September 17, 2004
Birders invade Davis!
Yesterday I took my regular bike ride along Putah Creek. The best of the migrants were a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, a showy Pac-slope Flycatcher and my first of fall Lincoln's Sparrow. To my great surprise, the Great Horned Owl with the eye injury that I spotted 3 weeks ago was still alive and kicking - the bird flew strongly across the creek, and other than the tumour-like growth below the eye looked to be in good shape.
Perhaps more unusual was the fact that I ran into two other birders here! Davis seems to be getting an unprecedented level of birding coverage this fall, and things look set to get even better: Alison has asked me to help lead a guided bird walk around the arboretum for the incoming students, after a staggering 80 people signed up!
In preparation for this, I birded the arboretum and neighbouring Solano Park Garden this morning. Sparrows are already moving through the latter site, with at least 3 Lincoln's Sparrows
and 2 juvenile White-crowned Sparrows
joining the Goldfinch flock.
The arboretum is looking good too, with one oak holding 4 warbler spp and a Pacific-slope Flycatcher. Other unusual birds here were a Downy Woodpecker, and with the Mallard flock, a single Wood Duck...
... and, bizarrely, 2 Green-winged Teal (one pictured here with a Mallard).
Am hoping we can dig up something good here for next week - a Waterthrush on the lake would be nice!
Posted by rjhall at September 17, 2004 08:03 PM