December 16, 2005
Day of party, and breaking the 250 barrier
With my departure from California looming, I decided I needed to say goodbye to the many dear friends I've made in my two years here. Since I don't live in a mansion, trying to squeeze everyone in for one big party sounded tricky. Instead, I opted for a day of party, starting with a birding trip at 8am, a birder potluck and slideshow at 3pm, a second potluck for work colleagues at 6pm, followed by the more rowdy ecology grad student crowd from 9pm onwards.
The omens were good on Friday: I got Spotted Towhee as a new yard bird, my beloved Swarovski bins came back from repair looking in much better condition than when I bought them, and Brent Campos had emailed reporting an Eastern Phoebe along Putah Creek south of Davis. Since this would be Yolo County bird no. 250 for me, there was no question of our first destination on Saturday's field trip!
On Saturday morning I arrived at the meeting place unsure of how many people would show - imagine my delight when 27 birders showed up, from as far afield as Santa Cruz, Sebastopol and Berkeley! We must have made a comical sight lined up along the bridge as we searched for the Eastern Phoebe...
Matt Brady was the first to spot the phoebe, on the Solano County side of the bridge. Since the bird seemed in no hurry to make the short hop into Yolo, we sent in our bird-dogs Daryl and Cliff, who 'encouraged' the bird to fly under the bridge and onto my list!
After pausing to admire the bird, and the Salmon which have returned to spawn in Putah for their third successive year, we headed off to Lake Solano. By this time, the weather was fabulous and many of us were now down to T-shirt sleeves - not bad for mid-December!
Birds here included good numbers of Hooded Mergansers, a few Purple Finches and a Red-breasted Sapsucker, but the highlight was watching 8 River Otters playing and vocalizing at very close range.
After driving up Putah Creek Canyon and back to the Davis WWTP seeing nothing particularly unusual, I received a phone call from John Sterling who had relocated a Swamp Sparrow in the Cache Creek Settling Basin. Off we charged, and after a little pishing the bird popped up for a few seconds, gave a phoebe-like chip, and promptly disappeared. My second new county bird of the day - life is good!
We returned to my place for a potluck, where my attempts to surprise Joan Humphrey with a birthday cake were scuppered by my complete inability to light the candles! I'm so grateful to everyone that came along and helped make the day so wonderful - click below to see additional photos of the birder potluck...
L-R: Matt Brady, Sid England, Sami LaRocca, Lisa Hug, Alison Kent, Allan Hollander, Ryan Terrill (Leigh Johnson in foreground).
The Davis youth contingent: Ona, Carlos and Mary
The remarkable Jean and Alan Jackman
Leigh, Ryan (who just became the youngest person ever to see 500 birds in the state - good going!) and Daryl
Karen waves goodbye...
... while Cliff tortures Daryl!
Ready for bed at 3am!
