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Kickin' Around the Valley
- Posted at 7:57 PM on Friday, December 21, 2007 by Chris Conard As far as birding and other outdoors activities that keep me sane, this has been a relatively dry period. With that said, I get out for a little bit nearly every day. One highlight, however, was the Central Valley Birding Symposium. I led three days of tours to the Bufferlands and Stone Lakes NWR. They were a lot of fun, though there was nothing unexpected. Lingering Black-throated Gray and Townsend's Warblers were nice, however. The only photography I got in was during the digiscoping workshop on 11/19/07.  These super-aggressive Black Swans at the Turner Rd Vintner's test your courage. If they sense any weakness, they're after you. I was just able to keep up my nerve as this guy walked out of the water hissing at me.I couldn't believe how cooperative this Green Heron was.  Clay Taylor had an SLR attached to his scope and was able to fire off multiple shots per second. At one point the heron had its crest fully spiked and was actively foraging. With my super slow camera, I was lucky to get what I did. Earlier in the morning, I stopped along Woodbridge Rd at the Isenberg Crane Reserve. Off in the distance were 15-20,000 dark geese. From the closer birds, I could tell that both Greater White-fronted Geese and Aleutian Cackling Geese were well represented.  Also there was this cooperative Loggerhead Shrike This Prairie Falcon is seen nearly every day at the Bufferlands More unusual for the location has been a regular Rough-legged Hawk. I had only seen one before on the Bufferlands--back around 1999. It has been a good fall/winter for these in the Valley.   A Snow Goose hanging out with the Canadas on the Bufferlands.  This Red-necked Grebe at Lake Natoma was a great find for the Valley and a first in many years for Sacramento County.  About to dive  Kimya and I got to see the bird on 11/25 and then returned for better photo ops on 11/26. It continued into December, but I'm not sure if it is still around. Coming up next...Two whirlwind tours...One good...The other not... Post Comment
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Great Green Heron!
- Posted at 9:48 AM on Saturday, December 22, 2007 by rjhall ... and the raptor pics were pretty amazing too. Merry xmas! |
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