Dermot Breen's Blog: California 17th February 2015 Part 2

Monday 13 April 2015

California 17th February 2015 Part 2

A few passerines from the Colusa and Sacramento Refuges.

Belted Kingfisher

Black Phoebe

Cliff Swallow

Tree Swallow

Golden-crowned Sparrow

Marsh Wren

Western Meadowlark

I moved on from these two excellent sites for a bit of twitching. First up was a species that I had missed up until now - Mountain Bluebird. A small flock had been reported near the small town of Dunnigan recently per eBird. I eventually caught up with five or six birds moving over a large area of vineyards along with a single Say's Phoebe. Gorgeous looking birds if a little on the skittish side. I also had my first Yellow-billed Magpie but didn't hang around for long.

Male Mountain Bluebird

Female Mountain Bluebird

Female and male Mountain Bluebird

Say's Phoebe

Last stop of the day was the Levee Road which runs adjacent to Putah Creek just outside Davis town. I spent several hours here as there was an excellent line-up of passerines in the area. My main target here was Lewis's Woodpecker, another striking looking bird and not an easy one to catch up with either. Again eBird proved very valuable here as several had recently been seen along here. I began slowly and methodically searching every trunk and limb of each tree as I went along, expecting typically woodpecker behaviour of hiding its body behind the other side of tree trunk. However I was amazed to see one quite quickly perched completely exposed on the very top of a large tree. While it never really allowed close approach it never purposely hid from me. I later saw another individual later which displayed similar behaviour. A very distinct looking woodpecker with fantastic colours. As it got dark I tried for Western Screech Owl which I hadn't seen yet. No sign of any although there were two Great Horned Owls hooting away and I managed to get fleeting views of one in flight.