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Starting to Catch Up!!!
- Posted at 9:23 PM on Sunday, April 1, 2007 by Chris Conard Folks, It's been a long time. Yeah, I've been busy, and, yeah, Surfbirds was down for a while, but if I am going to continue to have a blog, I better, well, blog. What follows is a thumbnail sketch of the Christmas Bird Count season through the end of January 07. I'm thrilled to see that Surfbirds has upped the file storage to 50 MB, because I was about to run out of room for photos. As described in the previous post, Kimya and I typically head out of town for the Thanksgiving week. We're not much (or, honestly, even any) into holidays, but Christmas is a time to get together (in a secular sense) with family, and it is very important to many people. On Christmas Eve, there was a break in the action, so we drove south of Dixon to Cook Ln, the entrance to Jepson Prairie, to see the Northern Shrike that had been there for nearly a month.  At first we thought the bird was going to be a no show, but as we were parked along Cook Ln, it flew to the wire directly above us. Unfortunately, I didn't have my SLR, so only managed some more distant digiscopes. On the 12/30/06 Sacramento CBC, Kimya and I covered our typical area of south Sacramento. She spotted this nice White-throated Sparrow. Other highlights for our day included a female Red-breasted Merganser with 800 Common Mergansers on Greenhaven Lake, and a Western Tanager at Reichmuth Park.On the 1/2/07 Rio Cosumnes CBC, Andy and Irene Engilis heard a calling and singing Brown Thrasher in the Tall Forest at the Cosumnes River Preserve. John Trochet heard it on 1/5, but I didn't get a chance to look for it until the 7th. I had no luck, but did see several Purple Finches, and a great morning flyout of Sandhill Cranes, and this curious River Otter in Wood Duck Slough. Unfortunately, the thrasher was never seen.  The Rio Cosumnes Count includes my place of work: the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District Bufferlands. Kimya and I covered a portion of the riparian forest, and after the main count was over, ran out to find a few birds we were still missing for our area. Best for us was a Redhead, a Barn Swallow, and a Red Fox Sparrow. I also participated in the Stockton CBC, the Lincoln CBC, and, the big one for me, the 12/31/06 Folsom CBC. For the past three years, I've been the compiler for that count. Trying to coordinate coverage by 50+ volunteers is a challenge, but it was good count this year--the first of the three without rain or high winds. The highlight was a Northern Saw-whet Owl that posed for some nice pictures for those lucky enough to see it. I wasn't able to break away, and when I returned on the first of the year, it wasn't there. I came back again the following weekend, but it was nowhere to be found. A Northern Shrike was another good report for the count. There was an intriguing report of two Black-chinned Hummingbirds at a feeder in El Dorado Hills. I followed up on that, and found an amazing number of hummers--at least 40--with 10 or more at the feeders almost all of the time.  I admit to a bit of ignorance about the finer points of hummingbird ID--I just haven't put in the time and I've become complacent with the common local hummers. This was a good experience, because I got to really study the range of variation in Anna's Hummingbirds (I don't have a feeder and rarely feeder-watch). The homeowners were very nice and allowed me to station myself on their deck. Shortly, an immature male, slightly smaller, caught my eye, and I took a number of photos. Foolishly, I posted a message on the Central Valley Bird Club listserv and the Sierra Nevada listserv that I had seen one of the reported Black-chinned Hummingbirds before I had looked at my photos.  A problem with photography is that the desire to document sometimes overrides the instinct to look carefully. The bird I photographed is instead an immature male Costa's Hummingbird. I returned the following weekend and saw the bird again. Interestingly, the observers still believe they had a Black-chinned Hummingbird (or two) at the feeders--they said that this isn't one of the birds they saw. A Black-chinned would be truly outstanding in winter here, so it remains an unsolved mystery. In the process, though, I did get a chance to look more carefully at the hummingbirds than I have in recent years.  This is a picture of a chunk of ice next to my Leatherman multi-tool for scale. January of 2007 was the driest on record and one of, if not the, coldest. There was ice over two inches thick on Morrison Creek at the Bufferlands while I was checking Wood Duck boxes. I could almost stand on it before breaking through. This is the first time since 1990 that I have seen ice anywhere this thick in the Sacamento area. With the cold came a flock of approximately one million European Starlings (800,000), Brewer's Blackbirds (200,000), and Brown-headed Cowbirds (5,000-10,000) roosting in the wastewater treatment plant process area. Although it was frightening to see so many starling and cowbirds, knowing what they do to the local songbird populations, it was an amazing spectacle.  The starling sunset--only one small pulse coming in to roost.  For the second year in a row, Solano County hosted the state's only Snowy Owl (one was to later turn up in Humboldt this year). Last year's bird was the first in California since 1978!  On January 13th, Kimya and I took a boat ride out of Suisun City along with many others to see the bird that had been found near Grizzly Island. I was able to manage so-so photos, but a year earlier to the day I was able to do much better with this bird south of Davis: Speaking of great birds, we rushed out after work on Monday, 1/22/07, and enjoyed views of the actively feeding Smew as darkness fell. We returned the following Saturday for another look, but it was gone, only to return on Sunday and Monday, and then vanish. The bird was in a small pond in Soulsbyville, just east of Sonora.  The photo opportunities in the fading light left a lot to be desired, but we had great views. Our friend Steve Abbott had gotten there earlier, and he was able to get some great photos. On Saturday, we did have a great chance to photograph Ring-necked Ducks. One even came into feed on bread.  This duck, known to the locals as George Washington, kept us laughing even without the Smew. 
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- Posted at 6:02 AM on Monday, April 2, 2007 by rjhall Good to see you back again! Really liked the roosting Starling photo. Your Snowy Owl pic from last year is turning me green with envy! |
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welcome back
- Posted at 2:28 PM on Monday, April 2, 2007 by Anonymous also glad to see you back, missed the calif blogging. Seen some great birds I see. |
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