Wednesday, October 8, 2003

Wait, where did you come from???

I was just going through some pictures we got back from when we went to the bird place last. I noticed a new species that I didn't even know we had seen. We saw of ton of Northern Pintails and didn't even know it. When you're there, you see so much at once that it's hard to identify everything.

I'm sure glad I was studying those pictures!

Wednesday, October 1, 2003

Back Again

We finally went to the bird place for the first time in months! It was awesome and we saw much more than I'd expected. All of the marsh hasn't yet filled up with water, but should be in a matter of weeks.

There were thousands of Greater White-fronted Geese in the water and flying overhead. They were very noisy but scared away easily. A snake slithered across my shoe without me even seeing it and we saw tons of frogs jumping into the water. We saw Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets paired together. The usuals were there, too: American Coots, Mallards, pheasants and hawks, pelicans, Shovelers, squirrels, rabbits, Wigeons...


We saw some new stuff, too, which was exciting. The Black-necked Stilt was really easy to identify. They have really long legs and straight black beaks.

At the Colusa NWR we saw three Great Blue Herons. A Double-crested Cormorant was perched in a tree and then dove into the water. On the bank of the river we saw a truly amazing sight. There were two Egrets, two American Bitterns, a Cormorant, AND a Black-crowned Night Heron, all in the same spot. It was amazing to see the Bitterns out away from the marsh grass.




I can't wait to go back!!!