of stray cats around our area, Owls stay away




American White Pelican



Mockingbird is an interesting bird and as name suggest it can mimic other bird sounds. Once I heard it mimicking Eurasian collared dove. Bewick’s Wren is a tiny bird around 4-inch in size usually seen alone looking for tiny bugs and spiders. Occasionally it used to come to our birdbath




Mocking Bird



My neighbor got a mulberry tree and has lot of purple mulberries. It’s a favorite hanging spot for a family of hooded orioles. Male birds are bright yellow with black color in the head and wings. Females range from pale yellow to grey. Parents with three chicks make the family of five.




Hooded Oriole Male



Hooded Oriole



Hooded Oriole


To be Continued..

[arunrajk81]

By now its end of May and nearly two months since shelter-in-Place was issued. it started getting bored with backyard birding alone and was looking for a change. Same time I want to avoid venturing outside for non-essential stuffs as the situation in US is getting worse from pandemic point of view. What else is possible by staying at home that also interests me? Gardening is the first thing that popped in my mind. My wife is already doing gardening with the limited resources available. Her gardening interest is different from mine. My wish list includes fruit trees and vines. Dragon fruits cactus, grape vine and apple trees are always in the top of my list whereas she is interested in vegetables and edible leaves. I decided to build a raised bed garden and started gathering tools and items.


Cheapest way to build a raised bed is by buying lumbar as per our requirement from Home Depot. There are two issues – First is pandemic and second is an 8 ft lumbar will be a tight fit in my car. One or two I can manage, but I need more in number. Home Depot doesn’t have shipping for Lumbar. So, what next? One option is to build one using kits available online and they have shipping available. Its almost 2-2.5x costly, but that is fine because of the situation.


I ordered an 8 x 4 ft setup and with required soil, mulch and supporting tools online. Once the raised bed is setup, my wife took control from me for her veggies. First to start was Tomatoes with varieties like Cherry, Cherry-grape, Roma and Rose. Then gradually she added cucumbers, beets, carrots, strawberries and chillies to the raised bed. Grey squirrels who were welcome visitors earlier soon became a nuisance since they started digging our garden for roots.




Roma Tomatos - This is the one we normally get in Market



Cherry Tomato



Cherry-Grape Tomato - Usually available in Costco Stores



Rose Tomato



Another Variety - Lost track from where I got this from.



Beetroots



Cucumber



I build a trellis for Dragon fruit cactus and First variety planted is American Beauty. It’s a self-pollinating variety with pink skin and pink flesh for the fruit. But taste wise, I like the thorny yellow variety which is sweeter. I couldn’t find a started plant or cutting for yellow variety. Next is to start collecting starter plants/seeds for what we planned. Some were Purple Passion fruit, Flame/Thompson-Seedless Grape, Some apple variety, Mandarin Oranges. I couldn’t find Flame-Seedless Grape variety around the nurseries, may be because of off season, but managed to find a Thompsons seedless potted plant. An arbor/trellis was setup for grapes and Passion fruit vines. We already have starter for Curry leaves, Ladies finger, Capsicum/Bell Pepper etc that we took from our old garden and were given a spot in our new garden.




Trellis for Dragon Fruit with my Little dragon Fruit Plant.



Arbor for Grapes and Passion Fruit.



Bell Pepper/Capsicum



Lady Bug - He a tiny predator who help plants by eating harmful insects.



Automatic Drip irrigation was setup as the summer is extreme in our area. This is essential since once in few months, we used to take 3-4 days road trips. Our current drip system helps potted and raised bed plants but killed some newly planted apple trees in the ground due to over watering. A lesson learned – My soil is not well draining and has more clay content. It retains water for very long time. So, I removed drip from newly planted ones in the ground. One tip to increase water draining in clay soil is to plant Sunflower near to the fruit trees. Sunflower’s roots grow deep and once it grows fully, cut it from the base rather than plucking it from the ground so that the root stays and decay over time which creates drain holes.




Mammoth Sun Flower



It’s July and by now and the tomato, lady finger, cucumber and beans etc started giving their produce.Cherry tomato was the first one to ripe followed by Cherry-Grape and then Roma. I Started experimenting with grafting. Meyer lemon was grafted to our Sweet lime tree, then pink dragon fruit cactus was grafted with yellow variety using a tiny cutting we got from a fruit that was purchased from shop. They are all still inside their wrap.



Everyone is learning to live in a world with the pandemic in full swing. When considering a drive San-Luis Wildlife Refuge was the first one to come up. The name might be confusing, it’s a protected marsh land and not a zoo type environment. This place has a rare variety of Elk called Tule Elk, a species saved from verge of extinction from a single pair in 1874. Now around 4000 individuals exist. This place also has tons of birds, especially Owls, one of my favorite photography subjects. Another reason to go here was this place has an Auto Route Trail option so that we can drive though those. Chances of sighting a Horned owl is almost 80%, if we are lucky enough, we may come across red/grey fox, coyotes. During Season, this place is well known for Sandhill cranes. During this I saw horned owl, grey fox and few Male Elks and some raptors.




Auto Trail at San Luis Wildlife Refuge



Tule Elk



Tule Elk



Horned Owl



Horned Owl



Sand Hill Crane - Old Pic



California Quail



American Kestrel - A beautiful tiny Raptor type bird



White Tailed Hawk - A similar looking Bird is there in India too



Great Egret



Green Heron - From the Trail



Green Heron



Western Bluebird



Western Bluebird - Juvenile



Coyote



Grey Fox



With this I am winding up, Special Thanks to frontend and essential workers who work tirelessly to help our community during this pandemic.

[creative420]

Quite a bountiful thread. You get a bountiful produce and sightings, while giving us fellow locked-down humans such a bountiful visual tour. Please keep updating this thread if not on monthly, but on a quarterly basis. Your documentation is amazing. Time to start an IG page for it, if you don't already.

[Aditya]

Wonderful pictures Arun. You have photographed some birds that we will never see here in India. You have a really good eye for these creatures. You have also managed to capture them in your camera at the perfect time.

The lockdown during the pandemic has really allowed some people to concentrate on their passions. A neighbour of has a similar passion for birds. He kept sending pictures throughout the lockdown period. He would spot 20 different species of birds in the same space that I would spot a crow, a pigeon and (probably) a parrot.

[Rehaan]

Lovely pictures!

A bit of constructive criticism, if i may: Consider dialing back the post-processing a bit.

Especially the saturation and the HDR (shadow/highlights?) which is causing very visible halos around the birds.

[Raghu M]

That's living close to the nature. If there is a silver lining during this pandemic, it should be things like this. It was great to see the home produce, hope you continue the interest!

[arunrajk81]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

Lovely pictures!

A bit of constructive criticism, if i may: Consider dialing back the post-processing a bit.

Especially the saturation and the HDR (shadow/highlights?) which is causing very visible halos around the birds.

You are correct, It’s due to HDR setting and I was experimenting with different post processing option.

[lejhoom]

Extremely beautiful photos. Thank you for sharing. That coyote is looking very mean. It doesn't like being photographed. Not a bit. The looks says so.

[Dragonheart22]

The Indian cousin of the White tailed hawk is the Black Winged Kite. Funny how humans name people, animals, things by their appearances as adjectives.

A quick wikipedia check tells me that the three variations over the American continents, Eurasia and Africa and Australia form one super-species (essentially the same bird)

[Chillout]

Amazing pictures and most importantly your backyard garden has some great produce , nothing like harvesting and cooking your own produce, especially during these Covid times where it's safe to stay at home as much as possible