JEFF SANGALLI

Check out Jeff Sangalli's (ATOMIC JUNKIE) concept art blog.  He just put up his first post.  Hopefully there will be many more to come.  His artwork is incredible !

CHERRY BLOSSOMS

I haven't posted an update for a few weeks.  I'm now over 80 species on my big year list.  This weekend saw the addition of my first hummingbird, and a Greater Scaup.  I met a number of local residents who gave me some new tips on where to possibly see a Burrowing Owl (still no sighting yet).

Point Reyes is full of surprises.  There is a large number of cherry blossom trees in the area and they are now starting to bloom as you can see in the photos above.

82 species and counting !

LAS GALLINAS "WILDLIFE PONDS"

 
I've been avoiding the Las Gallinas Wildlife Ponds even though they're considered to be a birding hotspot in Marin.  My reason for this is because the Las Gallinas "Wildlife Ponds" are actually holding tanks for treated liquid waste...  As horrible as that sounds, I made a big mistake overlooking this location.  It's not at all what you'd imagine it to be.  Las Gallinas is full of birds, and it's also full of birders.  I met a lot of great people and spotted a few rare birds (Blue-Winged Teal and a Wilson's Snipe).  All the bird-nerds at Las Gallinas said it's worth coming back in the evening to spot owls, so I'll make a point of doing that soon.  The trees in the center of the pond were full of Night Herons and the banks were full of all types of ducks.  I helped a few fellow bird watchers spot a Harrier, and they in return pointed out a Blue-Winged Teal.

I still have not given up on my never-ending quest to see a burrowing owl.  In fact, I spent most of Saturday wandering through the fenced in fields at Abbots Lagoon.  Unfortunately I did not find one, but I did spot a few western meadowlarks.  While exploring the fields of Abbots Lagoon, I did find a lot of holes.  BIG holes.  Some of them were so deep they looked like they went a long way into the ground.  It's my understanding that Badgers dig these holes, and then the owls move into them once they're vacant.  So on the chance that a Badger was still living in them, I decided it probably wasn't a good idea to risk sticking my hand inside.

Point Reyes has an endless supply of great birding locations.  Another one of these is Olema Marsh.  I checked this spot out after Abbots Lagoon and spotted a large group of Cinnamon Teal.  When the sun shines on them their cinnamon-reddish colour almost glows.  They're beautiful ducks.

I've seen a lot of hummingbirds, but I haven't confirmed any of the sightings yet.  I've really got to focus on my field guide if I'm ever going to accurately identify them.

63 species and counting !

ABBOTS LAGOON

You know you've become addicted to birding when you start using vacation days to look for Burrowing Owls.  That's what we did yesterday.  We spent the day at Abbots Lagoon, a new area of Point Reyes for us.  Abbots Lagoon is full of wildlife.  We passed the largest Bobcat we've ever seen on the drive, and once we pulled into the trail head parking lot we could see deer and a coyote out in the field.  While we did not end up seeing any Burrowing Owls, we did see a large number of dirt mounds where you would expect to see them.  By the end of the day my total of sightings this year had passed 50 species of birds.  

The Abbots Lagoon trail takes you by a large open field, a beautiful lagoon, sand dunes, and eventually leads you out to the ocean.  There weren't many people on the trail while we hiked it, so it made for optimal wildlife viewing.  We passed one couple that was on their way back from the beach.  They had just seen a whale near the shore, but unfortunately we were too late to see it.

We will definitely be returning to Abbots Lagoon again soon.  We spotted a lot of new birds here (including a juvenile Night Heron and a group of Horned Larks).  The scenery is so lush and beautiful it almost looks fake.  It is supposed to be a hot spot for Burrowing Owls, so hopefully we'll have the chance to see one on a future visit.

On our drive home we stopped at a cute little coffee shop called Blackbird.  There was some photos for sale of Burrowing Owls and Badgers taken at.... none other than Abbots Lagoon !  So we are definitely sold on Abbots and will be back to spend the day again soon.

54 species and counting !

BEAR VALLEY TRAIL

I explored the Bear Valley Trail today and added three new species to the list.  Still playing with the new camera, I got these shots of a Blue Heron and a family of California Quail. 

We drove out to Limantour Beach again, but didn't see much due to the high winds.  On the way back down we noticed a group of fellow bird-nerds on the side of the road.  We pulled over and found out they were watching an Osprey nest.  Unfortunately there probably won't be any Osprey using the nest until March.  Definitely a spot I'll need to go back to soon :)

45 species and counting !

BIRTHDAY BIRDING

 
I took Friday off work to celebrate my birthday with Natsuko, and of course sneak in some more birding ;)

I spent the afternoon at the Corte Madera Marsh again and added a few new species to the list.  At sunset I waited outside in our backyard hoping to spot an owl.  And believe it or not, I actually ended up spotting one !  However, it was too dark to tell what type it was.  So unfortunately it's an unconfirmed sighting.  I'm guessing it was a Great Horned Owl.  An amazing experience though.  As soon as the sun dropped I could hear the owl calling.  Not long after I heard it, it flew right above me.  But at that point the light was gone from the sky, so all I could really see was a dark silhouette.  I think it's going to be even more exciting when I finally get a confirmed Owl sighting now.

As a side note, I ended up adding an American Kestrel to my list while I was waiting to see an owl.  I watched it catch some sort of rodent and eat it on top of the quarry ridge.  I thought it was a Sparrow Hawk, until I looked it up and realized the term "Sparrow Hawk" is used to define a number of smaller hawks.

Saturday we headed back to the Bear Valley Visitor Center, and then out to Limantour Beach (for the first time).  I added a White-Tailed Kite to the list at Limantour.

On another side note, I am now the proud owner of a canon rebel T3i !  So hopefully the quality of photos on this blog will improve.  The photo of the Herring gull above was taken at Limantour Beach.

Overall a very successful birding weekend that has put my total so far at 41 species.

TOWNSEND'S WARBLER

11 birds spotted today !  And among those I saw my first Warbler.  A Townsends's Warbler to be precise, which is usually only viewable at this time of the year.  It stayed on a branch in front of me for quite some time before it flew away, enabling me to easily identify it.

I bumped into a park ranger on one of the trails at the Bear Valley Visitor Center.  He gave me some great tips on the best places to find owls, and suggested I come back to the same location in the Spring to see the Blue Herons nesting.  You bet I will !

We saw a lot of deer today, and ended up seeing another bobcat near the side of the road.  It seemed to want to have it's photo taken :)

On our way home we had a brief delay as one of the cows from a local ranch had ended up on the road.  Park Services helped move it back into the pasture.  American State Park Rangers are the best !

COYOTE PACK

 

I've been getting to work earlier and earlier these days.  One of the big benefits of that is being able to see a lot of early morning wildlife on my drive in.  This week I spotted this small gang of Coyotes.  I spotted one at first, so I pulled over to take a photo.  That's when I realized there were quite a few in the field.  I suddenly felt the urge to get back in the car :)

I'd always thought Coyotes were solitary animals.  Here's proof that they do travel in groups.