On the way back from Monterey today we saw a white-tailed kite hovering over
a field in Watsonville (south of Santa Cruz, north of Monterey). Still lots
of Great Egrets and Brown Pelicans. What's really neat is from our house (a
few streets back from the edge of the beach cliffs) we can watch these birds
riding the wind currents along the top of the cliffs. It makes for some
great viewing. For the longest time we wondered if we were seeing whales,
as we have a blue water view of the ocean and would often see white plumes.
A good optical device divulged we were seeing diving pelicans.

Yesterday we observed a pair of Acorn woodpeckers working their way up a
phone pole nearby.

The orioles have finished nesting and are only seen now and then.

Lots of Anna's hummers, though.

>From Santa Rosa (north of San Francisco) my mom reports the return of her
pair of Acorn Woodpeckers to her feeder as well as a Calliope hummer, Annas
hummers, Rufus-sided hummers and an unusual Black-chinned hummer. She says
they've never had such a variety of hummingbirds before. Their songbirds
have all but disappeared, though.

Have a good birding weekend!

Peggi
Ben & Peggi Rodgers
Aptos, CA (near Santa Cruz 122 W, 37 N)
USA
woodduck at cruzio.com
http://www2.cruzio.com/~woodduck/


"A bird does not sing because it has an answer,
It sings because it has a song"