Although it is just June 1, it seems we are in the summer doldrums with regard to finding some new birds for the Green Big Year. It has been more than 2 weeks since the last new species was found. There are certainly new species to find if I can range farther from home, but scheduling conflicts have prevented an overnight trip. I was thinking today of riding round trip to Buellton to see some Purple Martins and Yellow-billed Magpies (about 90 miles), but the weather forecast called for winds up to 25mph so that did not seem like a good choice.
I am planning on heading up to the mountains in about 10 days, so no doubt some new birds will be heading my way sooner or later. In preparation for this I have recently been doing more biking and less birding.
Today I felt the urge to do some actual birding so I headed out to Lake Los Carneros. As expected I did not add any new species, but it was a very enjoyable outing and there were plenty of interesting birds around. I easily tallied more than 50 species and saw many fledgelings of all shapes and sizes. I saw the continuing Horned Grebe, Mew Gull, Ring-necked Duck and Peregrine Falcon. In addition there was a White-faced Ibis and most curiously a Forster's Tern. I was quite surprised by the Tern, which cruised in over the lake, landed on the dam for a couple of minutes, then flew off.
A few photos from today:
After today the year's total still stands at 228.
I am planning on heading up to the mountains in about 10 days, so no doubt some new birds will be heading my way sooner or later. In preparation for this I have recently been doing more biking and less birding.
Today I felt the urge to do some actual birding so I headed out to Lake Los Carneros. As expected I did not add any new species, but it was a very enjoyable outing and there were plenty of interesting birds around. I easily tallied more than 50 species and saw many fledgelings of all shapes and sizes. I saw the continuing Horned Grebe, Mew Gull, Ring-necked Duck and Peregrine Falcon. In addition there was a White-faced Ibis and most curiously a Forster's Tern. I was quite surprised by the Tern, which cruised in over the lake, landed on the dam for a couple of minutes, then flew off.
A few photos from today:
Red-tailed Hawk - fledgelings
Peregrine Falcon - immature
Forster's Tern
Northern Rough-winged Swallow - fledgeling
Bushtit - fledgeling
Today I rode a total of 28.4 miles
More later,
Glenn
No comments:
Post a Comment