A Brit abroad

Davis birds: Chickadees galore, and Merlins return!

My birding has been limited to Davis this week, partly due to work and partly since the focus mechanism on my beloved Swarovski bins seems to have broken (boo hoo!). However, many good birds were still to be had. Willowbank Ditch holds at least 3 Chestnut-backed Chickadees, the continuing Winter Wren and a heard-only Western Tanager. Joan and I popped out to the Davis WWTP in miserable weather. In addition to good numbers of Herring Gulls, we saw this large, dark, 1st winter gull, which I suspect is a Western. This shot was all I could manage due to the distance and low light - any comments appreciated... (Postscript - local gull buff Jon King doesn't think this a Western based on structure and plumage. It's most likely 'just' a Herring Gull, but may have some Western genes in it).

Stephen and Carol, two friends of mine from Blighty with a mild interest in birds, came to visit today. They were pleased to get great views of the 2nd Street Burrowing Owls...

... and accompanying Jackrabbits.

Luck was on our side when we visited the Arboretum - the Chestnut-backed Chickadee followed us around for about 15 minutes and almost landed on us when we pished! Another bonus bird was a female/imm. Townsend's Warbler which gave equally eye-popping views, and we enjoyed great looks at a drake Wood Duck and singing Anna's Hummingbird. The two Cackling Geese and a Black-throated Gray Warbler were also still present this week, but alas, still no Varied Thrush...

This evening I biked up to North Pond, where an odd-looking Cackling Goose was consorting with the Canadas. Its plumage (including the cheeks and vent) seemed to be stained rusty-brown. Any ideas why? I assume from its prominent neck-collar that it's an Aleutian Goose.

Eyeing a flyover Red-tail...

I finally caught up with two of the 'urban Merlins' in Davis this evening (the second made a couple of passes at the perched bird before flying off east).

Here it is flinching from another attack, this time by an irritated American Crow.

Central Valley Quest

As the end of the Central Valley Big Year looms, 5 hardy souls (Daryl Coldren, Chris Conard, Karen Hochgraf, Sami LaRocca and I) gathered bleary-eyed at 4:30am in Woodland to search less-visited locations in the north valley for surprises. We weren't disappointed; over the next 15 hours each of us added at least 2 species to our Big Year lists, and saw an excellent selection of interesting species besides.

A pre-dawn drive up Sand Creek Road failed to produce Northern Pygmy-Owl (where did they all go?), but we did get a fly-by Common Poorwill for our efforts. After two Roadrunners eventually gave us good looks, we headed back to the creek crossing to watch the bathing birds. Lawrence's Goldfinches were still present in good numbers....

... but were joined by a surprising number of Purple Finches.

Most of the bathing was taking place under a tangle of branches, making digiscoping difficult, but I managed a couple of shots of a Purple Finch...

... and Golden-crowned Sparrow.

This Bewick's Wren was more obliging, taking a dust bath at the edge of the road.

Our next birding stop was scenic Black Butte Reservoir.

We saw no unusual waterbirds (save for good numbers of Aechmorphorus grebes), but were entertained by several Rock Wrens.

Many active Lewis's Woodpeckers and a fine adult Bald Eagle were an added bonus at this site.

Upon entering Bidwell Park in Chico, we came across a flurry of bird activity including a Brown Creeper and Red-breasted Sapsucker, but the highlight was an American Dipper found by Karen along Big Chico Creek. Uncharacteristically, the bird stayed put for several minutes, and I managed to grab a couple of photos (albeit in difficult light). I think this is the first Dipper seen in the Central Valley in the last 12 months!

Our last stop of the day was Thermalito Forebay, where sifting through the masses of Coot produced a single Common Goldeneye, two Greater Scaup, and an impressive 5 Common Loons. This photo of 2 of the loons was taken practically in the dark!

In the very last of the light, a Burrowing Owl perched on the rocks was a fitting end to a bird-filled day.

Cackling Geese

A rather run-of-the-mill walk around the Arboretum was enlivened by the appearance of two Cackling Geese. Last year at almost exactly the same time I found a Cackling Goose and an immature White-fronted Goose among the hordes of feral Canadas. This year's birds were grazing away from the main goose flock, and I managed a few photos. Both birds are short-necked and show a black stripe under the chin separating the white cheek patches. One of the birds had a suggestion of a white neck collar, and at times appeared larger than the other bird (especially in the last photo). I would tentatively guess that bird one is of the 'Cackling' subspecies minima, and bird 2 is 'Aleutian' (subspecies leucopareia). Any comments welcome!

Bird 1 (minima?)

Bird 2 (leucopareia?)

Both birds together

Welcome to the 400 Club...

In spite of living in the UK for the first 25 years of my life, and doing a fair amount of rarity chasing in that time, I never reached the benchmark of seeing 400 species in the country. However, after 22 months over here, my California list sailed past the 400 mark last Friday! The landmark species was a Flesh-footed Shearwater, pictured (badly) here with Sooty, Pink-footed and Buller's Shearwaters, on a Shearwater Journeys trip to the Cordell Bank.

Much of the day was socked in with fog, with Rhinoceros Auklets and Northern Fulmars (pictured below) of all shades being the most common birds of the day.

When the fog lifted a little, we came across good numbers of birds, including Tufted Puffin, Black-footed Albatross, South Polar Skua, Pomarine and Parasitic Jaegers in addition to resting shearwater flocks and lots of Cassin's Auklets. While I was thrilled to get good, close looks at my lifer Flesh-footed Shearwater, it was once again cetaceans that stole the show. Over the course of the day hundreds of Pacific White-sided Dolphins were riding the bow. I took these pictures leaning over the front of the boat .

It was often possible to hear them squeaking and I got sprayed several times when they came up to breathe!

These strange-looking Northern Right Whale-Dolphins were a new species for me, and gave equally good views.

Later in the day a small pod of Dall's Porpoises joined in the fun.

Also seen were many Ocean Sunfish (Mola Molas),

one or two Humpback Whales,

Harbor Porpoises, Northern Fur Seal and this Steller's Sealion playing with a Canary Rockfish before wolfing it down.

How nice it would be to work as a marine biologist...

The joys of local birding

Well, this hasn't been a classic fall for rarities - in fact, I haven't seen any life birds in almost 2 months! Instead, I've been concentrating on birding the local area, enjoying the regular stuff while keeping an eye open for the more unusual. Solano Park garden is a vegetable patch south of campus which has a history of attracting vagrant sparrows amongst the regulars. Last Saturday's oddities were a juvenile Chipping Sparrow and an obliging Lark Sparrow.

The first sizeable Junco flock has also arrived here.

Nearby, the Arboretum warbler flock has held one or two Townsend's and Black-throated Gray Warblers, as well as a couple of Chestnut-backed Chickadees (currently the only ones in the Central Valley are in Yolo County). Pretty birds, but a bugger to digiscope!

A drake Wood Duck has returned to his favoured spot in the Arboretum. It shows really well, but usually at too close range to digiscope - the following shot was taken through my binoculars, a bit overexposed but will try for better...

In South Davis, birding along Willowbank Ditch continues to be good - a Winter Wren looks settled for the winter, while transients included a late Warbling Vireo and Golden-crowned Kinglet (a county year bird).

Dowitcher and Yellowlegs numbers are well down at North Pond, but eye-popping views of 11 Wilson's Snipe was ample reward.

Putah Creek and the 'birdbath' have been disappointingly quiet, with yesterday's highlight being this young male Bullock's Oriole, apparently the latest record of this species in the county.

This morning Chris (new postdoc in our lab) and I visited Grasslands Park, where we had great flight views of Barn and Great Horned Owls, and this rather late Swainson's Hawk.

Our last stop of the morning was the Yolo Wildlife Area, where the shorebirds continue to look stunning bathed in the early morning light. This Pectoral Sandpiper was only on view for a minute or two...

... but the Long-billed Dowitchers and Least Sandpipers were much more cooperative.

Bodega birding

Last Sunday I joined the Yolo Audubon trip to Bodega Bay. Again the sunny skies and calm winds made for unexciting birding, but the scenery was to die for.

Birding highlights included a couple of Varied Thrush, a Sora feeding out in the open, a very distant Marbled Murrelet and some perched Forster's Terns at point blank range.

This tame California Sealion was entertaining the beach bums.

The most numerous birds of the day were shorebirds. The three regular winter 'rockbirds' (Surfbird, Ruddy and Black Turnstone) were all in place - here's a Ruddy that came close enough to photograph.

Two Peregrines (a juv and a smart steely blue adult) were wreaking havoc amongst the numerous Dowitchers, Black-bellied Plovers and Marbled Godwits. Amongst the flying birds we spotted a few Red Knot and had a tantalising glimpse of a Golden Plover sp. In spite of the lack of migrant passerines, we managed a good day total of over 100 species, and rounded off the day with a beer and fish and chips!

October owling

Last week I went out with Chris, a budding birder in my research group, in search of whatever we could find. As expected, we didn't find much, but at least the local Burrowing Owls were cooperative.

Along Putah Creek were a reasonable number of Zonotrichias, including this smart Golden-crowned Sparrow.

A trip to Grasslands Park this morning produced a Townsend's Warbler as the only migrant of note, but we were treated to excellent views of one of the roosting Barn Owls.

Nice Pecs!

Not a compliment I get paid very often... Yesterday Joan and I finally managed to track down a Pectoral Sandpiper in the county, at the Davis Wastewater Treatment Plant...

... only to hear that Ed Harper had found 3 the day before at the Yolo Wildlife Area. We went that evening to find at least 5 birds feeding at close range, but in very tricky light. Here's one with a Greater Yellowlegs...

... and a Killdeer.

We came back this morning, thinking that the morning light would result in some excellent photographic opportunities, only to find that they'd all cleared off! Instead, I took a few shots of the numerous Greater Yellowlegs, Least Sandpipers and Long-billed Dowitchers.

Digibinning Dolly!

Sunday felt like so many of my bird chases - driving to the coast in search of an exotic rarity. A large crowd had assembled for this one in Golden Gate Park - so large, in fact, that we had to satisfy ourselves with views from a nearby hillside, which unfortunately meant that our quarry remained hidden from view behind a bush, even when in full song. Eventually we obtained fantastic views out in the open of the one and only DOLLY PARTON!!! Naturally I had my binoculars along, and managed a few quite pleasing photos through them.

More photos below:

The Dollymobile arrives

Belting out the hits

Striking the pose

The oh-so-faraway stage

Fellow bluegrass revellers

Yeeee-haw!

Is that EmmyLou Harris?

Yes indeedy!

Nice hat...

Point(less) Reyes

I've spent the last two Saturdays on the annual pilgrimage to Point Reyes in search of vagrants. My first visit was on Kevin Guse's Yolo Audubon trip. We had gorgeous, sunny weather - which of course meant no birds! We heard a Yellow-billed Cuckoo at Drake's Beach (a good bird for California), enjoyed some nice close-up views of Townsend's and Black-throated Gray Warblers, migrating Cooper's and Sharp-shinned Hawks, and I year-ticked Red-throated Loon. It's a sign of how quiet things were that I managed to go the whole day without taking a bird photo! I did snap off a few photos of this smart Red Admiral though.

Visit number two was with Marcel. We left Davis at 5am to get to the outer point for first light, only to be confronted with strong winds and thick fog! Although I hadn't thought this possible, we actually saw even fewer migrants on the outer point than on last week's trip! The saving grace of the day was this confiding Chestnut-sided Warbler, associating with a few Yellow Warblers in the willows at Drake's Beach.

A pair of Great Horned Owls perched right over the path at the Abandoned Ranch.

Oodles of vocal Western Bluebirds were feeding along Radio Road.

On the way out we spotted an Osprey with a fish.

Last year it took four consecutive visits to get a really good day at the Point. Hopefully it's not too late for it to happen this year!

Birdbath update

Things continue to tick over along Putah Creek. Bucking the recent trend for early winter arrivals, this Kingbird had my pulse racing for a while (could it be the first county record of Tropical?) - until I saw its white outer tail feathers, confirming its ID as a very late Western.

Warbler diversity has really dropped at the birdbath over the last week, with 99% of all visits from Yellow-rumped Warblers.

Notable exceptions were this Orange-crowned Warbler...

... and Black-throated Gray Warbler.

At least five species of sparrow are now in the vicinity of the birdbath - here are two of them (Song and White-crowned).

Most unexpected visitors were this pair of Wood Ducks, both banded with a wide silver ring on their left legs - presumably they were born in one of the local nest boxes.

Adding to the fun were 2(!) flyover Peregrines (an overdue bike tick for me) and a heard-only Chestnut-backed Chickadee.

While watching the sunset from the Pedrick Road bridge, I spotted this unfortunate Gray Fox carcass.

This Kestrel seemed to be in much better shape!

Little Big Day

On the last Sunday of September, Joan and I decided to run a mellow Big Day in Yolo County as part of the PRBO Bird-a-thon. We started the day at 6am listening to the dawn chorus of Scrub-Jays and Red-breasted Nuthatch at Joan's house, before heading north to watch the early morning flyout of waterbirds along the Yolo Bypass (hundreds of White-faced Ibis and a single Sandhill Crane were the highlights). This young Swainson's Hawk stayed put for long enough to be digibinned from the car window.

Next we headed for Babel Slough, where migrant activity was dead slow, save for a surprise Phainopepla and Hermit Warbler. Scouting a couple of days beforehand revealed many Semipalmated Plovers at the Bridgeway Island Pond.

Needless to say on the actual day we couldn't even find one! We did, however, pick up a bonus Virginia Rail and Short-billed Dowitcher. Back in Davis, a pit-stop at Willowbank Ditch produced yet another Willowbank Ditch (obligingly sitting right below the wooden bridge), while the Putah Creek birdbath was disappointingly quiet. Things rallied a little at North Pond, where I added Lesser Yellowlegs, Rufous Hummingbird and this Lesser Scaup to the day list.

The Davis WWTP held a reasonable selection of shorebirds, including at least a dozen Black-bellied Plovers on the levee, and a single White-fronted Goose was early. At this point, just before 3am, we decided that things were quiet enough that we'd call it a day, with 114 species seen over 102 miles (more than 1 bird per mile is an excellent rate!).