California Birding Adventures

Greetings from California! I arrived in Sacramento late last night after an uneventful flight and my brothers picked me up at the airport. On our way back to Brother Phil's, we took a little detour down some deserted back roads in search of Barn Owls (which Phil sees frequently on his commute to and from work). We failed to spot any owls along the road, but had a fun time driving around anyway.

Today was our designated "birding and nature adventures" day and we made the most of it. My hope was to get some new life birds during the trip and I wasn't disappointed. As soon as I opened the curtains at 7:15 this morning, I managed to spot Brewer's Blackbirds (life bird!) on the power lines right outside Phil's house. Phil took me on a walk around town and I spotted two more life birds: Northern Mockingbird (singing beautifully in the backyard) and Tri-Colored Blackbird. Phil lives in a very small town in a rural, mostly agricultural area with a lot of wetlands, so there's no shortage of birds around here. We also spotted a Loggerhead Shrike (another life bird!) on a power line as we were motoring into Woodland for lunch and to pick up Nephew Charlie from school.

After lunch, we headed up to the Colusa National Wildlife Refuge where we spent probably 3 hours driving around and looking at birds. This area was almost all wetlands, so the usual birds you would expect to see in such an area were present. I got 6 more life birds here: White-Faced Ibis, Short-Billed Dowitcher, Black Phoebe, Cinnamon Teal, White-Tailed Kite, and Greater White-Fronted Goose. Here's a little video of some of the Snow Geese we saw out at Colusa NWR.

Too bad I didn't purchase an open-ended ticket for my return flight. The weather here has been fabulous--sunny and low 60's (perfect weather and conditions for birding). I hear the weather service is predicting snow for my return to Minnesota on Sunday night (sigh)