Finally hooked up with e-mail birding buddy Darrell Lee and his friend
Margaret (aka "Floyd") and bounced around trying to pad my Solano Co. list. We
went first to the Siusun Marsh area, where we checked out a little dock at first
where Darrell said he once had a Sora actually swimming under the thing, but the
most exciting bird we had was a Fox Sparrow (didn't expect one of those in that
stuff)! We cruised around the area adding the usual ducks and a few shorebirds
(mainly stilts and avocets), but the real treat was at an overlook where there
were tons of birds, including what I assumed were a gazillion White Pelicans at
first--turned out to be Tundra Swans! We searched in vain for Blue-winged Teal,
but several of the ducks turned out to be new for the county for me.
Suisun Marshes
All those white dots are Tundra Swans!
Darrell Lee and his friend Margaret (aka "Floyd") checking
out the swans
After a stop at Gag in the Bag we headed over to Grizzly Island, where we
stopped at a dike where we hoped to go on a little hike, but they were
evidently repairing the levee and you couldn't walk but a few yards. We did
pick up Virginia Rail calling here, however, and several sparrows (mostly
Goldies and Whiteys). It was a challenge getting in there: they had one of
those access gates where you literally had to BE a rail to get through it!
Someone had torn a hole in the fence to make access a little easier for us
wider folks, however...
The marshes at Grizzly Island
Driving in to Rush Ranch (also part of the Grizzly Island complex) there were
several good ducks on the way: Ruddy Ducks dotted the surface like little
clods of dirt, but in among them were a pair of Canvasbacks, two Greater
Scaup, an Eared Grebe, and a Common Goldeneye! We also had a leucistic Ruddy
Duck who was kind of a coffee-n-cream color all over. After checking out the
juncos and blackbirds and the horse at the ranch (they had a sign that said
"HORSES BITE" but this horse appeared to want attention...) we headed back out
and added Cinnamon Teal to the duck lineup. We also stopped at the
headquarters where the nice ranger gave us all checklists of the area! We
thought we may have had a Violet-green Swallow in with the Trees overhead, but
we both agreed our imaginations were playing tricks on us...
Rush Ranch
Duck Heaven, with mob of Ruddy Ducks below
Canvasback pair (note the abnormally
Red-nosed Mockingbird...
cream-colored Ruddy in the lower
left corner!)
From there we headed out into the open areas (very close to where the Snowy
Owl had been seen, actually) to look for Mountain Plovers and other goodies.
On the way I asked how Margaret got to be dubbed "Floyd", and found out that
Darrell had simply been calling everyone "Jack" (like Buggs Bunny calls
everyone "Doc", I guess, even if he knows your name), only someone told him
that it was very insulting to a person to call them "Jack"! Was news to me
(as I have a friend named Jack), so he pulled the name "Floyd" out of a hat
and started using THAT as his generic nickname! But Margaret also called HIM
"Floyd", and I was told that now that I've spent quality time birding with
these two, I am now officially a "Floyd" myself! How d'ya like that, Floyd?
J
Anyway, once we got to the area, we screeched to a halt for several white
things, one of which turned out to be a salt lick! From then on we were
joking about some farmer with a sick sense of humor placing a salt lick
painted up to look like an owl out in his field, sitting in his house with a
scope and see how many cars stopped for it! But Darrell knew exactly where
the plovers were hanging out, and sure enough, they were out there, albeit
far from the road! (I happened to see them while checking out a flock of
Starlings...) So that was very fun! Had several Redtails (including a dark
bird), and finally a nice Ferrugie actually hovering; I knew that Redtails
and Roughlegs did that, but had never seen a Ferrugie do that until now!
Dark morph immature Red-tailed Hawk, normal exposure at
left and greatly enhanced at right to show details
From there we wandered into Dixon looking for the Mexican
restaurant "Floyd" just knew was there, but we couldn't find it (there wasn't
much of Dixon to search), so settled on a place that did have a good
selection of Mexican as well as other things, so we enjoyed a good lunch and
then headed out to Gates Canyon for some songbirds to pad the list with. It
was a beautiful road, but you could tell there was a lot of damage from the
rain. Added the usual oak fare, plus a Phainopepla that caused a lot of
excitement, and enjoyed the Acorn Woodpeckers who were even using the
telephone poles as storage trees! I was shooting one of the woodpeckers when
Darrell yelled that there was a Golden Eagle flying overhead! I rolled down
the embankment and enjoyed him, when a Red-shouldered Hawk started yelling and
came out along with a Redtail; not a bad raptor spot! We continued on up the
road in hopes of Mountain Quail, but it was getting cold and breezy, and we
turned around just in time to play Chicken with a big ol' pickup, then headed
back to Benicia, having had just a wonderful day!
Scene on the way to Gates Canyon
Acorn Woodpeckers (with hole and storage tree at right)
Margaret and Darrell
Turn-around point where we listened for Mountain Quail
