Central Valley birding

On Saturday, Laurie and I wandered up into the central valley to see what we could find, with a focus on Consumnes River Preserve and Staten Island. Along the way, we did a side trip into Grizzly Island because I’d wanted to explore the area a bit; Nothing really special there, and the reserve is closed to watchers and open to hunters, so we never got off the road.

Staten Island gave us (by far) our best looks at Sandhill Cranes for the day

But the big highlight was two prairie falcons, one near the end of the paved road, and one on the other side of the granary near the main road. Both were mostly interested in hanging out, but were really skittish of us, so every time we drove near, it flew off, and was then harassed by some of the local blackbird flock.

And what a flock. I estimated a few thousand birds, mostly hanging out in a flooded rice field. Groups would fly up and hundred upon hundreds of birds would wheel about, then settle back. Just fascinating. Tried to get a picture that showed the clouds of birds in the sky, but none of them worked.

Beyond the cranes, there were a few flocks of snow geese, a couple of small groups of canada geese (including at least two and possibly 4 cackling), and a wide variety of raptors, only the prarie falcons notable. My first visit there, but it’ll be on my regular visit list when we hit that area of the central valley.

We then headed over to Consumnes, parking (as I prefer) down in the secondary lot by the wetlands. Why? Because it’s a perfect place to be for sunset. This year’s sunset was — decent.

but nothing like I’ve seen there:

Laurie wandered off and birded the woods a bit, I hung out around the wetlands. Mostly full of the usual suspects, although others noted that they’d seen Wilson’s Snipe and a pair of Merlins. We did locate one snipe, which I’ve formally defined as the “Oh!” bird, because it can be sitting out there in relatively close view without you seeing the damn thing, and then suddenly you see it — and oh!, how did you miss the damn thing that long? (not just me, I heard “Oh!” three times as we pointed things out).

At one point we were trying to get a better look at a marsh wren that was annoyed at us and letting us know (is there any other kind?) when I saw something sneaking through the reeds. It saw me and scuttled — I knew it was a rail of some sort, small, but didn’t get a great look at it. fortunately, its commute wasn’t done, and a few minutes later it took a huge risk and skittered past us and into another set of reeds, never to be seen again — but I got good enough views to realize it was a Sora. the silly thing ended up in a set of reeds right next to the boardwalk; literally no more than 2′ from about 15 people, and none of us got a hint of where it might be. The joy of camouflage coloration. Amusingly enough, as Laurie was looking for the sora, she found a 2nd Wilson’s Snipe in the same reeds, no more than 2′ from us — and none of us had a clue it was there. Ain’t rail birding fun?

The trip to Staten Island and Consumnes added three life (and year) birds to the list, Sora, Merlin and Prarie Falcon (finally, after missing it a few times down in Coyote Valley). That puts my life list at 216, my year list at 193; my original goal for the year was 200/200, and when I hit 200 early I thought I might try for 220/200, but with everything going on this year, I’ve done a lot less birding than I’d planned or wanted to, so I’d kinda decided it wasn’t going to happen. Now, if I get a little lucky, it still might, but it’s not a top priority.

We’re planning (weather permitting) a trip out to O’Neill Forebay and Merced on Black Friday, and we’ll see how things go. I might try a run out Sunday, maybe, as well, somewhere. Not sure where, though…

Location: Consumnes River Preseve
Observation date: 11/15/08
Number of species: 30

Canada Goose 60
Mallard X
Blue-winged Teal 1
Cinnamon Teal 6
Northern Shoveler X
Northern Pintail X
Green-winged Teal 4
Double-crested Cormorant X
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 2
Red-tailed Hawk 2
American Kestrel 1
Merlin 2
Sora 1
American Coot X
Sandhill Crane 120
Killdeer 4
Black-necked Stilt X
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Long-billed Dowitcher X
Wilson’s Snipe 1
Black Phoebe 6
Oak Titmouse X
Bushtit X
Marsh Wren 4
Yellow-rumped Warbler 4
White-crowned Sparrow X
Red-winged Blackbird X
Brewer’s Blackbird X
House Finch X

Location: Staten Island (San Joaquin Co.)
Observation date: 11/15/08
Number of species: 26

Snow Goose 75
Cackling Goose 2
Canada Goose 6
Mallard X
Northern Shoveler X
Northern Pintail X
Canvasback X
Ruddy Duck X
Double-crested Cormorant X
Great Blue Heron 2
Great Egret 1
Turkey Vulture 3
White-tailed Kite 1
Northern Harrier 1
Red-tailed Hawk 7
Prairie Falcon 2
American Coot X
Sandhill Crane 75
Killdeer X
Black-necked Stilt X
Say’s Phoebe 1
American Crow X
Red-winged Blackbird 2000
Western Meadowlark 45
Brewer’s Blackbird X
House Finch X

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Location: Grizzly Island road
Observation date: 11/15/08
Number of species: 15

Mallard X
Northern Shoveler X
Northern Pintail X
Ruddy Duck X
Great Blue Heron 2
Great Egret 1
Turkey Vulture 4
White-tailed Kite 2
Northern Harrier 3
Red-tailed Hawk 5
American Coot X
Black Phoebe 4
Loggerhead Shrike 1
Western Scrub-Jay 1
American Crow X

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Location: driving run — santa clara to galt
Observation date: 11/15/08
Notes: noted birds while driving today, nothing notable enough to break out into its own location…
Number of species: 8

Turkey Vulture 25
Red-tailed Hawk 10
American Kestrel 1
Loggerhead Shrike 1
Steller’s Jay 1
Western Scrub-Jay 1
Yellow-billed Magpie 1
American Crow X

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