June 07, 2004
Local birding: martins, owls and aquatic mammals
Inspired by the number of eastern US vagrants on the California coast, Joan Humphrey and I headed out to Babel Slough and the Wood Duck ponds in eastern Yolo County, hoping for a Northern Parula. Needless to say we failed (in fact the only migrant we saw was a Western Tanager). However, this was more than compensated by good, prolonged views of a playful pair of River Otters, and this photogenic Green Heron, which was somehow managing to catch fish through a dense layer of algae.
Perhaps these turtles were relying on the algae to camouflage them from the hungry heron!
By 9:30 it was too hot to look for migrants, so we stopped off in West Sacramento for a try at Purple Martins. To our great surprise we were successful in locating several birds, feeding at lower elevations than expected. My county list now stands at 208 (and looks set to stay at this figure until fall migration).
At sunset, Joan, Roger, Grete and I headed back out along Putah Creek looking for Western Screech Owl babies.
While we didn't find any young, we did get great views of an adult. Amazingly, my attempts to digiscope the bird by flashlight were pretty successful!
This morning's outing to Putah Creek revealed a dearth of migrants, but I had good views of a Beaver pushing a log downstream. The small ponds opposite the creek held the usual Common Moorhens
and several noisy Bullfrogs.
