Early April Expeditions

    Whew it's been a while since I posted. The past tiring 2 weeks were filled with schoolwork and several other adventures that will be discussed in the next post. For now, enjoy my musings from 4/2. On that lovely day, I visited Ed Levin County Park in an attempt to find some of the arriving summer migrants.
    My first year bird of the day was not a migrant but one of the resident wild turkeys. Later throughout the day I would see several groups of these wild fowl courting, quite interesting to watch. My mom and I then walked around the Spring Valley Unit, circling the lake and visiting some surrounding blooming eucalyptus trees. Highlights of the brief walk were several singing Bullock's orioles, a few Western kingbirds, and a very distant juvenile golden eagle soaring amongst some turkey vultures. We then went along Calaveras Boulevard in attempt to find the bald eagle nest by the reservoir.

Red-eared sliders basking

Excellent view with an even more excellent shot of the golden eagle

Western scrub-jay

    With a narrow road, many blind corners, and often steep drops on the side, sometimes without railings, the trip was not exactly the most comfortable I had ever experienced. Fortunately, I did not die or suffer severe physical damage. Unfortunately, no new birds were obtained, except for a lifer YELLOW-BILLED MAGPIE, which I would see later in the day anyways. I think I found the bald eagle nest: a large pile of twigs on a tower, but no adults nor babies were seen.

Seriously, that blind corner

Dat lack of blurriness. Magpies are quite spectacular when they fly, with their super long tails trailing behind a blur of contrasting black and white wings.

My second golden eagle of the day. This juvenile was also hanging out with turkey vultures.

In case you didn't notice, this was a far better view than of the first bird.

Along the road were a large number of acorn woodpeckers. For those who do not know, these guys store acorns in holes they make on trees, as shown by the little brown acorn slightly below where the bird is. Many times, whole trees are covered in these acorn holes and are known as granaries.

Pretty sure that was the bald eagle nest.

Moo

    After the death-defying experience, we headed to Sandy Wool Lake back at Ed Levin, where the less hazardous-looking surroundings and wider roads were a very welcome relief. I first scanned the trees around the lake to see if any ospreys were present to no avail. I then hiked a short distance with my mom in attempt to find grasshopper sparrows. However, the wind started to really pick up now and birds were becoming less vocal and out in the open so that too was a fail. Following the attempt at finding those two birds, I looked at the red-flowering eucalyptus trees by the trailhead to find the recently reported Selasphorus hummingbirds. Several flocks of birds were present in the tree, including house finches and red-winged blackbirds (didn't know they were so eucalyptus fond). Then, a completely orange-backed hummingbird presented itself while moving too quickly / getting too disturbed by wind for any photo: a RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD. Several hummers with orange and green were also present but I did not get any views of outspread tail feathers to confirm Allen's. I also got a surprise in this tree: my first of year loggerhead shrike. I did not get a chance to get a picture, however, as right after I turned on my camera, it flew away. 

Spiffy looking female turkey

Spiffy looking female Nuttall's woodpecker

Male Anna's hummingbird showing off his gorge gorget 

Giant pig nose

Western bluebird

Black phoebe and captured dragonfly.

    The following day, my mom and I hiked for a short time at Palo Alto Foothills Park. Although no year birds were obtained, the blooming flora was very worth seeing.

Western houndstongue with its forget-me-not like blue blossoms.

Bicolored Lupines. Such lovelies.

Pacific madrone blooming.

Woodland star. What a gem of the forest floor spring.

False Solomon's seal

Common trillium. Almost all parts of this plants are in threes: 3 bracts (the "leaves"), 3 sepals (the "petals"), and 3 stigmas.

Common buckeye about to bloom.

State flowers of both California and close relative of Texas'. Both species are annuals that grow during the cooler wet season and usually die off when dry, warm summer weather hits.

Lovely damselfly by the lake. Pretty sure it's a Pacific forktail.

Pile of basking red-eared sliders.

Red-winged Blackbird male. These songbirds were breeding in the cattails by Boranda Lake.

    On 4/4, I took a brief bike trip with my point-and-shoot through the Matadero Creek Trail and the Baylands. Upon arrival at Mayfield Slough, I noticed several large-ish birds with yellow bellies flying around. They turned out to be Western kingbirds and I saw around 6 of them flycatching in the field of blooming mustards. I then continued to cycle through the area, going through Byxbee Park without anything of much interest. However, as I looked through the eucalyptus trees lining the parking lot, I met another birder, Caroline Lambert, one of the best in our county, who gave me directions to a Eurasian wigeon she saw earlier.

With the kingbirds arriving in larger numbers, it shouldn't be long before the other migrants start to really come in as well.

Clouds over the polefield

Fairly certain not-hybrid Eurasian wigeon

Caroline's vastly superior photograph. If you're reading this, thanks again for showing me where the bird was!

Look at that contrast in the middle between light and dark. The sweep was a bit too wide and the one pier looks like 2 now but I guess it looks pretty interesting

My bike says hi

Pretty views (again, much more impressive in real life)

Meanwhile, the cliff swallows were starting to nest at the Interpretive Center.

The adults gathered in a large flock around the building where because of the strong winds, they seemed to be stationary in mid-air.

A raven (ravin'?) party

    I am still not yet up to date but I will stop here for this post. To make a long story short, my spring break was a great time to go out and go birding but the inclement weather for many of the days slightly sucked. Still, I got quite a few new birds so for that, I am satisfied and thankful for my parents' driving. Until next time, enjoy life and love nature!