At 7:37 AM -0800 11/1/05, Paul Webster wrote:

>Just south of Sacramento, across the river south of I-80 is the Yolo
>Bypass, which is a fine spot for waterfowl and shorebirds, which
>brings raptors, too. You can do a reasonably thorough job covering
>the area there in about 3 hours. The farm roads in Yolo County north
>of Davis also offer pretty good birding, and there has been a
>wintering flock of Mountain Plover in the area for a number of years.

I'll second the Paul's suggestions, with the caveat that the Yolo
Bypass is west, not south of Sacramento. And a better bet than
Sacramento Wildlife Refuge if you really only have half a day to
bird; you'll spend half your birding time driving to and from SWR.
The roads south of Davis can be pretty interesting, too. One of my
regular routes when I lived there was to drive south on Mace Blvd and
just wander the roads south of Putah Creek. There were almost always
good birds there.
--
Rob Saecker
rsaecker at thurston.com