Christmas Bird Count

Too too tired to post this last night… Yesterday Numenius and I hiked Thompson Canyon, northeast of Lake Berryessa, to the ridge and back, spending most of the day in oak woodland and about an hour and a half in chaparral, where we failed to find our target bird, sage sparrow (though it was blowing cold and hard up at the ridge by the time we got there).

My feet are not good hikers and I decided to sit out the side trip up to the spring, armed with a handy-talkie and my tangerines and a sketchbook. I had a close encounter with a pair of wrentits that kept emerging from a brush pile, swishing their long tails this way and that. I’ll post sketches later on Bird by Bird.

It was a beautiful place to hike. Too bad we had the company of some dirt bikers and guys with chain saws cutting up wood (makes hearing bushtits somewhat challenging) but were rewarded at the end by a beautiful varied thrush, one of only two seen the entire day.

We were both weary but had thought to bring along some of the Xocolatl that Linda sent; definitely the best way to revive flagging energies!