Central California

 

I'm cozied up here in the motel room at noon in St. Helena because the weather was so miserable I figured any more road birding would be useless (to say nothing of being dangerous)! Started out not too shabby: headed up Patrick Road and picked up several nice birds like gobbling Turkeys, Townsend's Warbler, Cedar Waxwing, Steller's Jay, and even roosting Turkey Vultures! It was very nice woodland (looked like there was quite a substantial willow woodland in there), but once you started uphill you got into the clouds and the mist, and couldn't see anything much less hear anything! (Did pick up a Say's Phoebe, though...) There was some tremendous redwood-type woods up here, and on the way out managed to see a beautiful male Varied Thrush up on the hillside, plus a "see"ing Brown Creeper. Lower down a Wrentit piped up. Headed up Redwood Road after that, just to see what I could pick up by stopping, and added chickadees, a curious Hutton's Vireo, and in some deeper woods about five miles in, a double-chepping Winter Wren! (That was good to find out I could get it along this road and not have to go into the preserve with the barking dogs...)

   

Scenes along Patrick Road (while the weather was cooperating...)

  

Lower portion of Redwood Road

I wanted to do some more road birding, but I also wanted to check out the sewer ponds now that the rush hour traffic had abated, so down I went and checked in, and they were very nice; the fellow who showed me where to sign in (upstairs) showed me where the roads were and which roads to avoid (the back side of pond #3 was the only one), so off I went, only it started raining once again, and this time it didn't let up! It wasn't real hard, but it did want to come in the driver's side window, so it made it difficult to see what was out there, but at any rate managed to add a nice bunch of waterfowl, including both scaups, Common Goldeneye, Cinnamon Teal for the county, and several gulls, including Bonaparte's for the county.

   

The weather turns lousy at the Napa Sewer Ponds...

                   

                                             Belted Kingfisher                                Willet                                                                                Killdeer

Like I said, it was so miserable that I decided just to head up to St. Helena, check in, take a shower, snuggle up in my PJs and start on this, and wouldn't you know it--now the sun is shining! Oh, well; I'm too lazy to get dressed and head out again...(just hope it stays clear tomorrow morning for Hennessey!)