{"id":7017,"date":"2018-03-08T19:32:33","date_gmt":"2018-03-09T03:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebirdersreport.com\/?p=7017"},"modified":"2022-07-23T19:33:41","modified_gmt":"2022-07-24T02:33:41","slug":"my-2018-great-backyard-bird-count","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebirdersreport.com\/west-coast-beat-writer\/my-2018-great-backyard-bird-count","title":{"rendered":"My 2018 Great Backyard Bird Count"},"content":{"rendered":"

I hope everyone participated in at least one day of the four day Great Backyard Bird Count of 2018. I submitted five checklists from four different locations yielding 44 species.<\/p>\n

As I walked out on my back porch on Friday morning, the first day of the count, it was a cool, clear day and the birds were very active at the feeders. As the Red-Shouldered Hawk<\/strong> seen above screamed overhead, Acorn Woodpeckers<\/strong> not only treated themselves to the woodpecker feeder, they had to attack the sunflower feeders as well.<\/p>\n

\"Acorn<\/p>\n

There were scores of House Finches chirping in the tree tops so I scoured the scene and finally found a pair of Purple Finches<\/strong> that were traveling with them. A male…<\/p>\n

\"Purple<\/p>\n

and a female.<\/p>\n

\"Purple<\/p>\n

There were several Anna’s Hummingbirds<\/strong> vying for spots at the feeders but a few were bathing in the water feature’s waterfall.<\/p>\n

\"Anna's<\/p>\n

Most of the birds feeding at the various feeders would occasionally take time to drink or bathe at the water feature. Here is a male Lesser Goldfinch<\/strong> taking his turn.<\/p>\n

\"Lesser<\/p>\n

As\u00a0an adult\u00a0Bald Eagle<\/strong> and a first of the season flock of\u00a0Tree Swallows<\/strong> flew overhead, several birds were cleaning up underneath the feeders. There were\u00a0California Scrub-Jays<\/strong> gathering up as many sunflower seeds as they could hold in their beaks…<\/p>\n

\"California<\/p>\n

and\u00a0Spotted Towhees<\/strong> who would occasionally perch up in the trees waiting their turn.<\/p>\n

\"Spotted<\/p>\n

The suet feeder was visited by not only the Scrub-Jays and Acorn Woodpeckers, the White-breasted Nuthatches and Nuttall’s Woodpeckers<\/strong> took their turns at the fat rich meal.<\/p>\n

\"Nuttall's<\/p>\n

Following two days of observing and recording my yardbirds I took a drive to Lema Ranch<\/a>, a birding hotspot in Redding, about 25 miles west of my home. On the way to town I always find some great birds on the country roads and I usually stop to observe and sometimes photograph them. Sunday was no exception. Not only did I have Sandhill Cranes<\/strong> flying overhead, there were the usual\u00a0American Kestrels<\/strong>\u00a0perched on the wires and dozens of\u00a0Turkey Vultures …<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Turkey<\/p>\n

and our local\u00a0Lewis’s Woodpeckers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Lewis's<\/p>\n

Wild Turkeys<\/strong> were out in full display.<\/p>\n

\"Wild<\/p>\n

Lema Ranch has several ponds and is always a great spot for waterfowl but I was surprised to find four\u00a0Snow Geese<\/strong> on secluded pond! The ranch’s ponds yielded several\u00a0Ring-necked Ducks<\/strong>…<\/p>\n

\"Ring-necked<\/p>\n

large numbers of\u00a0American Wigeon<\/strong> …<\/p>\n

\"American<\/p>\n

several\u00a0Bufflehead<\/strong> …<\/p>\n

\"Bufflehead<\/p>\n

and\u00a0Pied-billed Grebes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Pied-billed<\/p>\n

There were\u00a0Black Phoebes<\/strong> hawking insects around the ponds …<\/p>\n

\"Black<\/p>\n

Ruby-crowned Kinglets<\/strong> foraging in the trees…<\/p>\n

\"Ruby-crowned<\/p>\n

and a male\u00a0Bushtit<\/strong> collecting nesting material.<\/p>\n

\"Bushtit<\/p>\n

Of course, Lema Ranch is one of the locations of my bluebird trails, so I found several\u00a0Western Bluebirds<\/strong>, including this female intensely hunting ground dwelling insects.<\/p>\n

\"Western<\/p>\n

All in all, I tallied 44 species. They are Turkey Vulture, Bald Eagle, Red-shouldered Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Mourning Dove, Anna’s Hummingbird, Acorn Woodpecker, Nuttall’s Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, California Scrub-Jay, Tree Swallow, Oak Titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch, Dark-eyed Junco, Spotted Towhee, House Finch, Purple Finch, Lesser Goldfinch, Ring-necked Duck, Greater White-fronted Goose, Canada Goose, American Wigeon, Mallard, Snow Goose, Bufflehead, Pied-billed Grebe, American Coot, Black Phoebe, Common Raven, Bushtit, Bewick’s Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Western Bluebird, European Starling, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Lewis’s Woodpecker, Wild Turkey, American Kestrel, California Quail and Pine Siskin. Fun birding!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I hope everyone participated in at least one day of the four day Great Backyard Bird Count of 2018. I submitted five checklists from four different locations yielding 44 species. As I walked out on my back porch on Friday morning, the first day of the count, it was a cool, clear day and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[964],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-west-coast-beat-writer"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebirdersreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7017"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebirdersreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebirdersreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebirdersreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebirdersreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7017"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebirdersreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7018,"href":"https:\/\/thebirdersreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7017\/revisions\/7018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebirdersreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebirdersreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebirdersreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}