November 30, 2004
Thanksgiving trip day 4 - carry on up the Central Valley
The last leg of our grand tour of southern California was the journey home through the Central Valley. The birding started before 7am in the freezing cold of the sagebrush around Maricopa, looking for Le Conte's Thrasher. Amazingly, our target bird showed within minutes of our arrival, and even perched obligingly out in the open! If only all lifers were this easy...
We also got Sage Sparrow for the CV Big Year before moving on to warmer climes.
Next stop was Lake Ming in Kern County, where we were fortunate enough to run into the finder of the Clay-colored Sparrow and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker we were looking for. In a bizarre moment of deja vu, we talked ourselves into believing we had seen 2 Clay-colored Sparrows, only to discover after checking the field guides that they were in fact Chipping! We had more luck with the Sapsucker though, which gave excellent views tapping out its tune on a telegraph pole!
Other good birds at Lake Ming included a Greater Scaup for the CV Big Year list, and a fine view of a soaring Prairie Falcon. The rest of the day was spent driving up back roads trying to avoid the holiday traffic on I5. We arrived at Cosumnes River Preserve just before sunset, unfortunately a little too late to find the wintering Swamp Sparrow. However, this was more than compensated for by wonderful views of hundreds of Sandhill Cranes flying in to roost - a fitting end to a very birdy weekend!
The facts and figures for those who are interested: we saw 172 species over the weekend, including 7 lifers and 12 state birds for me. ABA year list: 431
CA year list: 371 Central Valley Big Year list: 156.
Very nice! Other than the parrots among the birds you list, 10 would've been lifers for me, but probably more since I've never done a pelagic (planning to do one out of Washington next year). It's so much fun to read the enthusiasm of someone from abroad enjoying our birds!
Posted by: Mad AZ Monk at November 30, 2004 6:11 PM