San Jose Weekend

After a rainy morning on Saturday April 8th my wife and I headed out to the Coyote Valley.

Cave Springs

On Thursday April 6th

Flagstaff Chase

I spent the morning of Saturday April 1st at NAU, attending talks at SUnMaRC and representing the department at Discover NAU. I came home and rested for a while before seeing a post on our list serve of a Yellow-throated Warbler in trees in the neighborhood behind Mike & Ronda's. It was 4pm before I got there and I wasn't feeling too confident. Luckily Kathie and BB were there and had just seen the bird and although it took a little while to relocate, I was able to get good views, as was Chuck who turned up just after me.

Yellow-throated Warbler

This was my second sighting of this species in Arizona and my first inside Flagstaff city limits.

Around Flagstaff at the end of March

I spent the last weekend in March birding spots around Flagstaff trying to get my Arizona list for 2017 up to 150 and hoping to get to my personal best figure of 216 species by the end of March.

I made a couple of stops on Saturday March 25th after my swim. I had already added my county Turkey Vulture for the year while heading to the club from Route 66. At the Walnut Canyon Ponds a pair of Osprey had returned to their nest and four Neotropic Cormorants were sitting on some branches over the water. I then made my fourth stop of the year at my Acorn Woodpecker stake out on San Moritz. Having wandered around with no luck on my previous attempts this time I got the bird without leaving my car.

Neotropic Cormorant

Osprey

 On Sunday 26th I made an early start and got to Cave Springs before 8am. It was cold and it became clear that I should have gone a little later. But I added Painted Redstart and Black Phoebe to my county list - two easy birds that like to show themselves. Later in the day I went out to Walnut Canyon and added Red-naped Sapsucker and Bushtit.

This took me to 69 species in Coconino County, 147 in Arizona and 210 for the year, and bad weather during the week meant that I ended the month with those totals.

Moss Landing and Carmel

On Saturday March 18th my wife and I headed for the coast in an effort to get my Califonia list for 2017 up to 150. We stopped first at Carmel River Beach where the rains had totally altered things. The lagoon was now part of a river that flowed to the sea giving us no access to the waterline. We were some 6 feet above the river and  could not reach places where we had walked before. We then walked along the road and I picked up Black Turnstone and Whimbrel for the year

Whimbrel

We then headed to Moss Landing where Snowy Plover and Common Loon were found as expected, but a Pigeon Guillemot near the jetty was a surprise. Sadly the Heerman's Gulls so numerous in late December and I ended the day on 149 species for the year in California.

On Sunday March 19th I headed to Santa Teresa County Park for just a short while ahead of my flight. The previous day someone had reported three House Wren at the trailhead on Bernal Road but they were not there. Instead many Song Sparrows were singing loudly. But my trip wasn't entirely wasted as I saw a Bobcat very close, although I did not manage to get a good photo.

So I was to end March stuck on 149 in California. I had died in the hole.

Spring Break days in and around San Jose

I had a very bad day of birding on Wednesday March 15th as I attempted to go to  .

On Thursday March 16th I decided to bird san Francisco Bay from Palo Alto through Mountain View and Sunnyvale to Alciso.

On Friday March 17th I went to Ranch San Antonio

Sacramento

My wife had a business meeting at the capital in Sacramento on Tuesday March 14th and I tagged along. I spent the morning at the Sacramento Zoo and then more widely in William Land Park adding Downy Woodpecker to my year list.

Wood Duck

It turned out that Sacramento had pretty much the same birds as San Jose. There were certainly Sandhill Cranes not too far away but I was unclear exactly where to go to look for them.

San Francisco

To start spring break my wife and I, and my wife's friend Ducky went to San Francisco on March 11th. They had discovered a couple of places they wanted to show me, and I had high hopes of getting my second life bird of the year.

Flagstaff & Sedona birding

I spent the first few days of March trying to add as many year birds, and Arizona year birds to my list as I could. Sadly my efforts were not well rewarded.

SCC and another trip to Page Springs

I spent Saturday February 25th at a workshop at Scottsdale Community College, birding 7:00-7:45 before we got going and then during our 45 minute lunch break. I had high hopes of finding Burrowing Owl, Gilded Flicker and Costa's Hummingbird but had no luck with any of these species. The best birds of the day came from a close view of two Rosy-faced Lovebirds flying past. I then drove as far as Lake Montezuma to spend the night at the Beaver Creek Lodge.

On Sunday February 26th I reached Montezuma Well at first light and got my two targets - Rock and Canyon Wren within ten minutes!

San Jose Weekend

I spent the weekend of February 18th and 19th with my wife in San Jose.

Sedona and Page Springs

On Thursday February 9th I drove to Page Springs via Rich and Nanette's in search of the Louisiana Waterthrush that had been seen there.

I spoke at the NAAS Meeting in Sedona on Wednesday 15th, and returned to Page Springs with Rich on the 16th. Vic joined us in searching for the bird.

Lake Havasu trip

I drove to Needles, California on Friday February 3rd, waking up on the 4th to get my first Great-Tailed Grackles for the year. I then drove to Lake Havasu City where I birded the lake and the Bill Williams Delta.