Sierra Nevada’s

The family and friends are going camping this weekend just below the snowline of the Sierra Nevada. Will be intersting to see what new birds I may be able to find. Looking forward to some trout fishing, birding and hiking.

Great birding weekend

This weekend Angelo and I took part in the Central Valley Birding Symposium. We saw some great birds and met with a lot of great folks. Weather could have been a bit better, but no complaints. I birded alone on Friday, then with Angelo on Sunday. We saw many of the species thay make the central valley thier winter home. Close to 100 for the weekend. Birding in the scrubby foothills paid off as our group found a single Sage Sparrow and 2 Ferruginous hawks. These will go down as #341 and #342. The local group is very interested in working with young birders, so they took a great effort to talk with and encourage Angelo. Overall a great experience.

Warbler count

With Winter approaching, finding a new warbler species for the year is highly unlikely. Thought I would look back at my list to see how many warbler species I was able to find this year: Answer 36!
Pretty awesome when you consider it, easier to list the species I missed rather than what I found.

Weekend

No new birds over the weekend, but I did share a great walk in the woods with Angelo. This coming weekend is the Central Valley Birding Symposium. I will be attending 3 tours (Angelo will be going to 2 of them with me). At this point I have about 30 target birds left here in California. Hoping to get a few this weekend then a few more with a trip to San Francisco.

Unexpected find…

I stopped by the wildlife refuge the other night to marvel at the 1000’s of waterfowl that make the central valley of California their home in the winter. I was able to find 15+ species of ducks and what I thought was 4 species of geese. A fellow observer pointed out what most look at as Canada Geese, in this case however were Cackling Geese. The differences are subtle and take a close eye to spot them – especially amongst 1000’s of other birds.
Glad he was there to help spot #340.

80%!

I have been birding most of my life, visiting a variety of different regions throughout the US. In that time I have seen quite a nice variety of birds. As of this week, I am approaching a pretty impressive number. During this Big Year, I have seen nearly 80% of my life list in the last 10 months! I haven’t counted the numbers, but I would also guess at least 20 life birds as well.
Not bad for a Big Year that was mainly just birding on weekends or after work.

4 bird day!

A quick stop this evening to the local refuge ganered 4 new birds for the year:
Sora – Heard only
American Pipit
Snow Geese
Ross’ Geese
The birds will go down as #336 – #339.

More foothill birds

#334 will go down as another favorite, a bird I had only seen a handfull of times: Lewis’ Woodpecker. I found a single bird in the rocky foothills of the Sierra around 1200′. Many birds were present as I stopped briefly following an afternoon meeting. Bird #335 was one I could have easily looked over: Rufous-Crowned Sparrow. The sparrow was foraging beneath some rocks, luckily I got a good enough view to ID. Also present were Lesser Goldfinch, California Towhee and lots of Western Bluebirds.

Valley Birds

Made a quick pitstop at the Merced National Wildlife Refuge on my way home from Fresno last evening. The Greater White ronted Geese have arrived but the Snow Geese are still north apparently. Amazing amounts of Pintail and Sandhill Crane in the region.
Two new birds for the year included #332 – Tri-Colored Blackbird and #333 – Cinnamon Teal. Both great birds!

Sierra Birds

The family and I spent a couple days in Lake Tahoe this weekend. Birding was last on the list as we hiked and took pictures of the Aspen groves mixed in with the many conifers. Despite not spending much time birding, I was able to find #’s 330 and 331 for the year. #330 was a Cassin’s Finch, hanging near a stream around 7000′. #331 was a favorite of mine, American Dipper. He too was near the stream, walking against the current (hoping I’m sure to beat the winter storm that was approaching). Most ducks/geese are now in the valley; will be looking for several species this week.