We participated in the 44th annual Stockton Christmas Bird Count this past weekend.
The tule fog made it difficult to see much until about noon but it eventually cleared. We tallied 88 species in our area in about 8 hours:
Pied-billed Grebe - 4
Double-crested Cormorant - 10
American Bittern - 3
Great Blue Heron - 4
Great Egret - 9
Snowy Egret - 5
Cattle Egret - 1
Green Heron - 1
White-faced Ibis - 87
Tundra Swan - 289
Greater White-fronted Goose - 160
Snow Goose - 152
Ross's Goose - 8
Cackling Goose - 632
Wood Duck - 1
Gadwall - 1
American Wigeon - 7
Mallard - 8
Northern Shoveler - 5
Northern Pintail - 41
Green-winged Teal - 5
Canvasback - 12
Common Goldeneye - 1
Ruddy Duck - 1
White-tailed Kite - 8
Northern Harrier - 12
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
Cooper's Hawk - 2
Red-shouldered Hawk - 3
Red-tailed Hawk - 14
American Kestrel - 6
Sora - 1
American Coot - 395
Sandhill Crane - 124
Killdeer - 19
Black-necked Stilt - 27
Greater Yellowlegs - 7
Least Sandpiper - 10
Dunlin - 1
Long-billed Dowitcher - 6
Wilson's Snipe - 21
Bonaparte's Gull - 108
Ring-billed Gull - 97
California Gull - 1
Herring Gull - 6
Forster's Tern - 2
Rock Pigeon - 22
Mourning Dove - 20
Barn Owl - 8
Great Horned Owl - 2
Belted Kingfisher - 1
Downy Woodpecker - 1
Nuttall's Woodpecker - 1
Northern Flicker - 2
Black Phoebe - 5
Say's Phoebe - 2
Western Scrub-Jay - 5
American Crow - 30
Horned Lark - 45
Tree Swallow - 7
Bushtit - 4
Bewick's Wren - 2
House Wren - 3
Marsh Wren - 5
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 2
American Robin - 24
Northern Mockingbird - 1
European Starling - 40
American Pipit - 50
Orange-crowned Warbler - 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 2
Common Yellowthroat - 5
Spotted Towhee - 3
Savannah Sparrow - 31
Fox Sparrow - 4
Song Sparrow - 17
Lincoln's Sparrow - 5
White-throated Sparrow - 1
Golden-crowned Sparrow - 26
White-crowned Sparrow - 135
Dark-eyed Junco - 25
Red-winged Blackbird - 335
Western Meadowlark - 45
Yellow-headed Blackbird - 2
Brewer's Blackbird - 265
Great-tailed Grackle - 2
House Finch - 50
American Goldfinch - 3
House Sparrow - 44
Here are a few pictures from the CBC starting with a BEWICK'S WREN:
We had several COMMON YELLOWTHROATS as well including this male:
The WHITE-TAILED KITES were present in strong numbers as would be expected:
One of the better birds we stumbled on in our area was this WHITE-THROATED SPARROW:
We ended the day by watching up to 8 BARN OWLS hunting at a duck club. On our way out, we spotted this guy perched on a power line right next to the car:
Other than the CBC, we went out to the coast the previous weekend. Here is a WESTERN SCRUB-JAY near Bodega Bay:
I've enjoyed seeing MEW GULLS on a more regular basis. This adult was in Bodega Bay:
Ash spotted this flock of BLACK TURNSTONES and SURFBIRDS on Bodega head:
We swung by a Hudeman Slough in Solano County which has been hosting a RUFF. As usual, my distant digiscoped pics are pretty terrible:
While at the Ruff spot, this WHITE-TAILED KITE gave me a look I couldn't pass up on:
While working on Staten Island the other day, this AMERICAN MINK came out of the cattails while I was pishing for sparrows:
This FORSTER'S TERN also flew by at the mink spot:
A little later that morning this ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK put on a good show overhead:
I'm sure this isn't the first time I've posted a picture of an AMERICAN PIPIT, it probably won't be the last either:
A little closer to home, this NORTHERN HARRIER apparently had an itch to scratch right as it passed over my home patio:
Last but not least, I swung up to the Yolo County Landfill. My target was to relocate a LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL and GLAUCOUS GULL that had been reported by SH. I worked through the flock for maybe an hour and came away with the LBBG but not the GLGU. Here is a very distant digiscoped picture of the LBBG:
