Here is a quick post from the last couple of days.
These AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS represented a new "yard bird" for my apartment here in Elk Grove. I had expected this species to fly over some day, I just wasn't sure when. That finally happened this week:
Last weekend I drove to Oakland to look for a NELSON'S SPARROW that was reported there. Well, I dipped on that (not too surprising given their secretive nature and my inability to stomp around the marsh). The trip wasn't a total loss though, we saw a CLAPPER RAIL skirting the edge of the marsh. The photos are what I call "pretty bad":
Later that weekend we drove to the Capay Cemetery to see if there were any WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS and RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKERS around (this cemetery is where I saw both of these species last fall). Our targets worked out again this visit, one of which was this RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER:
Here is a map of where the cemetery is:
View Capay Cemetery in a larger map
For me, I think the neck always looks "pinched" behind the head on SNOW GEESE. Using the above picture, I think the top right bird is a SNOW and the bottom left bird is a ROSS'S. Here is another look, this time with four geese:
There were a couple of brambles along the edge of Staten Island that produced a couple neat things, first and foremost a WRENTIT:
I haven't birded the Central Valley extensively, in fact, I'm still very-much a beginner here. However, before that WRENTIT, I had only seen them at Cosumnes River Preserve in Sacramento County.
This ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER also popped out of a tangle. I would say I see OCWAs on fewer than 50% of my trips to Staten Island:
On the other side of the spectrum, I see YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS on every visit:
As I was leaving the island, there was a close feeding flock of DUNLIN that I stopped and scanned through. No CURLEW SANDPIPER this time....
