Delta Naturalists Society

There were only supposed to be 3 of us there: Marion, Lindly and Glen. At 08:00 we called Lindly to check and she had thought it would be bad weather so decided last night not to come. We told her it was looking pretty good – overcast but dry enough – so she said she would be there shortly. Meanwhile Marion and Glen went to look for the Lazuli Bunting (with no luck) and 30 minutes latter the rain was all over us. We called Lindly again, hoping to catch her in time, and suggested maybe it wasn’t going to be so nice, sorry! Marion and I were chatting, figuring we should give it up, when the rain stopped and it stayed a little overcast but dry for the rest of the walk. Crazy.

But that wasn’t all. Marion went to her bag in the trunk of the car and wondered why it was so light. Hmmmm, might have something to do with the camera and binocs still back on the kitchen table. We were a fine pair of birders – my eyesight is not that good, but I had a camera with a long lens, and Marion had no camera and no binocs but she can see better than me. Fortunately, both of us have pretty good hearing. We were off!

Right from our first steps we knew there were Willow Flycatchers around but it took a while to get a good look. We could hear the Black-headed Grosbeak in the trees across the slough but never got a look. As we got to the bridge over the river, we started hearing and seeing Common Yellowthroat and Tree Swallows, and finally saw Fitz-bew. Several times we saw large flocks of Band-tailed Pigeons swarming some tree in the distance. The river was very calm with nothing to be seen.

Walking along the dike we saw more of the same until we reached the fish sign juntion. There was a mama Wood Duck with just a single duckling. We searched in vain for the familiar Eastern Kingbird and the reported Bittern, and were about to continue towards the pond, when the Kingbird made an appearance, posing quite cooperatively. We thought we heard a Marsh Wren along the trail, but when we got a better look it turned out to be juvenile Common Yellowthroat, a family of them with adults. Also making a racket in the shrubs were some juvenile Red-winged Blackbirds. The bushes in the distance certainly contained some Swainson’s Thrush who responded to our calls, but they never approached, and we didn’t exactly locate one.

At the Pond we were, as often before, disappointed with how over-grown it has become. No Grebes, no Rails, fewer Swallows, still a good showing of Red-winged Blackbirds, a few Wood Ducks and 5 Gadwall. The trees across the trail had a Yellow Warbler, another Black-headed Grosbeak and a Warbling Vireo – all heard but not seen.

We turned and headed back not seeing anything new until we ran in to Bryan – a little late, but he found us, greatly increasing the size of our group. His Merlin app said it had heard a Nighthawk, but Bryan could not confirm given some hearing issues, so we regretfully left it off the eBird list. We did add a Brown-headed Cowbird.

Once we crossed the bridge we ran into another trio of birders, and they had seen the Lazuli Bunting so our hopes were raised! As we approached the parking lot we ran into Colin Clasen who was looking for the Western Kingbird which had been reported. At that point we also added a Turkey Vulture to our list, and a Northern Flicker.

Back across the road, we looked for the Bunting but did not even hear it. We did see White-crowned Sparrow and Savannah Sparrow, and heard some Ring-necked Pheasants. Our final sighting was not avian – two Mule Deer who came out of the marsh and crossed the road to nibble on fresh greens. And that was our outing, ending with 3 people as had been planned, and a checklist of 25 species (see below).

Glen Bodie

Photos on Flickr

Wood Duck  X
Gadwall  5
Mallard  2
Ring-necked Pheasant  3
Band-tailed Pigeon  X     Several large flocks
Anna’s Hummingbird  1
Turkey Vulture  1
Northern Flicker  2
Willow Flycatcher  X
Eastern Kingbird  3
Warbling Vireo  1
American Crow  X
Tree Swallow  X
Swainson’s Thrush  4
American Robin  X
Cedar Waxwing  5
American Goldfinch  4
White-crowned Sparrow  X
Savannah Sparrow  4
Song Sparrow  X
Spotted Towhee  4
Red-winged Blackbird  X
Brown-headed Cowbird  1
Common Yellowthroat  X     Lots with young
Yellow Warbler  1