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Rick Morris can show you where the barn owls hang out, where the screech owls find their dinner and where the great horned owls nest. He can also show you hummingbirds, waterfowl, woodpeckers and more.
Morris is a local father and freelance tech worker who has a passion for birdwatching and nature photography, and he wants to share that passion with his neighbors. Morris leads local birding tours where he shows Peninsula residents the wonderful winged nature that can be found flying, chirping and nesting in their backyards.
The Almanac caught up with him for a morning birding walk at the Stanford Dish.
“This is a great place (for birds),” he said. “Though to get the good stuff you have to come pretty early in the morning or pretty late in the evening.”
A group of acorn woodpeckers on a dead tree at the Stanford Dish on Aug. 29, 2024. Courtesy Rick Morris. 
A group of acorn woodpeckers on a dead tree at the Stanford Dish on Aug. 29, 2024. Courtesy Rick Morris. 
A group of acorn woodpeckers on a dead tree at the Stanford Dish on Aug. 29, 2024. Courtesy Rick Morris. 
Local bird photographer Rick Morris photographs a group of acorn woodpeckers at the Stanford Dish on Aug. 29, 2024. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney.
Morris hasn’t always been a birder. “First I was a photographer before becoming a birder,” he said. “In 2009 I decided to get my first digital camera. Before that I was working with all film, which is very different.”
After being laid off from his corporate tech job during the COVID-19 pandemic, Morris stayed at home with his two kids. However, when his kids went back to school he would pick up his camera.
“I started going out and looking for hummingbirds,” he said. “They were kind of my first birding love. … (black-chinned hummingbirds) migrate here from April to June, and people go crazy over them because they’re so colorful — they’re gorgeous.”
Morris said one of his most memorable pictures that he has taken was of a mother hummingbird feeding her babies in a tiny nest. He scrolled through several up-close shots of hummingbirds on his phone, inviting us to share his delight in the small moments that he captured.
“I got a couple of shots of her with her mouth open, look at her tongue!” he exclaimed. “Those are always kind of rare to get, so I was really excited about that picture.”
The beginning of the bird tours
Local bird photographer Rick Morris shows a photo of a barn owl in the area during a bird walk at the Stanford Dish on Aug. 29, 2024. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney. 
Local bird photographer Rick Morris shows a photo of a violet-green swallow during a bird walk at the Stanford Dish on Aug. 29, 2024. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney.
Having taken thousands of pictures of local birds, Morris wanted to share his love of winged creatures with his neighbors. He started making calendars and greeting cards out of the pictures that he took, and selling them online and at local coffee shops. He also began posting his bird pictures on social media, including Nextdoor.
Morris said that after his bird photos started gaining a following online, he had people approach him to lead local birding tours.
“When I would go to local gardens, or even at church, people would say ‘are you Rick? I saw your pictures on Nextdoor,’ or ‘I follow you on Instagram.’ … And people started asking me ‘well why don’t you lead birding tours?’”
He took their advice to heart, and led his very first birding tour in January of this year. Since then, he has led over 40 tours for over 100 people, and is excited to lead more.
“When someone reaches out for a bird tour, I’ll ask them ‘what kind of birds do you like?’” he said. “Based on that, I will choose a location … and I’ll see what birds will be out at that time of year.”
One perk of going birding with Morris is that you don’t have to bring your own camera to get lasting memories of the birds you see on the tour. “I always give people the pictures that I take on their tours,” he said.
The Almanac was able to get a taste of Morris’ birding tours as we interviewed him. As we walked around the Dish trail, he pointed out all of the birds we were seeing — acorn woodpeckers, hawks, kestrels, swallows and more.
As he stopped and pointed at a red-shouldered hawk that had landed in a eucalyptus tree in the distance, a passerby noticed Morris and his camera.
“Are you guys seeing something I don’t see?” the passerby asked.
“Yes! It’s a red-shouldered hawk just right in that tree. It’s hard to see without the camera zoom,” said Morris. “I love red-shouldered hawks, they are beautiful against the sun.”
An American kestrel and an acorn woodpecker share a branch at the Stanford Dish on Aug. 29, 2024. Courtesy Rick Morris. 
An American kestrel flies while holding its grasshopper prey at the Stanford Dish on Aug. 29, 2024. Courtesy Rick Morris. 
An American kestrel lands on a branch at the Stanford Dish on Aug. 29, 2024. Courtesy Rick Morris.
Morris even spotted an American kestrel, a small bird of prey, and an acorn woodpecker sitting on the same branch, squabbling with one another.
“I love getting the interactions between birds,” he said. “Those are always the best pictures, when you have multiple birds, even of the same species, interacting.”
Owl tours
A great horned owl takes flight. Courtesy Rick Morris. 
Four baby great horned owls perch in a group. Courtesy Rick Morris. 
A pair of baby great horned owl perch in a tree. Courtesy Rick Morris. 
A barn owl peers out from its perch in a tree. Courtesy Rick Morris. 
Three baby great horned owl perch on a fence. Courtesy Rick Morris.
Though hummingbirds are his first love, Morris’ current obsession is owls. Morris told The Almanac that his most popular offerings are his evening owl tours. “Twenty-six of my 42-plus tours have been owl tours,” he said.
Morris began leading owl tours following a tour request from a Stanford professor.
“He said ‘can you take me out to see owls?’ … So I took him out, and we saw all three (local species of) owls … I know where a barn owl is, a family of great-horned owls and a western screech owl.
He posted pictures from his first owl tour online, and was soon inundated with owl tour requests.
“I posted the picture on Friday at like 4 p.m., and closed my computer. … Then at 10:30 (p.m.) I went back to my desk and there were like 20 emails that all said ‘Owl Tour?’ in the subject line.”
Morris says that owls are great tour subjects because they are “pretty predictable and consistent.”
“When I take people out, I know that I’m going to see (the owls) typically, whereas if I do a walking bird tour … you’ll have an idea of what you’re going to see, but you get what you get ultimately,” he said.
Morris says he continues to be awed by owls. He described one moment where his tour group was watching one barn owl sitting in a tree, when out of nowhere another barn owl flew up, interacted with the first owl, and then the two owls sped off into the night together.
“I was spending so much time with this one barn owl … and all of a sudden I’m like ‘oh my … there’s two of them!’” he said. “That was one of those things where I’m going to bed at night thinking about it, I wake up thinking about it,” he said. “I mean just pure fascination, right?”
Morris’ favorite owl was one that frequented his own neighborhood. “There was a western screech owl that I called Screechy. That was like five houses down from where I live. … It slept in an oak tree … with a big hole in the middle. The owl would spend its day down in the tree, and then pop out in the evening.”
Since owls often return to the same place, and can be sensitive to too much activity, Morris said that he emphasizes respect for wildlife on his tours. “I tell the people (on the tours) to not post the location of the owls (online), because they can get overwhelmed by too many people.”
Though he keeps most of his specific birding spots secret for the sake of the animals, Morris had some general suggestions for hotspots where budding birders can find cool birds.
“The Arizona Cactus Garden (at Stanford University) has been a great place — tons of hummingbirds and hawks there. … Filoli has nice hummingbirds too.”
Shoreline Park in Mountain View and Byxbee Park in Palo Alto are his other suggestions. Morris also said that the Stanford Dish, where The Almanac met up with him, is one of his other favorite local spots to pop out to for a quick birding excursion.
Morris’ Instagram: @Inthewildwithrick; find his bird calendars or book his birding tours: IntheWildwithRick.com. Contact Morris at inthewildwithrick@gmail.com.
