Kris Baker and I made a whirlwind trip by car over the weekend from Ballard to Humboldt County CA and back; a pair of falcated ducks at Eureka had been reported to the regional birdbox on the day we left Ballard, and a burrowing owl had been near the Arcata ponds in the previous weeks. We found neither species, nor red knots nor ferruginous hawks, but we had a most enjoyable trip nonetheless. Redwood Region Audubon president Elias Elias led us on an Arcata marsh walk on Saturday, and later we searched ponds south of Eureka for the falcated ducks. The ducks have yet to be corroborated with additional reports, but the observer is considered reliable by the locals. White tailed kites and a merlin were frequently seen near the Arcata marsh, and a red shouldered hawk perched nicely on a power pole just outside our lodgings in downtown Arcata. A sora rail showed itself at "no name" pond; godwits, willets, curlews, dowitchers, avocets, cinnamon and green winged teal were readily seen up close, and the snowy egrets were gorgeous. Caspian terns graced the waterfront of Eureka. Kris and I continue our streak of missing out on falcated teal, but look forward to further reports.

Monday evening we passed through Ridgefield NWR just 20 minutes prior to closing; we literally raced through the refuge, fearing that we might be locked behind the gate at 6 pm. (Last fall we were locked in at Nisqually, and we learned to respect the signs of such closures.) Our hopes of finding sandhill cranes were dashed, but it seemed shovelers and Canada geese were highly prominent. We hastily drove the loop and beat the gate closure by about one minute. After a relaxed dinner in Ridgefield we continued on to Ballard, making the drive from Arcata in about 11 hours (excluding the stops in the CA redwoods).

Central Oregon had as many as 10 turkey vultures at a time along Interstate 5.

The March newsletter from Redwood region Audubon includes an article by David Fix about purple martins; he writes that northern CA may have a nesting population of "some hundreds", and that most are nesting in snags or pilings in rural areas. This is in sharp contrast to WA & BC, where almost none are known to be nesting in natural cavities.

Sunshine, beaches, coastal redwoods; what a weekend!

Kevin Li
kdli at msn.com
Ballard, USA