California Birds

I'm glad my brother lives in California because it's a birder's paradise! With only 1 day available for birding, we spent most of our birding time in Sutter, Yolo, and Colusa counties which is the area closest to where my brother lives. This area is part of the agricultural region of the Central Valley, so a lot of it is quite rural and there are also plenty of wetlands.

The highlight of our afternoon was a visit to Colusa National Wildlife Refuge. Lots of ponds, both deep and shallow, so the area was attractive to shorebirds and waterfowl alike. Here are a few photos I took Friday afternoon. It was a perfect day for birding!

Snow Geese, Northern Pintails, Mallards, and Greater White-Fronted Geese

A closer look at the Greater White-Fronted Geese

At Colusa NWR, we also saw the White-Tailed Kite, a Bald Eagle, a Black Phoebe, lots of White-Faced Ibis, Marsh Wrens, and several sparrows and hawks that I didn't have the expertise to identify.

On our way to San Francisco on Saturday, my brother took us over to Travis AFB to see if we could get a look at the Burrowing Owls he's seen there on previous occasions. Fortunately, the owls were cooperative that day. Here's a cute pair just minding their own business and sunbathing outside their burrow.

I couldn't resist pulling out my birdJam and playing a little burrowing owl call out the car window. Mrs. Owl wasn't impressed, but Mr. Owl didn't like hearing that other owl one bit, Nosirree!! Here's a picture of his "I'm gonna kick some owl butt!" reaction. We could even hear him calling back.

We didn't stay there very long, my brother was worried the MPs would come by and move us along, so we left after about 5 minutes, but it was fun to see these little owls.

Loggerhead Shrike

Black Crowned Night Heron

This handsome guy was perched right outside the restaurant where we had lunch on Saturday in San Francisco. I really dig his pretty dark red eyes and those long jazzy plumes hanging down from the back of his head.

Snowy Egret

This bird was standing at the edge of the water right outside our restaurant in San Francisco. Every so often one of us would spot him catching a little fish. Isn't his plumage beautiful? And don't you just love those crazy yellow feet? What a cool bird!

Here's a juvenile Double-Crested Cormorant atop a utility pole along one of the canals running next to Robbins where my brother lives. He said the cormorants like to congregate in this area every morning.

I have no complaints about my trip to California except for one thing--it was TOO SHORT!! There are so many neat places and things to see here! We didn't even get to do any coastal or mountain birding, so those opportunities will have to wait till another time. This was a perfect time of year to go--the daytime temps were in the 60's each and there was almost no wind. Lots of blooming flowers and blossoming trees, plus green grass and palm trees everywhere--just the thing to perk up winter-weary Minnesotans!

I will have more pictures and stories from California in my next post, so stay tuned!

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)