Napa Hills

Joined up with Denise again to explore some areas that aren't generally open to the public without prior arrangements. Picked up her usual feeder birds at the house, then we headed straight over to Mont LaSalle, a former Christian Brothers winery (now a retreat center and retirement home for the Brothers; the vineyards are now leased to Hess Winery) where they not only had beautiful grounds but great feeders! Denise and David had had these areas for their CBC, so she thought they would be profitable for me as well, and they certainly were!

We hadn't even hardly gotten into the driveway when a Yellow-shafted Flicker flew across our view and plastered itself on a post! Unfortunately he didn't stick around for pictures... The pond down the hill from the parking lot had a small flock of Common Goldeneye (which turned out to be a county bird), and walking through the central grounds we first visited a feeder that had the usual goldfinches and Goldies (I never thought I'd see the day when I'd say "the usual Goldies"...). But the best feeder was over by a shed where in addition to the seed the guy put out suet, peanut butter, and chopped up egg as well, and that place was hopping with juncos (including some odd-looking Oregons with a lot of brown on the head), but eventually a Slate-colored showed up as well! But in addition to the seedy birds, Townsend's Warblers came in regularly, as well as a Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Oak Titmouse, and White-breasted Nuthatch (in addition to a pair of furry Western Gray Squirrels)! Walking up the hill added a laughing Hairy Woodpecker (Denise had never heard that call before) and another flock of sparrows, this time hosting a few Foxes and one White-throated. A pair of Brown Creepers delighted us by shinnying up the moss-covered trees.

Monte Lesalle Winery

The vineyards

Birds around the wooded grounds...

Brown Creeper Hutton's Vireo Song Sparrow (checking his escape route at left)

Cemetery

Yes, it was cold up there!

Feeder birds...

"Oregon" Juncos were the most ubiquitous (female left, male stuffing his face at right)

Sift through enough juncos and you'll eventually find some odd ones, like this brown-capped bird (left and center) and this Slate-colored Junco (right).

Golden-crowned Sparrows

House Finch ("orange" male at left; female right)

Some types of birds are expected at feeders...

Chestnut-backed Chickadee White-breasted Nuthatch Steller's Jay

What you don't expect are warblers, like these Townsend's (female left and center; male right)!

Token Western Gray Squirrel

After taking our leave we headed up Redwood Road to a private reserve run by Napa Valley Land Trust called Archer Taylor Preserve. The drive in was to die for: you were surrounded by great pines and oaks, with a raging creek to the side! It was along here we finally scared up a couple of Varied Thrushes. The preserve itself was rather quiet (except for the barking guard dogs; one was rather friendly and Denise was concerned that they'd follow us down the trail like they did during the Christmas Count, but they obediently stayed), but the woods were tremendous, and they did have a few redwoods! But it was dead quiet until we were almost out of the woods, when a Winter Wren gave his double chack and then shut up.

Orchard at Archer Taylor Preserve

"The Grove" along the main trail

Redwood Creek

From there we headed down to the Napa-Sonoma Marshes again, as Denise wanted to show me another access road called Milton Road. There were a few spots where you could barely pull over and scope the marshes, picking up the usual suspects plus Pintail for the county. An odd gull made me park and walk back to get him to fly, and in the process Denise informed me that I missed a Golden Eagle being bombed by a Red-tailed Hawk! Down at the end of the road was a little parking area where you could walk up on the dike and check the big pond, where there were several "Olympic" Gulls of all ages, plus a couple bona fide Glaucous-winged (at least as far as I could tell...). The vultures came and joined them in picking up whatever they were picking up, and a little Eared Grebe kept an eye on us close to shore. Everything else was pretty far out, including a female Surf Scoter! Spotted a Clark's Grebe in the canal where a family and their big dog was fishing... A Sora calling from the vegetation was nice, too!