November 23, 2004
Grebes, gulls and geese
Wind, rain and fog often conspire to ruin a good day's birding in the Central Valley, so naturally I've been making the most of the dry sunny weather! Yesterday Sami and I hit the City of Davis Wetlands in the hope of relocating the weekend's Eurasian Wigeon. No such luck, but we did see three pairs of Blue-winged Teal and many thousands of flyover geese, including all 5 species seen regularly in the Central Valley. In the afternoon, Caz and I hit the Yolo Wildlife Area, where the highlights included my first Western Sandpipers of the Big Year, a hunting Peregrine and huge numbers of geese and Tundra Swans coming in to roost.
Pine Siskins continue to increase in the Davis area, with at least 10 birds around Joan Humphrey's house this morning, and 4 in Solano Park Garden yesterday.
This morning Joan and I headed to the Port of Sacramento in an attempt to find a Surf Scoter. This didn't happen, but I county-ticked this Mew Gull (233) loafing with Western Grebes.
A much more surprising find was this Horned Grebe...
... followed shortly by a second bird (the third and fourth county records for the year)!
Back in Davis, Burrowing Owl and Red-breasted Sapsucker took my CV Big Year list to a respectable 153.
Posted by rjhall at November 23, 2004 11:14 PM