Dodged the on and off rain today and poked around JFK and Skyline Parks in
Napa. After initially getting turned around I finally found JFK and first
poked around the little garden area, getting the only Orange-crowned
Warbler of the day, then took a quick peek at the marsh on the golf
course. Found a tremendous pond next, and pulled into a parking spot that
had been taken over by Chinese Geese; I felt like I was invading the turf
of a street gang! Thankfully they all disbursed when I got out (a little
white rooster was also part of the gang--he looked about the right size
for one of those Albertsons rotisserie chickens...)! Countable birds
included many cooperative Ring-billed Gulls and a couple of Californias,
dueling Bicolored Blackbirds, several coots, and a few wild Mallards in
with the Funny Ducks. I took a walk on the bike path to the other side of
the pond and only added Ruddy Duck to the list.
Gardens at Kennedy Park
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Goose gang at the first pond
Token mini-rooster
Ring-billed Gulls (1st year left and center; adult
right)
California Gulls (2nd year far left; others are
adults. Note the similarity between the 2nd year California and the
1st year Ring-billed!)
"Bicolored" Blackbird
Say's Phoebe
Back side of the pond from the bike trail
Ruddy Ducks (female left; non-breeding male right)
I could hear Willets and Greater Yellowlegs on the other side of the
levee, so I drove down to the end of the road to find an access point, but
it didn't look like there was one; I waved down a lady walking her dog on
it and asked her how to get over there, and she gave me directions, so I
sloshed back to the car (it was kinda wet back there) and drove down to
another parking area next to another ball field, and this was perfect; it
was actually part of the Napa River Trail. I got a great view of the
wetlands, but not too many birds aside from the ubiquitous Canada Geese;
the best sighting was an adult Glaucous-winged Gull. I also had a first
year white-winged gull that I suspect was an "Olympic" gull: it had an
all-dark bill, a darkish tail, and pale flight feather below, but P-9 and
10 were too dusky to be a GW (IMHO), and the "feel" of the bird seemed too
bulky to be a Thayers. I wished the sparrow group from the Morro Bay Fest
had been with me: a Song Sparrow and two Lincoln's popped up side by side
for great comparative views! I ran into the dog-walking lady again and
she was pleased I had found the trailhead!
Marshes from the Napa River Trail
I hitailed it back to the car as it looked like water was headed my way,
and drove over to the next parking area next to a playground that also
had access to the river trail. Hiked a little bit in the opposite
direction and picked up many distant Avocets, plus what was either
Marbled Godwit or Long-billed Curlews, but they were too far away to
tell. Went back and had some chicken for lunch and was shooting some
robins and juncos out the window when they suddenly all vamoosed: a
German Short-haired Pointer was limping my way and looked like he was
hungry and lost! I shared some of my meat with him and then got the
phone number off his tag; unfortunately I didn't get the important part
in time before he took off, but at least got a message to the animal
shelter people...
Scenes along the Napa River Trail
Birds along the trail...
Western Meadowlark
Snowy Egret
House Finch
White-crowned Sparrow
American Robin
Started spitting after that, so since I was pretty much done I decided
to head over to Skyline, where I found the little Martha Walker Native
Habitat Garden and decided to explore that. Glad I did: they had a ton
of feeders with lots of Goldies and Whiteys, House Finches, Lesser and
American Goldfinches, and even a Nuttall's Woodpecker that came in to
the feeder! While I was enjoying the upper feeder I was discovered by
Ralph Ingols, who had started the garden with his wife, and he was just
tickled pink that I was in there looking for birds! He showered me with
pamphlets and introduced me to Terry the Curator, who told me about all
the bird fests going on in the area. After the chat I made my way back
to the car and wandered around roads I wasn't sure I was supposed to be
on, but they didn't say "Authorized Vehicles Only", so away I went (and
it was spitting again, so I was basically scouting and biding my time).
I found a wonderful access up top to the Lake Marie Trail, a paved
bike/walking path that I found out later was a private path belonging to
the nearby hospital; Skyline hikers could only access a little bit in
order to get to the park's trails. It passed through some wonderful
woodland and bisected two lakes (Lake Camille and Lake Louise) that had
Wood Ducks and a Pied-billed Grebe. I think I ended up taking part of
the Buckeye Trail before turning back, picking up a singing Hutton's
Vireo for the day here, but despite everyone's warning about the trails
being steep, they were actually quite doable for me (but that's probably
because I only go in about ten or 15 minutes' worth). Coming back
finally hit pay dirt: a couple of White-throated Sparrows shot across
the trail and landed just long enough to ID! On the way out a covey of
California Quail fed along the path, and checked the feeders again from
the car and saw that the Acorn Woodpeckers had taken over one of them!
Western Bluebirds were all over, along with the Robins, but were rather
skittish.
Walker Native Plant Garden at
Skyline Park
Birds at their feeders...
Male "Oregon" Junco
Female junco (left) and House Finch; notice the
White-crowned (above) and Golden-crowned
female's lighter hood
Sparrows
Nuttall's Woodpeckers are not above raiding the
feeders!
Male and female (center bird) Lesser Goldfinches
The Lesser Goldfinch (left) keeps his bright plumage
year-round, while the male American Goldfinch (right) loses his bright
yellow plumage in the winter.
Lake Marie Trail
Lake Louise
Buckeye Trail
Mule Deer
Lawn birds on the way out...
Western Scrub Jay (in mid-hop on right)
Yet another Robin
California Quail mob
Headed down to the main lot and took a bit of the Manzanita Trail, which
did give me a bit of the view of the surrounding countryside, and
it was lovely! The only new bird along this trail was a clucking Turkey
across the way.
Open "grasslands" at the start of the trail
Manzanita Trail
Was thinking about going home after that, but then decided to make a dry
run to the Napa-Sonoma Marshes just to see how long it would take me to
get there from the hotel tomorrow. I'm glad I did: I was initially
looking for Bently Wharf Road and wound up in Sonoma County before
realizing I had missed it (no green county signs on this road: "NAPA
COUNTY" was plastered in white paint across the asphalt itself!)
Backtracking, that road turned out to be a closed area, but then found
Buchli Station Road fine, and found the parking area fine (no birds to
speak of, however, right then). But the bird of the day popped up on
the way out: I was sorting through a sparrow flock at the first vineyard
you come to coming out (which got disrupted by a fly-by Cooper's Hawk),
when what I initially thought was a thrush sat up on a branch outside
the car window, but a closer look revealed it to be a Sage Thrasher!
The wind was starting to pick up, so he was puffed up and wind-blown,
but aside from the bright yellow eye, he was uniform dull brownish above
(no contrasting rusty on the tail), had streaking all the way down the
front and sides, with some buffy wash on the sides, and a thrush-like
malar stripe. The wing bars weren't very strong, and both his bill and
tail seemed rather short (hence why I thought he was a thrush at first),
but after jumping down into the vineyard he showed off quite nicely at
all angles! And according to the Napa bird-finding guide, he's
considered "extremely rare" with fewer than ten records for the county!
Sage Thrasher at the Napa-Sonoma Marshes; a good bird
for the county!
Token Whitey
Came home and got the news and photos posted; if anyone
decides to chase this guy I may run into you!
