A Woodie in the Magnolia

I was taking our dog for a walk. Cosmo stopped to sniff something. I looked up into the top branches of our Magnolia tree. A bird was rustling in the leaves. We have a Northern Mockingbird there sometimes. This time it was the beautiful Red Bellied Woodpecker.

The Red Bellied Woodpecker is strictly an eastern bird. We did not see it in northern California. There we saw the Acorn Woodpecker and the Nuttal's Woodpecker. They will have to come to the eastern United States to see the Red Bellied Woodpecker.

E-bird's Map for Red Bellied Woodpecker Sightings

Robert and Berry

photo courtesy of weeksbay.org
map courtesy of ebird

Home from San Francisco

Leaving San Francisco

We woke up to a chilly, foggy morning. We packed the suitcases which were very heavy because we had to put everything in them to take home. In the parking lot of the hotel as we were loading our bags into the car for the final time, a flock of twelve Canada Geese flew directly over us, honking loudly. They were flying low due to the foggy conditions, but it seemed like they were saying farewell to us on our last day here.

To finish our blogging of this birding trip to San Francisco, Berry and I have decided to draw up a short Pop Quiz about the last twelve blog posts. This will be multiple choice. It is also an open-blog Quiz, that is you can look back at older posts to find an answer.

Please send us your answers in the Comment Section.

Pop Quiz

Question One : Whose luggage was lost on the flight from Memphis to San Francisco ? If you have been reading the blog, this should be easy.

A. Berry
B. Robert
C. All of the above
D. None of the above

Question Two : What was the first “Life Bird” of the trip ?

A. American Robin
B. Northern Cardinal
c. Whooping Crane
D. Red Shafted Northern Flicker

Question Three : What was the large, white bird we kept seeing, but usually is never found in northern California ?

A. Western Gull
B. American White Pelican
c. Mute Swan
d. Great Egret

Mute Swan Cygnus Olor

Question Four : What color is the beak of the Black Oystercatcher ?

A. Yellow
B. Green
C. Black
D. Orange

Question Five : Where was the sea cave that Berry tried to push Robert into ?

A. Point Reyes
B. Russian Gulch State Park
C. Golden Gate Bridge
D. Sausalito, CA

Question Six : Which of the following is not a potential danger in northern California ?

A. Mountain Lions, which eat you
B. Rutting Elk, which gore and stomp you
C. Tsunamis which drown you
D. Extraterrestrial aliens landing in California

Question Seven : Where at Lewiston Lake was the Bald Eagle ?

A. Right above our car
B. In a tree by the roadside
C. Fishing in the water
D. None of the above

Question Eight : What is the only songbird that goes swimming ?

A. Golden Crowned Sparrow
B. American Dipper
C. Bushtit
D. Western Scrub Jay

American Dipper Cinclus Mexicanus

Question Nine : When the back of the bird is patterned like a black and white ladder, it is called :

A. Wing Bars
B. Red Crested
C. Ladder Backed
D. Golden Crowned

Question Ten : In its interview, what question was asked of Mr. Black Necked Stilt ?

A. What do you eat ?
B. Can you find pants that fit you ?
C. Do you have a passport ?
D. How do you defend yourself, being so small ?

Thanks for completing the Pop Quiz. Please send your answers to us in the Comment Section of this post. Most answers right wins. In case of a tie, first person wins.

Robert and Berry

photos courtesy of wikipedia

Back in San Francisco

Don Edwards Wildlife Area

We are back in chilly San Francisco. To top off a great birding trip, we birded the Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge at the southern end of San Francisco Bay. We parked the rental car and walked up a steep hill to the headquarters. From there, one could see a fascinating collection of birding habitats. There was a large salt marsh on one side, rocky outcroppings around us and large mud flats and tidal pools. And, seemingly, birds everywhere.

We drove alongside the tidal pools and saw the Northern Shovelers (Anas clypeata) scrapping things out of the water with their shovel like beaks. We saw other ducks dabbling, turning up and feeding off the bottom of the tidal pool. All you could see was their cute little butts in the air.

The salt marsh is made up of Cordgrass, which looks like spears of straight grass, kind of like Saw Grass on steroids. There was something else called Pickle Weed, which is a salt-tolerant evergreen shrub. There is a small mouse in the salt marsh that can drink salt water. Interesting factoid.

Golden Crowned Sparrow

We saw a lot of birds today, but the one that got both of us excited was the Golden Crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla). This is a large sparrow that migrates up and down the Pacific coast. They summer in Alaska and winter in Mexico. We found it on its migratory journey south, when it stopped at the Don Edwards Wildlife Area. Another “Life Bird” for us, meaning that we had never seen this bird before in our entire lives.

Golden Crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla)

Chinatown

We went to Chinatown for a fun lunch. We chose a Chinese restaurant and were sitting there eating, when a large, noisy Chinese parade started up out on the street. This was a cultural celebration of Taiwanese Independence, celebrating the anniversary of the fall of the Qing Dynasty in China and the installation of the Chinese Nationalist Party in Taiwan. There were musicians, beauty queens, dignitaries, ROTC type soldiers, banners, small individual dragons and finally one long, huge golden dragon with about twenty people inside of it. Very impressive. One lady left the parade to offer Robert a piece of hard candy.

After lunch, we found a Chinese jewelry store and Berry bought some green jewelry made from jade.

We found a Chinese Book Store and Robert bought a book called “High Level Xiangqi”, a book about Chinese Chess.

Our vacation has been great fun. The Golden Crowned Sparrow in the salt marsh was just more icing on the cake. We got back to the Holiday Inn and began packing everything to fly home. Robert took a needed nap.

Robert and Berry

photos courtesy of wikipedia, dereilainn

Hummers

Anna’s Hummingbird

Today we worked the Grizzly Wildlife Area near Suisun, California. Someone had released a large, domesticated white rabbit into the wildlife area. It was not afraid of humans and was sitting next to the gate, as if waiting for its owner to come pick it up.

We walked slowly down a path and Berry found a pile of tail feathers from a pheasant. She put them in her bag.

A brightly colored, male Anna’s Hummingbird (Calypte anna) perched on the top branch of a bush, about six feet off the ground. Where there is a handsome man, there will be females. We saw the white throated female nearby.

a male Anna’s Hummingbird (Calypte Anna)

René Primevère Lesson, a traveling French ornithologist, named the “Anna’s Hummingbird” after Anna Masséna, the beautiful Duchess of Rivoli in the 1800s.

a female Anna’s Hummingbird (Calypte Anna)

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The Black Chinned Hummingbird

Berry remembers that the Black Chinned Hummingbird (Archilochus alexandri) perched on a bush and stared at her for about five minutes. We do not have these species of hummingbird in the Memphis area. And the hummers that we have do not stare at you like this.

Black Chinned Hummingbird (Archilochus Alexandri)

We are now back in San Fransisco. We will bird tomorrow in the giant marsh near here and then fly home on Monday.

Robert and Berry

photos courtesy of wikipedia

The Sacramento River Wildlife Refuge

Sacramento River Wildlife Refuge

Today we drove down a lot of country roads on the way to the Sacramento River Wildlife Refuge. We birded boat ramps, agricultural canals, river levees, farm fields, parks, muddy ditches along the road, any area with trees or bushes, empty parking lots, busy graveyards and maternity hospitals. We are always on the look out for birds.

We have seen most of the birds on today’s list during other birding trips. Some of the birds we have hardly ever seen. Some we have seen many times. It is a crapshoot. Let us meet the birds we saw today. Time for a little Q and A.

Question: Mr. Sandhill Crane, when did Robert and Berry see you ?

Answer: They have seen me in Florida in someone’s front yard. They traveled to Nebraska in the freezing cold weather to see me. And today, two of us were standing in a dirt road and Berry spotted us as they drove past.

Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis)

Question: Mr. Eurasian Collared Dove, why are you so distinctive among doves ?

Answer: I am similar in size to the Rock Dove you see in big cities, but my feathers are rather more white like the Turtle Dove. What makes me immediately identifiable is the black collar on my neck, from which I get my name.

Eurasian Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto

Question: Mr. Golden Eagle, what do you eat ?

Answer: I usually eat whatever I can catch. Rabbits, marmots and ground squirrels. I have been known to consume roadkill. If I am near water, I sometimes eat fish. I have even been known to attack a full grown deer.

Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos)

Question: Mr. Greater White Fronted Goose, where would you like to visit in the United States ?

Answer: I do my heavy courting in Siberia and sometimes in Greenland. I have one of the largest ranges of any species of goose in the world. When I come to the United States, it is mainly west of the Missisippi River. I hang out in wetlands and farmlands. My kids want to go to Disney World in Florida, but we have not been yet.

Greater White Fronted Goose (Anser albifrons)

Question: Mr. Ruby Crowned Kinglet, why are you not wearing your Ruby Crown ?

Answer: I am wearing my olive green feathers and look here at my wing bars. Of course, you can see my white eye rings. As your question stated, you cannot see my red crown, because I am not agitated right now. Step in front of me in line and you will see the tiny ruby colored feathers on the top of my head flare up. Showing my bright red crest is a way of signaling displeasure or excitement.

Ruby Crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula)

Question: Mr. Bushtit, how do you defend yourself, being so small ?

Answer: I cannot push people around in a bar. I am a lover, not a fighter. I flit constantly in the branches of thickets. Never alone and never quiet, I twitter even as I fly around, moving constantly. Robert saw me hanging upside down, prying a bug out of a pinecone. But I never sit still. That keeps me from becoming dinner on someone else’s plate. Bye, now!

Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus)

Question: Mr. White Faced Ibis, when was the last time Berry saw you ?

Answer: I remember seeing Berry in New Orleans. It was before Katrina. I was standing in City Park and she had a spotting scope. I think I also saw Berry in Florida, inside the Everglades. This time, it was in California, inside the Sacramento River Wildlife Refuge at the end of the Autotour. She and I are becoming quite an item. Don’t tell Robert.

White Faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi)

Question: Mr. Ring Necked Pheasant, do you have a passport ?

Answer: My origins are somewhere in ancient China. Now I live quite naturally in east Asia. In some european countries, royal gamekeepers installed me in official game preserves for the enjoyment of rich people. When you see me now in the United States, it is either in Florida, where Robert and Berry saw me on a birding trip, or in California, where they spotted me dashing out in front of their car in the Sacramento River Wildlife Refuge. I get around.

Ring Necked Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus)

Question: Mr. Black Necked Stilt, can you find pants that will fit you ?

Answer: As you can see, I have extremely long, thin, pink legs. This is so I can forage in deep water. In addition to today, Robert and Berry see my legs when I am wading in the muck inside the Maxwell Waste Treatment Plant on Second Street in Memphis. Besides, my legs are quite lovely, so why should I cover them up with pants ?

Black Necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus)

Thanks to everyone who participated in today's interviews.

Robert and Berry

photos courtesy of wikipedia

Warm Temperatures in Central California

Woodson Bridge Wildlife Area

After a “hotel” breakfast, which was not much of a breakfast, we headed east from Corning, Ca. toward the Woodson Bridge National Wildlife Area, another stop on the Sacramento River. We birded first at the City Park next to Woodson Bridge. We seem to have a lot of luck finding excellent birds at City Parks. We stood still and looked up and the trees were busy with birds.

We saw a great number of Acorn Woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus) here, but we got very excited when one of them turned into a Nuttall’s Woodpecker (Picoides nuttallii). The back of the bird is patterned like a black and white ladder, so we say a bird like this is “ladder-backed”. Nuttall’s is only seen in the western United States. This was also a life bird for us. This was very exciting.

In the river next to us, large fish were jumping completely out of the river. Across from us on the other bank of the river, a woman was muttering to herself. She seemed to be pressing something into the ground with her feet. Berry thought she may be psychotic. Robert wondered aloud why she was not in a hospital. This is a birding blog, not a social problem forum. A strange interlude, no doubt.

• Northern Mockingbird
• Red Shouldered Hawk
• House Finch
• White Crowned Sparrow
• Western Scrub Jay
• Western Meadowlark
• Dark Eyed Junco
• Nuttall’s Woodpecker
• Acorn Woodpecker
• Red Shafted Northern Flicker
• European Starling
• Belted Kingfisher
• Turkey Vulture
• Black throated Gray Warbler
• Yellow Rumped Warbler
• Black Phoebe
• Common Raven

Black Butte Lake

Leaving Woodson Bridge, we traveled southwest to Black Butte Lake. We actually followed a police car down the country road toward the lake. The squad car stopped at the scene of a bleeding man sprawled in the gutter. The poor fellow had been cut somehow, an accident or a fight. The police stared hard at us as we drove slowly past. This was just another strange interlude.

The lake itself seemed to be in the throes of a nasty drought. The lack of water caused by the drought meant the lake level was forty feet lower than normal. We walked on the beach, which used to be the bottom of the lake. We walked to the boat ramp and used our spotting scope to look at the Western Grebe(Aechmophorus occidentalis) and American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) in the water. Leaving the lake area, driving toward Orland, Ca. we passed more irrigation canals. In some the water was moving slowly and in others we clocked the water at 5 miles per hour. Poking into the canal, we spotted a Lesser Yellow Legs (Tringa flavipes) and several Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus).

• Savannah Sparrow
• Western Grebe
• American White Pelicans
• Lesser Yellow legs
• Wild Turkey
• Acorn Woodpecker
• Black Throated Gray Warbler
• Killdeer

Thermalito National Wildlife Reserve

We drove past a large, square body of water, probably agricultural in nature. There were a lot of Western Grebes (Aechmophorus occidentalis) here. We also birded the agricultural fields and their canals for about 45 miles going southeast to the “Thermalito Afterbay Outflow”. This area is part of the Oroville National Wildlife Reserve. On the adjoining Feather River, which runs through the Reserve, we saw huge fish jumping out of the water. Our literature says that the salmon begin running in the Fall, so we believe the huge fish jumping were probably salmon.

In the reeds along the bank, we watched a beautiful Green Heron (Butorides virescens) poke its beak in the water and pull up something to eat. This is one of Robert’s favorite birds. Down the bank a bit, a large Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) waded through the green muck near the bank and stabbed the water with its enormous beak, snagging a small fish to eat as well.

• Red Tailed Hawk
• American Coot
• Pied Billed Grebe
• Western Grebe
• Red Winged Blackbird
• Killdeer
• Savannah Sparrow
• Great Egret
• Great Blue Heron
• Osprey
• Green Heron

This area has a warm, Mediterranean climate. There is a breeze but there is not the cold of the coastal areas that we experienced earlier. After another great day birding in central California, we stayed at the Holiday Inn in Oroville, Ca.

Robert and Berry

photos courtesy of wikipedia

Birding Central California

Redding Sewage Treatment Plant

At the Redding Sewage Treatment Plant, Berry called it the Redding Sausage Treatment Plant, there was a small misunderstanding after signing in. Berry signed in then they wanted her to sign a legal release, in case we fell in the sewage tailing ponds and drowned. After that, we starting walking past the mechanical equipment to go to the tailing ponds and two fellows drove up in a white pickup and said we weren’t supposed to be there. Berry and I rolled our eyes.

We walked around the tailing ponds and looked for birds and we looked outside the fence, too. We identified the little gray Bushtit in a special area that was posted with a sign warning us not to disturb the endangered “Valley Elderberry Longhorn Beetle”. The hungry birds could eat the beetles, we imagined, but we were supposed to control our appetites. In this area we also saw the California Quail. There are plenty of these dashing birds here. Note on this bird, the distinctive tear drop shaped topknot, which is diagnostic.

Anderson River Park

We were actually looking for a different place when we found this huge city park alongside the Sacramento River. The way we birded this park was to drive our vehicle a few feet then halt. When we both had finished looking at a bird, Robert would then drive a few feet more. We made our way through the entire park this way, step by step. This is a huge city park with horses to ride, a microlight aircraft launching pad, frisbee golf, large empty places, access to the Sacramento River and a fishing dock. We found some great birds right off the roads or right next to the parking areas.

• Acorn Woodpecker
• Mountain Bluebird
• Stellar’s Jay
• Trumpeter Swan
• Wood Duck
• Canada Geese
• Northern Mockingbird
• House Finch
• Brewer’s Blackbird
• Chipping Sparrow
• Mallard Duck
• Killdeer
• Western Scrub Jay
• Yellow Billed Magpie

The Yellow Billed Magpie was eating seeds on the ground next to the road. It is a very large bird, larger than a Bluejay. It has a bright yellow beak and a bright yellow eye-ring. We were very proud to have spotted this one, because the Yellow Billed Magpie is much more difficult to see than the Black Billed Magpie. It is a rarer bird. A great find for us.

Battle Creek National Wildlife Area

Along a road inside the Battle Creek National Wildlife Area, we stopped the car and focused in on something moving in the bushes beside the road. It had an orangish red stomach and white flecks on its black wings. It was easy to determine that this was the Spotted Towhee. It looks just like the Eastern Towhee that we see near Memphis, except the wings are flecked with white paint.

At one point we spotted a large flock of Wild Turkeys, walking along pecking at the ground. There were at least twelve large birds in this flock. Berry noted that it was closing in on Thanksgiving and that these turkeys were pleasingly plump.

We were tired and hungry so we had lunch at Sandy’s Specialties in Cottonwood, Ca. It is mainly a specialty baking place, but we got some pretty nice sandwiches there.

Sacramento River Agricultural Canals

Back across the river and down the highway a bit, we moved into agricultural fields. There were fruit trees and nut trees and olive trees in neat rows along the country road. To irrigate these fields, there are large concrete canals full of water running up and down the middle of California. There is a road perfectly situated next to the canal, such that we could drive alongside the canal and look for birds inside. Here is where we found one of the best birds of the day, the American Dipper.

• American Dipper
• Greater Yellow Legs
• Say’s Phoebe
• Savannah Sparrow
• Canada Goose
• Red Necked Grebe
• Western Scrub Jay
• Great Egret
• Common Merganser
• Prairie Falcon
• Killdeer

The American Dipper

We found a bird today that we had been looking for most of the trip. We stopped next to a mountain stream once to look for it. The American Dipper is the only songbird which goes swimming. It wades in mountain streams and searches for food. It has a special oil in its feathers to stay warm. It has a small flap of tissue which closes to allow it underwater. Needless to say, when we found it today, at the edge of one of these large concrete agricultural canals, we were happy. We watched the one, when its mate appeared. Berry and I were dancing in circles.

Casa Ramos

Ai Caramba ! Berry and I went to a Mexican restaurant in Corning, Ca. for dinner tonight. I ordered something called Molcajete and then told the waiter, “Muy picante, por favor” which means, “Very spicy hot, please”. The waiter proceeded to take off the top of my head. I started sweating profusely. I quickly ran out of unsweetened iced tea. Berry asked if I were okay. Yes, I was. I had asked for very spicy hot food and I got it. Casa Ramos is an excellent little restaurant, if you’re ever in Corning, Ca.

Robert and Berry

photos courtesy of wikipedia