Fall Adventures

No doubt about it, it was hot and still summer in Napa but migration had begun. It seems to me that the shorebirds are usually the first to get going at this time of the year and in late August reports began to appear of Baird's Sandpipers in several locations in the Bay Area. Thus far this species has eluded me so when they were found at Miller/Knox Regional Shoreline I went to look for them. They were well described in both look and location so were easy to find and I enjoyed a good 10 minute photo session with them.

Baird's Sandpiper

A few days later another species I have been hoping to see, the Northern Waterthrush made an appearance at a local park in the Eastbay. This park is really an urban creek corridor and has turned up some interesting birds. My friend Jeff had seen this bird there the day before I tried for it so I had an idea where to look. Most of the sightings had come from a few hundred yards further west than Jeff's so I spent an hour checking all of the locations out with no luck. I had given up and was walking back along the creek and I stopped at Jeff's spot for a few more minutes and low and behold out he popped. Bold eye stripe, streaking on the breast and doing a bob like a dipper. I only got to see him for about 10 seconds and then he was back into cover but I was super excited that I finally got to add him to my list. 

In mid September I had a chance to fly out to Montana to visit one of my oldest college friends Brian Kelly and do some trout fishing. I had not fished in some time and we had the most enjoyable time together. We caught some really nice fish and enjoyed the waning Montana summer.

Montana Rainbow

In late September, as summer began its slow retreat for the year, we spent a few days enjoying the glories of the Mendocino coast.  Taking our kayaks with us we spent a day exploring the Big River whose mouth is just south of the town of Mendocino. Our 7+ mile paddle took us into a beautiful riparian ecosystem.  Along the way we were accompanied by cormorants, kingfishers, herons and egrets along the water, and the usual resident passerines in the trees. Even though we had to work a little bit against the wind on our return it was a glorious day out.

Big River

On our last day in Mendocino (Oct. 1) I joined a pelagic trip out of Noyo harbor in Ft. Bragg. I had joined this trip three years ago and then the pandemic interfered during the last 2 years. It was fun to renew previous acquaintances and this time I was prepared for the sea with a scopolamine patch under my right ear. Hopes were high for the expected birds but with the ocean temperatures higher than normal some rarities were a distinct possibility. We were unfortunately engulfed in fog or clouds for most of the day and were not treated to any significant rarities. We did see Pink-footed, Sooty, and Buller's Shearwaters. Ashy and Fork-tailed Storm Petrels. Pomarine, Parasitic, and Long-tailed Jaegers (the Long-tailed was my one new bird on the day). Also present were Black-footed Albatros, Cassin's and Rhinoceros Auklet, South Polar Skua, and Northern Fulmar. Fun to be out there, fun to not be seasick, I am looking forward to a spring trip with this group.

Ft. Bragg Pelagic

As mid September rolled around Jeff came up to bird the Napa-Sonoma marshes with me. We put together a good checklist of shorebirds, gulls, terns and other residents of this unique marsh environment. The long conversion of salt evaporation pond back into natural coastal marsh continues here. This process has been fascinating to watch and gives one hope that nature, with a little help from us, can reclaim what is rightfully hers. Watching over this scene was none other than a wise old owl.

Great-horned Owl

Last year when Danette and I visited the Olympic Peninsula we had hoped to cross to Victoria to visit the famous Butchart Gardens, however Canada was not allowing Americans to enter their country so we had to put off that visit. This fall we planned to rectify that with a trip up to Vancouver Island to see the gardens and to play the tourist in Victoria. We spent a wonderful four days there and really enjoyed this incredibly beautiful place. I was able to slip away to the Victoria Airport to see the resident Eurasian Skylarks to add another species to my list but the best part of the bird show was whatever chanced to fly by our lovely accommodation right on the water in Saanichton. Loons, grebes, guillemots, geese, scoters and eagles all gave us a nod in passing.

Bald Eagle

So far this had been a successful fall with four new species to add to my life list but fate was not yet done with me. I usually pay pretty close attention to the rare bird alerts that pass through my email inbox and on October 18 they started to light up with news of a rare European warbler that only had been seen a couple of other times in the new world. This Willow Warbler was delighting crowds of birders at the western end of Rodeo Lagoon in the Marin Headlands and I did not want to miss it. This is one of the best things about retirement for me, I did not have to wait for the weekend to make the chase. I told Danette about the bird and she shooed me out the door to go find it. It's always fun to arrive at a spot where a rarity is putting on a show. All you need to do is to look for the huge camera rigs and spotting scopes and look where they are pointed. I literally pulled up, parked, opened my truck door, grabbed my binos, and there it was. I spent some time with the crowd following it as it forged in the brush and managed a few reasonable photos (nothing like what those giant lenses where getting though).

Willow Warbler

My final October adventure in the field took place in Bakersfield while visiting my mother-in-law. Over the years I have visited a spring in a clump of trees along Breckenridge Road which is an old stage road from Bakersfield heading east into the mountains. At this spot I have usually found Long-eared Owls. However, the last two times I have checked they have been absent. I made a quick dash up the hill to check and low and behold, there was one back in the trees. Nice to know that they still use this spot.

Long-eared Owl on Breckenridge Road

All-in-all it was a successful fall with five new species for my life list. 

1. Baird's Sandpiper
2. Northern Waterthrush
3. Long-tailed Jaeger
4. Eurasian Skylark
5. Willow Warbler

That brings my North American ABA total to 549 species. I don't know that I will make it to 700 but it seems like it is worth a try.

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.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way Home from Birding

Taking advantage of a beautiful winter afternoon I dragged Patrick out of the house with me and we headed for the Huichica Creek marsh at the Napa River Marshlands. The sun was out and the wind was up a bit but it was really good to be out of the house and getting our feet muddy. There is a developed pond area near the parking lot that is heavily choked with cattails but has some open areas as well. We walked along the edge of this hoping to see the American Bittern that I had seen there previously. We continued out into the open fields beyond seeing where it would take us and eventually found ourselves cut-off by the marsh. Pat spotted a Short-eared Owl on the ground just before he took off and we saw several others. At one point we investigated a bush that had clearly been used by these owls for roosting finding guano, feathers, and even some owl pellets. We walked around the entire developed pond on the way back in and found some really good exposed parts where some patience will probably bring Soras and Virginia Rails into view.  For this day we heard them calling in there but did not actually see any. When we left to make our way back home we went west on Las Amigas to Duhig and along Duhig we were astounded to find a Ferruginous Hawk. To my recollection I have only seen this bird one other time and it was in Mike Morris's backyard in Blue Lake, CA many years ago. To my regret I did not have a camera with me but both Pat and I had good looks and a chance to comment on the various field marks and convince ourselves.  I posted this sighting on the Northbay birdlist and was quickly questioned about it's veracity. Being somewhat miffed about that I went back at about the same time the next day in hopes of finding it again and getting a few photos. Don't think I was wrong.

Timberhill Park - Napa CA

One afternoon this week I searched out a local city-administered piece of open space called Timberhill Park. It is located in the hills of west Napa and is a surprisingly beautiful, if small, slice of what this valley once was. At one time this would have been a part on someone's ranch. There are still grazing cattle in the area and evidence that what are now just tracks and trails for walking were once used by vehicles.  It doesn't take long to walk the loop around the hilltop summit of the park, at a brisk pace it can be done in as little as a half-hour. But the view from the top of the knoll is quite nice. As I looked out over the valley I found myself doing what I always seem to do in these situations, wondering what it must have looked like before we put the stamp of human occupation on it. Long before the arrival of European and American settlers, the Native Americans used this land to their advantage but they did so in a far less invasive manner than first the Spanish then Mexican and finally Americans who settled here. I like to think of what it might have looked like pre-Clovis or pre-Solutrian if you subscribe to that theory. Imagine the view and what you would have seen if you were the first human to set eyes on this landscape.

As I completed my loop around the park I had noted only a few birds including Black and Say's Phoebe, a Savanna Sparrow, many Lesser Goldfinches, and a few Vultures. I had heard that you could see Varied Thrushes here and I had yet to see one in Napa County. The last part of the loop brings you back down into the gully that is the headwaters of Redwood Creek, a lovely woodland laced with the strong scent of the California Laurel. This is where I would find my Varied Thrush if there was one about, and low and behold there was. Moving through the trees ninja style, making no sound at all. Just a quick pose out of cover to say he was here and then gone. A nice bird that reminds me of wet winter days on the campus of HSU where I could always find one on the edge of the forest that was our neighbor. 

Restoration Success Story

In Napa County where I live there is a vision of a bicycle/pedestrian path that will someday allow users to walk or ride virtually the entire distance between the city of Calistoga in the north and American Canyon in the south.  That vision is slowly but surely materializing into reality.  Already significant stretches of what is referred to as the Napa River Trail have been completed with more pieces in the works, while the Napa Valley Vine Trail begins to take shape having recently received significant grant awards.  This past weekend Patrick and I took our bikes and binoculars down to American Canyon to ride the almost 3 miles of the newest portion of the River Trail.  The trail runs north from the staging/parking area at the west end of Eucalyptus Drive along the edge of what used to be salt evaporation ponds that had belonged to the Cargill Corp. These ponds were sold back to the State of California and the Dept. of Fish and Game has done an exemplary job of restoration so that now they are tidal mudflats that are supporting more and more birds. Every indication is that the Napa/Sonoma Marsh system is now capable of supporting an increasing number of resident bird species as well as providing critical rest and nourishment to the millions of migrants who have and will continue to rely on it.

As we rode the trail the tide was on it's way out leaving much of the mudflats exposed and teaming with shorebirds.  We had Dunlin, Dowitchers, Willits, Least Sandpipers, Western Sandpipers, Black-bellied Plovers, Black-necked Stilts, Avocets and a new county bird for me Semipalmated Plovers. We also had a nice look at a juvenile Peregrine Falcon on a roost near the parking area.  I'll be returning soon when I have a bit more time and my scope so I can get some better looks at the plovers. You can access this portion of the river trail off of highway 29 in American Canyon opposite the large Walmart monstrosity.  Follow Eucalyptus Drive west over Oat Hill to the parking area at the end.

An Uncommon But Regular Visitor

Since we moved to our house in 1998 I have kept feeders in the yard to attract a variety of bird species.  As my yard list has steadily grown over the years and now and again I am able to add one more, there are a few visitors who return each year that I am particularly fond of.  One of these is the White-throated Sparrow.  Each fall as the temperatures begin to fall and I start to fill the seed feeders I wait for the arrival of this uncommon but regular winter visitor. There have only been two winters since 1999 that I have not had one spend the winter in the vicinity of our yard.  This year I am lucky enough to have two of them.  They arrive from somewhere north and east of us joining the White-crowned and Golden-crowned Sparrows to compete for the plentiful free food at my avian diner.  I begin to look for them at Halloween and expect them to leave again by April, they are my winter residents and welcome.  I don't know the life expectancy of these sparrows but I can't imagine that either of the two I have now is my original visitor from 1999 and this makes me wonder.  Are they off-spring?  If so, how is it that they find my yard every year?  While the local Christmas bird counts turn up a number of these birds they are by no means common in these parts. Some of the field guides even say they are rare in our area which is well south and west of their breeding range.  This leads me to believe that the White-throats who inhabit my yard each winter must be passing  the news of good and plentiful food with only occasional fat cats and Sharp-shinned Hawk interruptions along to their chicks and that these birds all come from the same original visitor.  How this is done is not known to me but perhaps those members of the professional wing (pardon the pun) of the brethren would have more to say about that, and perhaps I need to do more reading.  In any case I enjoy their presence, I look for them every morning, seeing  them always brings a smile.  I will send them on their way in the spring with an invitation to return again in the fall and if they themselves can't make it back then I hope they have told the next generation about our yard.

Huichica Creek - Napa River Marshlands

The last day of the year, cool and clear in the Northbay.  I was recently contacted by a Napa couple who had seen a few of my posts on the NBB list serve and they suggested I visit Huichica Creek.  There are a number of ways to access this Fish and Game managed area (click on the map image to see a pdf of the Napa and Sonoma Marshlands) and I assumed they meant from the HQ at the bottom of Duhig Rd.  I drove out there near sunset to see if I could pick up some more Short-eared Owls and parked in the staging area. There is a small marsh area along the creek that might prove interesting later in the year but there is no established wildlife viewing area here. I walked out an access road and crossed the railway line and walked along a dike separating two large ponds.  Here I found lots of waders and ducks as well as cormorants and a small group of Bonaparte's Gulls.  No owls out here but there was a promising group of eucalyptus trees near the end of the dike.  As I walked back I was treated to a spectacular sunset.  I was without a camera so it will have to be preserved in my mind only.  As I neared the farm buildings that serve as the unit headquarters and it was turning to dusk I scanned the openings on the ends of the barns and within a minute a Great Horned Owl flew out of the first and off to it's nocturnal business and then from the second a Barn Owl popped into view and flew off for the same.  A fine way to end the year and a good omen for 2012.

Short-eared Owls on Skaggs Island

After receiving news from the Northbay Birds list-serve that Short-eared Owls were being seen in the Skaggs Island area, Pat and I drove the loop around the Napa River marshlands. This means going south on 29 to 37, going west to Sears Point, and then returning to Napa via Schellville and Ramal Road.  We met two other birders on the bridge on the entrance road to Skaggs Island off of Hwy 37 and together waited for these owls to appear.  On the way in we spotted a nice Peregrine Falcon that flew to the top of a power pylon and posed nicely. At about 4 we began to see the Short-eared Owls as they hunted the fields of Skaggs Island.  The county lines are tricky here and by positioning yourself at different parts of the bridge you could see these owls in both Napa and Sonoma counties.  Patrick enjoyed these birds although I did have to drag him to the truck to start the journey. Ah the power of a firm gentle nudge.

Napa Wastewater Treatment Plant

I went to the Napa Wastewater plant for a few hours this afternoon. I have recently seen several reports of Blue-winged Teal there which I would like to add to my county list. After driving the entire circuit I found a pair with some Cinnamon Teal in the Tule marsh on the west side of the Admin. building. I had them with the bins for a few moments but as my luck has been of late as soon as I pulled out the scope they were in the air and gone.  I'm hoping for a little better luck this coming year.  It is nice to know that even though I might feel unlucky at the moment at least I can be that way while I am out there in a beautiful setting.

Napa River Trail - American Canyon

Patrick and I checked out the new section of the Napa River Trail in American Canyon. This is really a great spot with both tidal and freshwater ponds, access to the former Cargill Salt Evaporation Ponds which are now cleaned up and open tidal wetlands of the Napa River. We are anxious to take our bikes on these trails as well. New birds added to my Napa County list were American Wigeon, Tundra Swan, and Common Moorhen. We had a distant Cooper's Hawk along with a full range of the regular ducks and waders. We'll be back there soon.

Lake Hennessey - Napa County

Today my regular Sunday bike ride took me to Lake Hennessey as the list-serves had said that tundra swans were present. I rode out the north shore trail past the railcar bridge and there was a lot to see. There was quite a bit of waterfowl and I'm sure a few birds that could have gone on my Napa county list, but I had no optics to confirm my guesses. There were no swans but I saw what were probably Bonaparte's Gulls, a Barn Owl, Ring-necked ducks and what was definitely an adult Bald Eagle.

Dry Creek - Napa Valley

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Today I took a few moments to explore the creekside habitat of Dry Creek along Darms Lane while Patrick was at swim practice. The search gave me my first Red-brested Sapsucker since I began my Napa county list.  This bird has been a regular visitor to the Apple tree in my neighbor's yard but has miraculously escaped my yard list. So this fellow will be my Napa country representative until I manage to see one in the yard again.

Screech Owl - Napa County

Danette, Patrick and I were out for an adventure on a drive to Lake Berryessa to start our holiday weekend.  We pulled off highway 128 a few miles east of Lake Hennessey at a nice riparian area where two creeks come together. As we stood listening to the bubbling of the creeks and enjoyed all the new green foliage of spring, Danette commented on a knot hole in a snag that looked just like an owl's face. Turns out that is exactly what it was, a Western Screech Owl on his doorstep watching the world go by. I returned a few days later with my camera to get a few shots.

A Cooper's Hawk Visits My Yard

This afternoon, while scanning the feeders I had a surprise visitor. Fortunately for my feeder flock this Cooper's Hawk came up empty. I have wondered for some time about a definitive identification for this bird.  Recently I have come across a blog that is run by a couple of Point Reyes Bird Observatory interns and I know that both of the common Accipitor species appear in their nets with some frequency. So I sent off these images to Luke Musher and he was kind enough to point out the important field marks and suggest that it was in fact a Cooper's Hawk and not a Sharp-shinned.  You might find their blog interesting, you can find it here: http://boomchachalaca.blogspot.com/

Roosting Owls - Skaggs Island

While riding out to Skagg's Island I happened to notice some tell-tale shapes in a group of trees on the edge of the road. Stopping I realized these were roosting owls. I returned later in the afternoon with Patrick and collected a few pictures of a Great-horned Owl and saw Barn Owls as well.