BAGOs in ELGR

There is a rather small, urban lake very near where I live in Elk Grove.  Last winter I found that for some reason it attracted a surprising amount of waterfowl.  Included in what we saw last year were a couple of BARROW'S GOLDENEYES, a species I hadn't spent all that much time around.

So, my goal this fall/winter has been simple; to check this lake more often.

I did just the other day and this flock greeted me:

Included in the flock were at least 3 BARROW'S GOLDENEYES including this male:

Check out how different the posture and head feathering can look based on behavior; actively diving or not:

For more details on what we saw at this particular stop, check out our checklist:

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S12363344

Another post!

I'm trying to get back into the rhythm of actually posting stuff on here once in a while.  I won't spend too much time going into background for the last 3 months though.

Yes, I'm starting to see some SWAINSON'S HAWKS in the Central Valley yet again this winter.  Here's a juvenile (it's been postulated that all the over-wintering SWHAs here in the CEVA are juvs):

We have plenty of GOLDEN EAGLES around as well, WAY more than Bald Eagles.  Here's a GOEA from the Los Banos area:

Nothing special about this picture; it just shows a typical view of the wetlands that I work in (trying to capture, band, and radio-tag dowitchers and Dunlin):

You should see a GREEN-WINGED TEAL hit a mistnet at 50 mph!  I was lucky to snag this guy predawn the other day:

Test

So, last I saw, I had apparently filled up all the space available for my blog?  Anyway, this is nothing but a test.  Some DUNL and LESA to fill the void.