I went for a walk up at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park again today. I've been trying to see lazuli buntings and Western tanagers, and both are supposed to be present there. I saw the bunting--two in fact--a very pretty bird with a turqouise head. I failed to see any tanagers. I got some good close-up views of a pileated woodpecker, however, which more than made up for the lack of a tanager.I finally identified an olive-sided flycatcher in the field. I've been seeing these around the past week or two, mostly high up in trees and often backlit, making an identification difficult. I kept trying to convince myself they were Western kingbirds, but could never see any yellow, and the shape wasn't quite right. Besides the lack of yellow on the belly, this bird has a shorter, darker tail and the grayish (rather than olive, it seems to me) streaking on the sides of the breast is distinctive (photograph).
Other birds I saw were: Dark-eyed junco, acorn woodpecker, violet-green swallow, barn swallow, Northern rough-winged swallow, lesser goldfinch, black phoebe, California towhee, Anna's hummingbird, Cassin's vireo, Hutton's vireo, Oak titmouse, spotted towhee, turkey vulture, raven, Pacific-slope flycatcher, orange-crowned warbler, Wilson's warbler, black-headed grosbeak, wild turkey, California quail, red-tailed hawk, red-shouldered hawk, robin, scrub jay, house finch, wrentit, and brown creeper--31 species in all.
For more about bird watching in Sonoma County, see my website Sonoma County Bird Watching Spots.
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