Gualala Birds

The wife and I returned to the Bay Area during the Christmas break.

We enjoyed time with our families are are thankful for all our blessings.

The weather has vacillated between clear and torrid – clear and cold days, I got out a few times.

I had the most fun birding with my step-daughter at a couple of locations in Contra Costa county. We were hoping to find any species of Rail in a nearby marsh – but that was a miss.

We had a decent bird count, and I added a two new life birds:

Lifer #139 – American Wigeon

and

Lifer #140 – Hooded Merganser

The very next morning, we decided to do a quick birding escapade much closer to home at Newhall Park.

Wow, what a surprise – one of my biggest single-day counts… in our backyard.

We worked together identifying 33 species, including two new lifers for me.

Lifer #143 – Sora

and

Lifer #144 – Green Heron

The Sora is the first bird I’m adding to my life-list that I could not see. It’s sound is unmistakable – and we both agreed if we heard it twice, we’d count it – and it called out exactly twice. 🙂

I’m hoping to have a big-day on New Years day… but the weather looks challenging. Let’s see how it goes.

The past few days, I’ve noticed the Pileated Woodpecker(s) flying back-and-forth over the park. They’ve been noisier and just more active. They typically fly fairly high and surprisingly fast – I’ve taken a few photos of them in flight, but nothing exceptional. I think I’m getting to learn that when they start making noise ( and I can’t see them ) is a good hint that they’re about ready to take flight. Maybe I’m learning my first bird behavior.

I’ve also found at least 2 ( maybe more ) Townsend’s Warblers back in the park. I’ve only seen them once in the past 6 months – but they seem to be pretty persistent the last few days.

The other birding activity I’ve been noticing for the past three days is a red-shoulder hawk being harassed by a pair of black crows over the park.

Today I was out walking the dog with my wife when we could hear the red-shoulder hawk shrieking in the distance but getting near.

Sure enough, he came flying overhead, then proceeded to loop-back with a crow in hot pursuit.

It was a fun interaction to see with a couple of fun snapshot photos of this encounter.

I made a trip to the delta to see the annual Sandhill Crane (migration?)

Staten Island Road is the place to be for these unique birds.

I went with my step-daughter with nervous expectations – we drove quite a distance to see these birds and even with eBird reports for the last week consistently saying they were there… you just can’t be sure.

Of course they were there – and they were literally right there… the instant we turned onto the road, we saw about 4-6 birds eating right next to the road. There were dozens further away.

Staten Island Road goes for about 1-2 miles and then you have to turn around – we managed to see probably close to 50 Sandhill Cranes in the wetlands and probably and equal amount flying overhead. Really good showing.

We also heard a Horned Lark which would have been a lifer for both of us, but it never appeared.

Three Northern Harriers kept us entertained as we searched for the Lark – 2 female harriers and a single gray ghost.

I added a trip to Cosumnes River Preserve where we added a few new lifers for me – a Marsh Wren and a couple of ducks. I have forgotten how beautiful ducks can be.

Lifer #134 – Sandhill Crane

We’ve been back in the bay area for the past week and plan to stay for another week; the holidays and family are to be celebrated.

I’ve done some local birding and a new favorite of mine, the Ferruginous Hawk (bird #124 for me), has shown up in the front yard.

Unfortunately, he picked the tallest tree in the yard with plenty of branches to obstruct him – but I still managed to get some photos.

I tried to predict the direction he would leave the tree ( the direction he was facing was head on to the breeze – usually a good indicator of how they’ll launch), so I patiently stood across the street for 20 minutes in the cold waiting for him to leave. Of course he launched 90′ from me, giving me a nice view of his buttocks as he left to find a less nosy neighbor.

I’ve had Merlin Bird id tell me Cedar Waxwings (bird #50 for me) have been in the neighborhood – I managed a photo of a small flock of them flying overhead but never perched. Today fixed that as they seem to like our Chinese Pistache tree – as do the Nuttal’s Woodpeckers (bird #17) and the Northern Flickers.

Tomorrow I’m going with my step-daughter to see if we can find the Sandhill Cranes – wish us luck as this would be a lifer.

Hard to say the winter weather hasn’t slowed down my birding a bit. The hours of daylight is less and there’s been a lot of rain recently. Local residents rain gauge shows a tad over 6″ of rain since September 1^st – a lot of rain!

I have done some birding – a lot of the normal residents are still here.

Let’s do a quick run-down of what I consider long term residents of the park.

I’ll define long-term as 8+ month visitors.

• Ruby-crowned Kinglet
• Stellars Jay
• Ospreys (seemingly peak in Summer; fewer now)
• Dark-eyed Junco’s
• American Crows
• Raven
• Black Phoebe
• White and Yellow Crowned Sparrows
• Song Sparrow
• Yellow-rumped Warblers (More in fall/winter)
• Acorn Woodpeckers
• Hairy Woodpeckers
• Northern Flickers
• European Starlings
• Pileated Woodpecker
• Wrentit
• European Collared Dove
• American Robin
• Coastal birds – Brown Pelicans, at least 2 types of Cormorants and all the Gulls I don’t know.

I’ll stop here at my last bird, the American Robin. I feel like it is a pretty common bird all over California. On average, I might see 4-10 on any given day.

However, for the last few days I’ve been seeing 40-50 – a crazy amount of Robins.

I got a new lifer today, but the birding has been slow the last week.

Lifer #131 – Orange-crowned Warbler

I see this guy jumping around in the bottle-brush plant… Merlin Bird ID is saying “Orange-crowned warbler” and I see him and keep thinking.. “Huh, he’s some sort of House Finch or Lesser Goldfinch or Kinglet(?!?)” My brain still doesn’t register “new bird”, but rather “weird variation of something I’ve already seen.”

As a bonus, here is a Red-tailed Hawk I saw today. I don’t see a lot of where I’m living now – I see more Red-shouldered hawks, Osprey and even Peregrine Falcons.