Miscellaneous: Bird sightings

Our recent trip to Texas and the Southwest was so busy that I've not had a chance to write up details or post a lot of photos, but I spent Saturday and Sunday in the woods. So, in the meantime, until I can get more posted from the trip, here are some bird and mushroom photos for your viewing pleasure.

From top to bottom: Pileated Woodpecker, Hermit Thrush, Hygrocybe sp. (possibly singer, possibly acutoconica), and a Lincoln's Sparrow.

Went out for a short walk along a creek trail not far from home on Saturday (October 17). It's the autumn migration season for songbirds, so this is a good time of year to see warblers moving south for the winter and sometimes to see exotic strays not normally present in our area. Didn't see anything exotic and only one warbler species (a pretty Townsend's Warbler), but I did see a busy Pileated Woodpecker working on making a hole in a tree branch. North America's largest woodpecker species (Dryocopus pileatus).

Birds I'm Watching: Spring Lake, Santa Rosa (September 2, 2012)

A couple of days ago I took a quick walk around Spring Lake, in Santa Rosa, hoping to see warblers, as the migration is now under way. I did see Yellow Warblers, Orange-crowned Warblers, and a Black-throated Grey Warbler, but nothing exotic (although the Black-throated Grey is one of my favorites). The highlight was a Pileated Woodpecker that rather obligingly landed on an exposed tree trunk with good light after a frustrating few minutes of trying to photograph the bird hanging upside down in dense foliage (the bird, not me). Sometimes you get lucky.

For information about bird watching in Sonoma County, see my Website Sonoma County Bird Watching Spots.