Bellingham and Vancouver Weekend

On Thursday

Snowy Owl

Spotted Towhee

Fox Sparrow

Barrow's Goldeneye

Common Goldeneye

Black-capped Chickadee

Hooded Merganser

Mew Gull

Northern Shrike

Short-eared Owl

Grasslands west of Valle

On Saturday November 18th five of us headed out to a new spot, the grasslands west of Valle. This spot had been discovered recently and we were after Sprague's Pipit, McCown's Longspur and Short-eared Owl but dipped on all of them!

Driving in on Willaha County Road we saw dozens of Horned Larks, a few Western Meadowlarks, a Loggerhead Shrike and a Northern Flicker. At Little Rodgers Tanks we had many Horned Larks coming in with just a single Chestnut-collared Longspur among them. I had an American Pipit at the smaller tank. We then walked for two hours across Tin House Flat hoping to flush our target birds but only found more Horned Larks, several Chestnut-collared Longspurs and a couple of Grasshopper Sparrows. We found a Vesper Sparrow at the tanks as we headed back as well as a Golden Eagle and a Crissal Thrasher along the road. And a small group of Pronghorn.

Pronghorn

Morro Bay

My wife and I spent the weekend of November 11th-12th at Morro Bay.

Spotted Sandpiper

Whimbrel

Royal Tern

Juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

Juvenile Black-crowned Night-Heron

Flagstaff weekend

I chased birds around Flagstaff over the weekend of November 3rd-6th

On Friday November 3rd I went out to the Meteor Crater RV Park and was successful in finding a Harris's Sparrow that had been seen the day before.

Harris's Sparrow

But I had no luck with other recent sightings such as Common Grackle and Yellow-shafter Flicker. It was windy and not very birdy - due in part to an active Merlin.

On Saturday November 4th I headed out to the Cameron Trading Post where a Rufous-backed Robin had been present for a few days. The bird stayed high in the trees for the first part of my visit but eventually came down to pose for a photo.

Rufous-backed Robin

The whole time I was in the courtyard a very tame Greater Roadrunner was wandering around eating whatever insects it could find.

Greater Roadrunner

Chris from Tucson was also birding in the courtyard and we added Evening Grosbeak, Red-naped sapsucker, and with Chris's hearing skills a surprising Chestnut-sided Warbler to our lists.

On Sunday November 5th I headed out to Ashurst Lake in search of some more birds needed for my Arizona Year list, and I quickly added Common Loon and Bonaparte's Gull at the south end of the lake. Driving to the north end I lucked upon a small flock of Red Crossbills -  my first of 2017 - and I used my Mi-Fi to check the local list serve which provided news of a White-winged Scoter seen earlier in the day. It took some time to find the bird, in part due to the bird's diving and the windy conditions, for a second year bird.

Red Crossbill

On Monday November 6th I hiked from Aspen Corner up the Arizona Trail to Aspen Loop and back. Other than a number of ravens and a single Red-tailed Hawk flying overhead I saw a group of 4 Red Crossbills and a single Clark's Nutcracker at the tank. That was it for the whole 3 mile hike!

On rweturning home I had three Evening Grosbeaks at my feeders.

Female Evening Grosbeak

Male Evening Grosbeak

San Jose Weekend

I spent the weekend of October 27th-29th at a number of spots in San Jose.

On the morning of Friday 27th I went to the Santa Clara Water District.