It's been over a month since my last confession... I mean, entry.  Here are a few highlights and photos.

For Kimya's birthday, April 28th, we went for a hike at the confluence of the north and middle forks of the American River near Auburn.

She's trying out her new camera on these globe lilies.

This cooperative pipevine swallowtail on Ithuriel's spear also proved to be a nice photo subject for both of us.

Here's a particularly noble looking western fence lizard.

The highlight of the Spring Migration tour at the Sac Regional Bufferlands (www.bufferlands.com) was this Sanderling (lower right).

A Wood Duck pair on a newly installed box is always an encouraging sign.

On May 6th, Kimya joined me for a trip to Sierra Valley to help the Feather River Land Trust (http://www.frlt.org/) install some artificial Burrowing Owl burrows at the Maddelena Property in Plumas County.

Brewer's Sparrows were singing all around.

And we saw several Sage Thrashers.

It was a wonderful spring day, with Willets displaying, bird song everywhere and great views of the surrounding mountains.  As I was addressing the group with a little background on Burrowing Owl burrows, a long-tailed weasel ran by; sadly, I was the only one to see it.

As we were looking for sites to place the burrows, a couple of Whimbrels flew over; apparently they are very rare for Sierra Valley (not on the bird list).

Farther south in the valley on our way home we spied natural Burrowing Owl burrow makers:  Belding's ground squirrels.  This was along Hwy 49 in Sierra County.

For the season, there was a lot of snow.  After crossing back over the Donner Summit on Hwy 80, we drove past the Hampshire Rocks campground where Kimya and I first met in 1990 on a field geology class trip.  We stopped along the Yuba River near the Rainbow Lodge.  The water was roaring!  Juncoes and Fox Sparrows hopped around on the few patches of bare dirt.

The next day we helped out on a survey organized by Maureen Geiger for the Coloma area.  Kimya and I surveyed Pine Hill near Rescue.  The birding was great, with warblers everywhere.  Highlights included a Common Poorwill flushed from the road, a Hairy Woodpecker, 4 Olive-sided Flycatchers, a Red-breasted Nuthatch, 5 California Thrashers, ~30 warblers (most numerous were Townsend's and Wilson's), and 5 Chipping Sparrows.

Also in evidence were many nice wildflowers, including Chinese Houses.

At the top of Pine Hill, Turkey Vultures were roosting on the cell phone towers.  This one flew just over our heads.

And finally, a new county bird!  Eurasian Collared-Doves have made it to Sacramento County.  John Trochet found one on the Rio Cosumnes CBC on January 3rd, and Andy Engilis found a small population along Lambert Rd near Bruceville.  I stopped by on the way to the Cosumnes River Preserve (www.cosumnes.org) on May 18th and this guy was sitting on the wire.  Oh, the biodiversity.