24 September 07
A Trip to the Coast
I went on a Yolo Audubon trip yesterday to Bodega Bay and Point Reyes. Fall migration is in full swing. It was good to see birds that have become very scarce, like wandering tattler, along with my old friends in Bodega Bay, the pelagic cormorants; the single willet along the bay shoreline, the single red-necked phalarope in the rail pond where Kevin found the prairie warbler; the startling blackpoll at Diekman’s. Point Reyes was not windy and we saw lots of yellow warblers and a smattering of other warbler species, but mostly this was the first “organized” bird trip I’d been on since I started Bird by Bird. I sketched, as Richard might put it, my brains out.
A few feet away from me a fox sparrow scratched in the thistledown at Nunes ranch, across the street from the tricolor blackbird flock, a bit uphill from the clay-colored sparrow and willow flycatcher. Beautiful light bills, these birds have…
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aaargh, I’ve never seen a Clay-colored Sparrow! I love watching Fox Sparrows kick up the dust as they feed. Good selection of sketches – you really did sketch your brains out!