18 January 08
A Trip to MacWorld
Although our Bigby is a self-propelled one, I thought it might be interesting to try a public transportation sequence that would take me from Davis to San Francisco on the train via the Suisun Marsh and San Pablo Bay, and try to record the birds I saw.
I left the house at around 7:25 am on the bike and returned on the bike as it was getting dark. I had a wonderful day, some of which was due to MacWorld, some of which was due to the Samovar Tea Lounge, but most of which was due to the fact that it was almost 60 degrees and I saw a ton of birds (mostly non-passerine at this speed!). A list follows in order seen not taxonomic. Of very great note: American bittern, rising from the marsh just beyond the Suisun-Fairfield station, yellow-headed blackbirds close by, and Western and Clark’s grebes, which we haven’t yet seen from the bike. I’m sure there were other duck species I just couldn’t identify quickly enough…
Killdeer
Yellowrump
Goose sp. (white-fronted?)
Red-tailed hawk
American crow
Anna’s hummingbird
American kestrel
Ruby-crowned kinglet
Starling
Common merganser
Great blue heron
Mourning dove
Bushtit
California gull
Nuttall’s woodpecker
Black phoebe
Rock pigeon
White-crowned sparrow
Western scrub-jay
Yellow-billed magpie
White-tailed kite
Northern flicker
Canada goose
House finch
House sparrow
Double-crested cormorant
Great egret
Northern harrier
Brewer’s blackbird
Bufflehead
Western meadowlark
White pelican
Mallard
Ring-billed gull
American coot
Yellow-headed blackbird
Shoveler
American wigeon
Ruddy duck
Northern pintail
Snowy egret
Common moorhen
Greater yellowlegs
American avocet
Black-necked stilt
Sandpiper sp. (least?)
Red-winged blackbird
Cinnamon teal
American bittern
Tundra swan
Canvasback
Western gull
Surf scoter
Scaup sp.
American robin
Common goldeneye
Belted kingfisher
Clark’s grebe
Spotted sandpiper
Eared grebe
Willet
Glaucous-winged gull
Common raven
Forster’s tern
Herring gull
Red-shouldered hawk
Wood duck
Green heron
Cooper’s hawk
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That is remarkable! The earth is not wasted on you. My siblings and I would “collect” license places or gas stations on long car trips when I was a kid. That’s as close as I’ve gotten to giving this kind of attention to my surroundings when traveling. What a trip you had!