Lisa Hug

I’ve had the opportunity to pop out to the Sonoma Coast  three times this week.  On Monday, there was a Rhinocerous Auklet just of the headland. Wednesday, there was a Black Skimmer which I reported to all the local rare bird alerts.  There were also a few Gray Whales that have set up residence just off the headlands and a couple of far-off  Blue Whales.   Today (Friday) I skipped Bodega bay because I noticed a huge mass of traffic going that direction from Sebastopo, so I went further up the coast to Duncan’s Landing.  There, there was a a beautiful Wandering tattler in full breeding plumage.  there was also a Short-billed Dowitcher feeding on the rocks with a few Surfbids and Whimbrels.  I don’t ever recall ever seeing a dowitcher feeding on tidal rocks before.  

Bird List April 24, 2010
Canada Goose,  Brant, Gadwall, Red-breasted merganser, Greater Scaup, Surf Scoter, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye, Common Loon, Pacific Loon, Red-throated Loon, Horned grebe, Red-necked grebe, Western grebe, Clark’s grebe, American White Pelican, Brown Pelican, Double-crested Cormorant, Brandt’s Cormorant, Pelagic Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Greg Egret, Snowy Egret, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Northern Harrier, red-tailed Hawk, Merlin, Snowy Plover, Semipalmated plover, Killdeer, Black Oystercatcher, Willetr, Whimbrel, Marbled Godwit, Long-billed Curlew, Black turnstone, Ruddy turnstone, Surfbird, western Sandpiper, Dunlin, Short-billed Dowitcher, California gull, Western gull, Glaucous-winged Gull, Caspian tern, Pigeon Guillomot, Allen’s Hummingbird, Western Scrub-Jay, Common raven, Barn Swallow, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Bushtit, Bewick’s wren, Wrentit, Wilson’s Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Spotted Towhee, California Towhee, Savannah Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Song Sparrow, House finch, Pine Siskin, American Gold finch, Rock Pigeon, European Staring, House Sparrow, Eurasian Collared Dove  – 72 total

I started the month birding for an afternoon in san Francisco with Les and Cindy Lieurence. It was very pleasant and I got a great shot of a Townsend’s Warbler.

The next day, I went to Howarth Park in Santa rosa and photographed a few Common Mergansers.

    female

 male

So far, I’m finding entering sightings in ebird to be very tedious and time-consuming.  I hope it gets easier. 

I’ve been collecting data in the Laguna de Santa Rosa the last few days.  It is flooded and there are some nice Hooded Mergansers and Common Mergansers and Cattle Egrets. 

 My Zeiss scope is in the shop.  I am anxious to see what they do with it.  So I can’t digiscope and I’m going crazy!  But I can do okay with my portable camera, if birds get close enough.  Below are two Oystercatchers at Bodega Bay.

Bodega Bay 1/20/2010

As 2010 opens up, I am trying to be more organized.  As such, I joined ebird and am entering my filed data each day – except the last time I went out.  It’s kind of cool.  I now am back to having a life list of only 126 birds.  I can build on that.  I was going to try and put 275 birds on my Sonoma County list for 2010 – I ended up with 264 for 2009.  But I don’t have any January unusual birds yet, so, I’ll just see what I end up with just toodling around like I usually do.

HAPPY 2010 EVEYONE!!

Welcome to my blog page!  My birding for 2010 so far has consisted of  I  participating in 2 Christmas Bird Counts – Moss Landing on January1 and West Sonoma County on January 3.  Both counts were fun.  My personal highlights for the Moss Landing Count (with Denise Wight) was a Barrow’s Goldeneye and 2 Black Turnstones and 3 Surfbirds.  I went on an oceanic boat with Richard Merriss and Alan Hopkins for The West Sonoma Count.  We did not see anything that was not seen from land, but we were only out for a couple of hours.  After the boat docked, Alan Hopkins and I found a Hermit Warbler for the count circle and then I went up to Duncan’s Landing and found a Wandering Tattler for the Count Circle.  It was fun to drive around and see lots of CBC teams working hard to find birds.  It filled me with a sort of a team spirit, and inspired me to find birds for the count.  I have not been out since.  I am trying to get organized for 2010, updating my website and running many errands.  But I will be out more!!