January 16, 2005
Back abroad
After the Marathon flight from London to San Francisco last Thursday, I finally felt recovered enough to kick off my 2005 birding this Saturday with Joan and visiting Maine birder Beezie. The day turned out to be exceptionally good, and I added two new birds to my county list!
The first good bird of the day was this adult Bald Eagle along Highway 16.
To our delight this bird joined another adult and two immatures in an aerial scrap over a fish - most impressive!
Next stop was the low water bridge to Rayhouse Road. We all heard a noise reminiscent of a squeaky dog toy. The mystery noise wasn't quite right for Downy Woodpecker, and just as we were ready to pass it off as a squirrel sp, the culprit revealed itself to be my first county Hairy Woodpecker!
Ironically, having spent over a year searching for Hairy Woodpecker in the county, we came across another two individuals that day!
Perhaps the most unexpected find of the day was this Horned Grebe, along with 7 Common and 4 Hooded Merganser on a tiny duckpond on County Road 103. Joan remarked that she'd never found anything more interesting than a Killdeer there previously!
With three great county birds in the bag, it seemed greedy to ask for more. And yet more came - a routine scan of the California Gulls at the Davis WWTP revealed my first US Glaucous Gull a large first winter standing out like a sore thumb amongst its smaller cousins.
If the rest of the year continues to be this good, the magical 250 for the county list could be within sight...
Posted by rjhall at January 16, 2005 4:22 PM