Lesser Yellowlegs

One of the great things about my trip to Fern Ridge Reservoir last weekend were all the Yellowlegs that I saw. The viewing platform area off from Royal Avenue had the highest concentrations. If they weren't nearby in a pond, they were flying over head.
The other cool thing was the fact that there were both Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs mixed together which provided a great opportunity to compare the two species.
The upper two images are of a couple of Lessers that stuck together for the most part, while the bottom image shows them along with a Greater. You can easily see the difference in size and fact that the Greater's bill slopes up slightly while the Lesser's is relatively straight.
To me, there also seems to be something different about the heads. Greater's seem to have slightly longer necks and their heads seem to have more well defined features. It's subtle, but I can usually see it even when they aren't side by side.

California Quail

I've seen several California Quail, both before and after I rejuvenated my birding hobby, but I only have a couple of so-so pictures of them. The reason is they are very elusive. I typically see them dashing across the road while I am driving, but I'm usually not in a situation in which I can stop to take a picture and even if I am, they quickly scoot out of site into the grass or brush along the road.
It's also typical to see young Quail scurring with the adults. Such was the case as I approached the parking lot on Rogers Ave at Fern Ridge Reservoir yesterday, only this time one of the adults stuck around long enough for me to pull over my car and snap a few pictures. It was like it was standing watch as it let out odd sounding clucks as it stood out on the road.
I was trying out a 300mm lens and 1.7x teleconverter combination that I had rented for the weekend. The usual 400mm and 600mm were both out, so I thought I'd try this out. My 70mm - 300mm zoom is not capable of accepting a teleconverter so this gave me an equivalent 500mm with a little more sharpness; or that was the theory.
I wasn't quite as impressed as I thought I would be as even though it was a f4.0 (mine is f5.6 at 300mm) the 1.7x teleconverter increased the focal length to f6.7. And since it was an older lens, I lost the advantage of vibration reduction. Luckily there was bright sunlight this weekend so the slowness wasn't as big of a factor, but the images were definitely not as sharp as the results I get with the f2.8 400mm or f4 600mm, even with teleconverters.

Pectoral Sandpiper

I drove down to Fern Ridge yesterday to check out the shore bird action I have been reading about on OBOL. It was a beautiful place and chocked full of birds, but unfortunately the Ruff seems to have gone missing a few days ago and I didn't see the other birds I was hoping for, such as a Red-neck Phalarope, American Avocet or Stilt Sandpiper.
I did however, get some great views of Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs and California Quail. I also saw a new life bird; a Pectoral Sandpiper. It flew in while I was taking pictures of some Yellowlegs which was great because it helped give me a feel for its size. This wasn't the hardest shorebird I've tried to identified, but it wasn't easy either. The combination of its overall look and size combined with the yellow legs and shorter bill with orangish, yellow base were the major factors influencing my decision.
In addition, I believe it is a juvenile as its breast is paler and more streaked than an adult and its back has more rufous tones.