Sacramento and Beyond

October Surprise - Posted at 2:57 PM on Sunday, October 29, 2006 by Chris Conard

Just as it seemed like migration was cooling off, a number of great birds have turned up. Best by far was a Taiga Flycatcher found along upper Putah Creek on 10/25/06 (http://www.cal.net/~ani/photos.htm). Sadly for me, I was at a Wildlife Society conference. The conference was actually quite good, but if the bird had been found on a regular work day, I could have run out there after work. Kimya and I devoted the following afternoon and the next morning looking without success. This is apparently the first record for mainland North America: an incredible record at an underwatched location. Our wounds were somewhat salved by this cooperative Northern Pygmy-Owl. Only somewhat.

This cooperative Bewick's Wren was also along Putah Creek near the Taiga Flycatcher spot.

The previous Monday, we went looking for an American Tree Sparrow that was mist-netted and banded at the Yolo Wildlife Area. I didn't notice it in the field, but photos revealed that this bird is banded. We had two tree sparrows in the same scope view, confirming a suspicion that there were two birds present.

On Saturday, 10/28, I joined John Trochet and several others for the Orr Ranch survey at Cosumnes River Preserve. John was filling in for Terry Ronneberg, who has been laid up with valley fever. I cut out a little early to go look for a Black-throated Sparrow that John had found on 10/26. It was quite a ways from where he found it, but just as I was giving up, the bird popped up among many crowned sparrows: a real beauty!

In the catching up department, on 10/8/06, John Trochet, Andy Engilis, and I did a "big day" at Cosumnes River Preserve, and the roads connecting the parcels, as a fundraiser for the Point Reyes Bird Observatory (www.prbo.org). Somewhat of a surprise to all of us was that we ended with a total of 128 species. This is only two lower than a county-wide effort I made last year with several others. One nice aspect of restricting our coverage to a smaller area was that we were birding a lot more than we were driving.

Highlights of the day included a Western Grebe (a new species for the preserve!), a Peregrine Falcon, Pectoral Sandpipers (I drove right by them as I was rushing to park the car and get us all consolidated into Andy's vehicle, but they were picked up by Andy and John), Red-breasted Sapsucker (a tough bird to find on the preserve), four species of swallow (violet-green, tree, cliff, barn), Winter Wren, eight species of warblers, including Hermit, Yellow-headed Blackbird and Great-tailed Grackle. The highlight for me was the time spent at Howard Ranch, which is normally closed. Andy is great at imitating bird calls, and he was finally able to get a Rufous-crowned Sparrow to respond as it was getting dark. Also at the ranch were several Phainopeplas, and we enjoyed close views of Common Poorwills and Burrowing Owls, along with a couple of kangaroo rats running across the road.

Higher resolution versions of these photos and more can be found at: http://new.photos.yahoo.com/chrisconard2002/albums

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