Male Townsend's Warbler near Lake Merritt. A few of these have been singing around the Palomarin field station, tripping me up the first time around, as I've barely heard their song before.
March 31, 2013
Landbirds
Horned Lark at Abbott's Lagoon in early March
Male Townsend's Warbler near Lake Merritt. A few of these have been singing around the Palomarin field station, tripping me up the first time around, as I've barely heard their song before.
Male Townsend's Warbler near Lake Merritt. A few of these have been singing around the Palomarin field station, tripping me up the first time around, as I've barely heard their song before.
March 29, 2013
March 27, 2013
Fish Docks
We went on a bird walk around Point Reyes yesterday with the new (and some old) interns yesterday, finding my year first Warbling Vireos, Pigeon Gullemots, and Pygmy Nuthatch.
Panarama with the iPhone from the fish docks.
Panarama with the iPhone from the fish docks.
March 26, 2013
More from Lake Merritt
Pied-billed Grebe
Female Common Goldeneye
Double-crested Cormorant
Western Grebes
Ruddy Duck
Female Common Goldeneye
Double-crested Cormorant
Western Grebes
Ruddy Duck
March 25, 2013
Tufted Duck
My lifer Tufted Duck today at Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA. This bird has been around for much of the winter I believe and I was glad to find it this time around, as I missed it two weeks ago. Typically in Eurasia, North America gets a few of these every year.
March 24, 2013
March 20, 2013
Painted Redstart
Probably the best bird of my trip to Southeastern Arizona was this Painted Redstart. It was an unexpected bird on a very windy day during a failed attempted at finding Rufous-capped Warblers. I got great looks, but pictures were clearly not easy.
March 17, 2013
Southwest
A few more from Sweetwater Wetlands.
Shovelers coming in for a landing.
A rodent...any thoughts?
Southwest's Song Sparrow
Shovelers coming in for a landing.
A rodent...any thoughts?
Southwest's Song Sparrow
March 15, 2013
Sweetwater Wetlands
After the night in Madera Canyon I packed up before sunrise, heading off to Tucson, making a quick stop at Florida Wash to find the Crissal Thrasher that had been spotted the night before.
Though I was planning to spend the whole day in Tucson, I decided to just make a morning of it, spending a few hours at Sweetwater Wetlands before making the trek to Oakland later in the day.
Verdin were much more common at the wetlands than anywhere else I had visited, giving me great looks at these yellow-headed bushtit-types.
Cinnamon Teal are always lookers.
One of about 4,000 Northern Shovelers.
There were a good number of Sora calling from the cattails, and I was lucky enough to have this tame one walk along the trail next to me for a bit.
My first Orange-crowned Warbler of the year.
American Coot, look at those lobed toes!
First Black-and-white Warbler of the year
A somewhat out of place Solitary Sandpiper
Though I was planning to spend the whole day in Tucson, I decided to just make a morning of it, spending a few hours at Sweetwater Wetlands before making the trek to Oakland later in the day.
Verdin were much more common at the wetlands than anywhere else I had visited, giving me great looks at these yellow-headed bushtit-types.
Cinnamon Teal are always lookers.
One of about 4,000 Northern Shovelers.
There were a good number of Sora calling from the cattails, and I was lucky enough to have this tame one walk along the trail next to me for a bit.
My first Orange-crowned Warbler of the year.
American Coot, look at those lobed toes!
First Black-and-white Warbler of the year
A somewhat out of place Solitary Sandpiper
March 7, 2013
Patagonia
After a frantic but unsuccessful search for the Elegant Trogon that has been seen at Patagonia Lake State Park lately I birded around the lake until dark, finding a brilliant male Vermillion Flycatcher, a few Gray Flycatchers, and a variety of duck-like creatures.
The next day I hit up the Paton's yard early morning, a spot notorious for bringing in great birds to the feeders that are stocked year round. I saw the usual suspects, but was happy to find four or five Lazuli Buntings tentatively eating seed.
Yellow-rumped Warbler taking a break from the suet.
Bridled Titmouse
I then spend the rest of the morning exploring Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve, where I was greeted by a large flock of Lark Sparrows, a species I'd really only seen a handful of before.
Lark Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Though not extremely birdy, the two miles of trail I walked were great, showing lots of Abert's and Canyon Towhees, my first Phainopepla*, my first Hepatic Tanager in the US, and more Gila Woodpeckers than I needed.
Hepatic Tanager
Canyon Towhee
One of the fun discoveries here was a small section of stream where I found a Say's, Black, and Eastern Phoebe all feeding within 20 feet of each other. Though the former two are quite common in the area, the Eastern is somewhat of a rarity and was great to have next to the other two.
Eastern Phoebe
A Cooper's Hawk that was undoubtedly snacking on a Lark Sparrow only moments ago.
My final excitement for the reserve were the two Rufous-winged Sparrows I spotted in the parking lot on my way to my car. This was a bird I was hoping to see, but was told I'd be lucky to find, but I think they're fairly common at this location and was just lucky to have not passed them off as something else.
Ah yes, and this dummy, an Inca Dove
The next day I hit up the Paton's yard early morning, a spot notorious for bringing in great birds to the feeders that are stocked year round. I saw the usual suspects, but was happy to find four or five Lazuli Buntings tentatively eating seed.
Yellow-rumped Warbler taking a break from the suet.
Bridled Titmouse
I then spend the rest of the morning exploring Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve, where I was greeted by a large flock of Lark Sparrows, a species I'd really only seen a handful of before.
Lark Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Though not extremely birdy, the two miles of trail I walked were great, showing lots of Abert's and Canyon Towhees, my first Phainopepla*, my first Hepatic Tanager in the US, and more Gila Woodpeckers than I needed.
Hepatic Tanager
Canyon Towhee
One of the fun discoveries here was a small section of stream where I found a Say's, Black, and Eastern Phoebe all feeding within 20 feet of each other. Though the former two are quite common in the area, the Eastern is somewhat of a rarity and was great to have next to the other two.
Eastern Phoebe
A Cooper's Hawk that was undoubtedly snacking on a Lark Sparrow only moments ago.
My final excitement for the reserve were the two Rufous-winged Sparrows I spotted in the parking lot on my way to my car. This was a bird I was hoping to see, but was told I'd be lucky to find, but I think they're fairly common at this location and was just lucky to have not passed them off as something else.
Ah yes, and this dummy, an Inca Dove
March 3, 2013
Ramsey
Though I was semi-prepared for a cold night at the San Pedro NRCA, a frozen water bottle in the morning explained a lot about how well I slept. After packing up camp and walking around the reserve for a bit I headed toward the hills, with White-winged Dove as my only new species of the trip that morning.
White-winged Dove
Gila Woodpecker from San Pedro House
Hikes up and down Ramsey and Miller Canyons were snowy and beautiful but fairly quiet. Brown Creepers and Golden Eagles were seen, as well as my first Bushtit of the year.
My last stop before heading to Patagonia for the night was a B&B in Ash Canyon, where there was a great array of feeders, though nothing new was seen.
Acorn Woodpecker
Pyrrhuloxia
White-winged Dove
Gila Woodpecker from San Pedro House
Hikes up and down Ramsey and Miller Canyons were snowy and beautiful but fairly quiet. Brown Creepers and Golden Eagles were seen, as well as my first Bushtit of the year.
Say's Phoebe along the side of the road near Ramsey
My last stop before heading to Patagonia for the night was a B&B in Ash Canyon, where there was a great array of feeders, though nothing new was seen.
Acorn Woodpecker
Pyrrhuloxia
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