Last Saturday I was at my house in Preston (King County WA) - doing cleanup of winter debris, cleaning the roof, last minute pruning and planting. Had some great birds including 3 different pairs of RB Sapsuckers exploring holes on the acreage. Tree Swallows swooping around the evens and a single pair of VG Swallows joining them. I have a pair of brown creepers building a nest in the peeing bark of a half rotten hemlock. I counted at least 13 Robin's nests and a Varied Thrush nesting pair collecting material. Both BC and CB Chickadees already in hole nests. Bewicks wren nesting in an old box, and 7 Mountain Bluebirds in the upper filed. I had a Peregrine flyby (likely one of the Sno Falls birds). 8 TV's slowly wound their way down the Raging rive toward the Sno Valley. There was a Calliope among the 2 dozen or so hummers feeding on opening flowers in my garden.



Drove from Preston to Red Bluff California on Sunday and Monday and did a bird count by car. My partner gets car sick so he drove our small rental truck about 80% of the time. I counted 402 Red Tails (80 in WA, 201 in Oregon and and 121 in California), 88 TV's with no group bigger than 8, 177 Ravens (2 in WA, 70 in Ore and 105 in California), 19 Bald eagles including 3 on a sheep carcass in a field near Eugene. Best birds were 2 spectacular Ferruginous Hawks near Red Bluff Californa and 3 Yellow Billed Magpies near Cornish (just south of Red Bluff) California. There was a pair of Golden Eagles near Weed/Mt. Shasta, and also a Clarks Nutcracker and 2 Pinyon Jays in the Siskiyous. (Botanists take note - this is the conifer biodiversity center of the universe). There were surprising number of minima type Canada Geese on the south end of the 205 / I5 junction south of Portland. I had scrub jays in every state - starting in Kelso and ending on the top of my new apartment building in Oakland. I saw wild turkeys in 2 places in California (one near Willows and one right in the hills east of the Bay area in Orinda). Here in Oakland I've seen Peregrines, TV's, Red Tails, and both White and Brown Pelicans - I went to a Bay side part at a very high tide and saw many many clapper rails and even a sora and 2 tiny black rails scurrying across the parking lot right in Oakland.



The weather here is so nice - the birdlife is great - and I'm close enough to my family to make visits to the ranch in the Sierra foothills near Yosemite.



Good birding to all



Rob

Rob Conway
Preston / Fall City, WA & now Oakland, CA
47.53N 121.92W
robin_birder at hotmail.com




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