Fall 2013 Notes

Somehow I never managed to get these notes posted. Oh well, better late than never . . . .

This fall has had its share of interesting birds around Northern California. In Napa County we had a first ever record of a Hudsonian Godwit while all along the coast of California, including here in the north, there's been an eruption of Blue-footed Boobies who have wandered far from their normal range in the Gulf of California.  These spectacular airborne diving sea birds have come some distance in search of food that is apparently not as abundant in their home waters. Other Booby species are also being found with regularity in the waters of Southern California, probably extending their ranges for better food supplies as well.

The Hudsonian Godwit made his appearance at Huichica Creek mid-week of the second week of September. This was the first record for this species in Napa County and is not a regular visitor anywhere in California, so this bird caused quite a stir. For the next week and a half there was a regular stream of birders looking for this guy at Huichica Creek, a spot many of them had not visited before. On several occasions I had a chance to educate these visitors on our ongoing marsh restoration work in the Napa marshes.

I was able to get a few other excursions in around our area but did not have any noteworthy sightings. Over the Christmas I did chase a rare bird up in Mckinleyville, a town in which I once lived. This unusual Asian visitor was a Little Bunting and I missed him by a day and a half. Always nice to get up to Humboldt county but it was a lot of driving for one day.

Huichica Creek and More Musings on Shared Sightings

Some rare time off of work gave me the opportunity to wander around at Huichica Creek this morning. I took along my mountain bike as I thought it might give me the chance to venture a little further than I usually do when going out there. The fact is the levees and dikes are quite extensive and if you follow them you can actually travel some distance in your explorations. Having the bike made it possible for me to see it all from a new perspective. I was thinking of my friend Roger who mentioned that he was looking for a place for his cross-country runners to train and I wondered if this held any promise. I sent him the map below, we'll see if he checks it out.

Another reason I went out there was to check on a Great Horned Owl nest I had found previously (yes, they are just fine). I posted that sighting to the Northbay bird list and received some criticism for doing so. There are some birders who feel this information should not be made public as they think it may reduce the chance of a successful nest. While I understand the concern of some, I have been hesitant to accept the idea that members of the birding community can't be trusted with the knowledge of a nesting location. Perhaps I am naive but I think trust and faith in people to do the right thing, to observe from a distance, to respect the bird and its needs is the way forward. There are of course the incidents that everyone calls attention to in which someone does something dumb or selfishly moves in for the perfect picture, but I think that for every one of those there are 10 others where a person connects to the natural world in a spiritual way or perhaps makes a personal commitment to get involved in the conservation of an animal or a place, or maybe best of all, passes the wonder and awe of nature on to a child. Somewhere there must be a happy medium between secrecy and openness between the narrow view and the broad view. In the end, no matter where you fall on the spectrum our wishes and desires remain the same: to preserve these beautiful creatures and the habitats that support them.

Least Terns at Huichica Creek

Late spring has brought some interesting visitors to Huichica Creek, our local marsh area that sits on the northern edge of the Napa-Sonoma Marsh complex (click on the image to see it full size). A former teaching colleague of mine who is now retired is a very good wildlife photographer (you can see her work by clicking on this link) and occasionally posts some of her sightings and photos to the Northbay Birds list serve. She recently posted a sighting of a Yellow-headed Blackbird at Huichica Creek and another birder who was looking for that bird found a group of Least Terns there. This was too good to pass up so over the last few days I've made a few trips out there to look for these treats.  On my first trip I had a really good look at a Virginia Rail that was working the edge of some cattails in a slough and but thought I had missed the Least Terns. While walking out on the levee I met another birder who's posts I also see, his name is Bob Battagin and we had a nice chat, he had seen the Terns earlier that morning. While we were talking we heard some very Tern-like calls and a pair of these very beautiful Least Terns flew in and landed on a mud island allowing us to get some really great looks at them.  I checked my records and I only have two other sightings of these birds so this was really nice.

I went back out again the next day while Patrick was at his swim practice and who do I see but Christine Hansen my ex-colleague who is shooting pictures of Marsh Wrens. As we were talking I noticed a lone Phalarope in the pond opposite us and it proved to be a Red-necked Phalarope. A pretty good two days and three new county birds to add to that list.