Our goal was simple - flock together with some other local Kossacks, put faces with names, see some birds, and raise a little money for the families on the Rosebud Reservation. I'd plotted a route through Solano County and out into the Delta that would let us see a good number of birds, and even had some backup plans in case the weather (especially tule fog) interfered. One thing I forgot to do was to check how much time people actually had for this outing. Oops. A number of them had to head back in the early afternoon. A quick rerouting calculation meant that the whole group was still able to see around 60 species.
But we had some funds to raise and 60 species was going to be at the very low end of the expected tally. Those of us who could do the full day discussed it and concluded that obvious way to get what we wanted was to Go Galt. So off we flew...
As I mentioned, we tied our day of fun to a fundraiser to help buy fuel for families on the Rosebud Reservation. It was a bird-a-thon, and Kossacks pledged various amounts per species counted. Some people added bonuses for specific birds, and some of the participants added bonuses for any lifers they got (I'm hoping they'll chime in with news in the comments). Info on where to send your contributions is at the end of the diary.
So, the totals seen (drumroll please): 77 76 of which 60 were seen by the whole group (15 seen in the afternoon by the smaller full-day group). Not bad for a day in January when you're spending much of your time in ag lands. This total does include three "sorta" species - the whole group saw the flock of peacocks near Travis AFB (jets taking off and landing must be enough to drown out the wails of the peafowl), and the all-day group saw domestic geese and Muscovy duck late in the day. w00t! (I'll add a full list in later.)
So, our day... We started with a lovely lineatus scoped from the parking lot of the McDonalds where we met up. The Great tailed Grackles didn't put in an appearance in their favored habitat, alas, so we headed down to Grizzly Island for a quick side trip to give the fog elsewhere time to lift. It's a great place for waterfowl, little birds and various critters, along with things that like to eat waterfowl, little birds and various critters. The juvenile kite above was perched on a fencepost, completely comfortable with the traffic whizzing by. It let us stop and scope it (this is a digiscoped photo), then tolerated some of the group coming pretty close for photos. (see comments!) We visited a bridge that frequently has barn owls roosting below, and sure enough one was there - good looks had by all observers. Good photos taken by at least one.
Lots and lots and lots of Western Meadowlarks everywhere.
After a bit more than an hour at Grizzly, we headed out into the heart of Solano. The fog had lifted enough to give us some decent visibility, and we saw a few birds around. Stopped for a small flock of geese, thinking at first that some of them were Ross's but they managed to grow into full Snow Geese size as we watched. Oh well. Further down the road, we had some good-luck chocolate and were rewarded with a ferruginous hawk. Nice close views for all, as it perched on a bit of field equipment near the road. It took off for a short flight, circling the field across the road before settling in on a power pole a little ahead of us, giving everyone a great look at this beautiful adult bird. (hope someone got photos... I didn't) Since Ferruginous Hawks' breeding range includes areas around Rosebud, I really hoped we'd see on.
The clock was starting to work against us, so we blasted out to Woodbridge Road for the cranes and other waterfowl. One of the most spectacular sites of the day came during this drive - something startled up enormous flocks of geese (and swans and ducks), who took off right overhead as we were driving along Highway 12. Unfortunately, it's a single lane in each direction with high speed traffic and no place to pull over. There was just no way to stop and soak it all in.
Left to right (photographically, not politically): Ebby, bustergirl, Mr. Cat, Silence and his mate (currently incubating), Sally Cat, Kestrel, enhydra lutris and Mrs. enhydra lutris. tgypsy is off looking for kinglets, and I'm holding the camera, so we'll get a photo elsewhere...
At Woodbridge, the number of cranes was on the low side, alas - but we had their rattling calls in the backgound as we stopped for lunch. The hurried pace of the day meant that we hadn't been able to spend too much time hanging out as a group earlier in the day, since we couldn't linger at stops. Lunch allowed us a bit of time to say hello before we had to say goodbyes.
BTW, for those of you who wanted to pledge a certain amount per hawk - this is why I couldn't, in good conscious, let you go for a dollar per hawk. If you haven't been to California's central valley in the winter, you really can't imagine how many hawks you can see in a day. We saw well over 100 redtails, probably 50+ kestrels, 20+ kites, at least a dozen harriers, a handful of redshoulders and that one absolutely gorgeous ferruginous hawk. (This kite and kestrel figured that there was more than enough food to share.)
The all-day group headed out to Cosumnes River Preserve, led by tgypsy. I've never been there but have wanted to go for years, so it was a real treat. It's a great waterfowl site, and we had large flocks of ducks and geese all around. I can't remember if I've ever been quite so close to a flock of White-fronted Geese.
If you're still waiting for my title to make sense, Cosumnes is just a few miles away from Galt, CA, and it seemed like a photo op that we couldn't pass up. Look how excited we are about going Galt!
tgypsy and me
One the way back from Cosumnes, we went via Highway 160, which entails a couple of quick ferry rides to get on and off of Ryer's Island. We don't need no stinking bridge to nowhere! We got the ferry!
While we were waiting for the ferry to the island, we checked out the sparrows hopping around the vegetation near the ramp, and among them was a gorgeous Lincoln's Sparrow (below). Near the landing for the ferry from the island on the other side, we saw black-crowned night herons. A handful, then another handful. I think the count was up to 20 by the time we pulled in to shore.
And here's the species list... ten at a time (for easier counting), in taxonomic order (for easier double checking):
Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Black-crowned Night Heron *
Tundra Swan
Canada Goose
Greater White-fronted Goose
Snow Goose
Domestic Goose * +
Muscovy Duck * +
Mallard
Gadwall
Northern Pintail
American Wigeon
Eurasian Wigeon
Northern Shoveler
Green-winged Teal
Ring-necked Duck *
Bufflehead
Red-breasted Merganser (unless they were Common)
Turkey Vulture
Northern Harrier
White-tailed Kite
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Ferruginous Hawk
American Kestrel
Peacock +
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
Killdeer
Black-necked Stilt *
Greater Yellowlegs
Dunlin
Long-billed Dowitcher (unless it was short-billed)
Ring-billed Gull
California Gull
Forster's Tern
Mourning Dove
Eurasian Collared Dove Satan's Dove *
Rock Pigeon
Barn Owl
Great Horned Owl *
Anna's Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Nuttall's Woodpecker *
Northern Flicker
Black Phoebe
Loggerhead Shrike
Western Scrub Jay
Yellow-billed Magpie
Common Raven
American Crow
Horned Lark
Tree Swallow
Bushtit *
Marsh Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet *
Blue-grey Gnatcatcher *
American Robin *
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
American Pipit
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Savannah Sparrow
White Crowned Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Western Meadowlark
Red-winged Blackbird
Brewer's Blackbird
House Finch
House Sparrow
* - all-day group only
+ - domesticated birds, so your call if you want to count them...
(okay, two birds were double-listed in my notes - Raven and House Finch. Maybe one of the group has one or two that I'm missing so we can get back up to the original number. - [Update] - forgot Least Sandpiper at Cosumnes, so we're back up to 76.)
Not bad, considering we missed some pretty reliable species like Say's Phoebe, Prairie Falcon, Burrowing Owl, junco and goldfinch.
A Central Valley two-fer - White-tailed Kite and Tundra Swans
So, far, here are the pledges:
Julie Waters - .50/species
kestrel (participant) - amount not specified
tgypsy (participant) - .50/species - update: boosted to $1/species - yea!
matching mole - .50/species, plus lifer bonus and more (details in the thread, but this has pictures!)
eeff - .25/species
jupiter surf - .025/species and $1/hawk (up to 100 hawks! I tried to suggest that a smaller amount per hawk would be okay since we'd likely see an awful lot of them. This is so appreciated!)
navajo (particpant) - match the highest donation
no way lack of brain - .50/species
SallyCat (participant) - .25/species
ebby (participant) - .25/species (and a plug for a mid week diary!)
enhydra lutris (participant) - .25/species, plus bonus for lifers
martyc35 - .25/species
the mom in the middle - .25/species, plus bonus to be determined
I'm in for a buck each, plus matching matching mole (and I'll probably come up with some on-the-spot bonuses while we're out there.)
BCO gal - .25/species
edie haskell - .25/species
leftcoast - $1/species (!!)
If I'm adding right, I think that's at least $7.50/species, so at least $570.00 total! (plus all those various bonuses) Awesome! And if anyone else adds a pledge in this diary, I'll add it to the list. Navajo just posted an update with contributions received so far today, and it looks like many tacking on at least a little extra - thanks for that!
American Pipit just as excited about all the green as we are.
Okay, here's the payment info for all who pledged:
You can make a donation via PayPal at Native American Netroots (opens in new window) - the PayPal link is in the upper right corner. Please make a note that it's for propane purchases (and maybe mention that it's the bird-a-thon). You can also make a payment directly to the propane company, per shown at NAN.
Thanks again to all who pledged, and especially thanks to all who made it such a great day.