June 20, 2004
Overnight on Rayhouse
On Saturday evening I joined Steve Hampton on a camping trip up Rayhouse Road. Our intention was to walk one of the wooded trails in search of noteworthy breeding species (most birders rarely stray from the road, leaving vast areas of excellent habitat unbirded). As we set up our tent at the start of the Fiske Creek Trail, we spotted a Pacific-slope Flycatcher (no confirmed breeding records in Yolo County in the last 30 years). In the adjacent trees we heard the begging calls of young birds, but frustratingly were unable to confirm that the Pac-slope was the parent. As dusk fell, we headed up to the high chaparral, where surprisingly we failed to find a single Poorwill. The night sky was pretty spectacular though. On the drive down we saw a Western Jumping Mouse, a bizarre long-tailed rodent which hopped kangaroo-like out of the road. I fell asleep to the sounds of a Western Screech-Owl and an unidentified mammal (fortunately not a Mountain Lion).
Next morning we got up bright and early to walk the Fiske Creek Trail. Highlights along this walk included another Pac-slope Flycatcher, many singing Black-headed Grosbeaks, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, a Hutton's Vireo feeding young, and excellent views of a pair of Lawrence's Goldfinch, apparently collecting nesting material. I only managed these blurry shots of the male, posted for the benefit of John who's never seen one. :-)
Heading back up to the chaparral we saw a family party of California Quail, 5 more Lawrence's Goldfinch (giving their characteristic flight call), had brief glimpses of a Sage Sparrow and a lone singing Rufous-crowned Sparrow - things get very quiet up here in the breeding season!
We stopped off at the Rumsey bridge over Cache Creek to listen (unsuccessfully) for last month's Yellow-breasted Chat, but we did hear Spotted Sandpiper and got a nice view of this showy male California Quail.
Our last foray into some great riparian habitat west of Guinda was fairly quiet (probably due to the time of day), but we had good views of an Orange-crowned Warbler feeding young, and Hutton's Vireos seemed to be everywhere!
Posted by rjhall at June 20, 2004 11:40 PM