Miscellaneous: Year-end Birding

I do quarterly bird surveys for two private properties in Sonoma County whose owners want an ongoing record of bird abundance and diversity. 

Inevitably, I end up looking at a lot of plants and insects as well. This past year (2024), I did the two winter surveys as well as three Audubon Christmas Bird Counts, all in December. 

With the unusually high levels of rain we've had in the past six weeks, there were mushrooms everywhere. I'm still learning to identify mushrooms and I don't have the confidence to harvest and consume the occasional edible species I encounter, but I very much enjoy seeing them. Here are a couple of bird photos from my year-end birding expeditions and some mushroom photos as well. 

Birds I'm Watching: 2020 Audubon Christmas Counts

Again this year (2020) I participated in a couple of Audubon Christmas bird counts. The groups I birded with covered the Spring Lake and Lake Ralphine area in Santa Rosa on December 20 and the Barnett Valley Rd./Jonive Rd. area, near Sebastopol, on December 27. Didn't see any rarities, but had four Hooded Mergansers on the Martindale Ranch pond on December 27, saw all three local nuthatch species that day, and also all the local woodpeckers (Downy, Hairy, Nuttall's, Pileated, Flicker, and Red-breasted Sapsucker). The weather held both days despite a forecast of (much needed) rain. Pictured is a Cedar Waxwing photographed on December 20.

Birds I'm Watching: Sonoma Valley Christmas Bird Count (2010)

I participated in the 2010 Sonoma Valley Christmas Bird Count today. This was the 111th year of Christmas bird counts in the United States. I helped count in seven different locales in the Sonoma Valley, most in the hills above Hwy. 12 in the Glen Ellen area, many of them ordinarily closed to the public (private preserves and ranches) but including three places open to the public--Quarryhill Botanical Garden, the grounds of Imagery Estate winery, and Cavedale Rd. In total, we saw over a thousand birds of 55 species: Canada goose, Bufflehead, Hooded merganser, Common merganser, Pied-billed grebe, Double-crested cormorant, Great blue heron, Great egret, Turkey vulture, White-tailed kite, Cooper's hawk, Red-shouldered hawk, Red-tailed hawk, Kestrel, Merlin, Killdeer (pictured), Wilson's snipe, Mourning dove, Anna's hummingbird, Belted kingfisher, Acorn woodpecker, Red-breasted sapsucker, Hairy woodpecker, Northern flicker, Black phoebe, Steller's jay, Scrub jay, Crow, Raven, Chestnut-backed chickadee, Oak titmouse, Bushtit, White-breasted nuthatch, Bewick's wren, Ruby-crowned kinglet, Western bluebird, Hermit thrush, Robin, Wrentit, Mockingbird, Starling, Cedar waxwing, Yellow-rumped warbler, Townsend's warbler, Spotted towhee, California towhee, Song sparrow, White-crowned sparrow, Golden-crowned sparrow, Dark-eyed junco, Red-winged blackbird, Purple finch, House finch, Lesser goldfinch, and American goldfinch. A very cold but entertaining day.

For more information about bird watching in Sonoma County, see my Website Sonoma County Birding Spots