Towheeblog

Rain, all the way from Ashland down to Chico.  I am in Chico to lead some trips and give some talks at the annual goose festival.

Wind and water slapping against the car windows.  When I rolled one down to get a photo all the top layers were immediately dampened.  White geese in the tens of thousands, many hundreds of Tundra Swans, countless dabbling ducks in flooded rice fields.  One field had about 200 hundred White-faced Ibis with a scampering flock of Least Sandpipers running around and among them. Best bird mix of the day came from one pasture with a Neapolitan ix: three flavors in succeeding rows.  Nearest the road: a scattered line of Ring-billed Gulls, the middle row was a dense flocks of at least 2000 Brewers Blackbirds, finally the back wall was a moving phalanx of Pintails stretching at least a hundred yards across the ground.

Above: two flavors of goose–white-fronted and snow.  Yes, those are ibis in the back row. Below: I call this “goose flush.”I almost overlooked these curlews nearly invisible in the rain.Nearly every flooded rice paddy was G-S-D: goose, swan, ducks:Above: ibis.  Below: least of all, but not all the Leasts.False hope through my motel window (rain on pane), supposed to storm and rain all day tomorrow as well:

Butte County, Butte, California, US
Jan 24, 2018 1:10 PM – 4:10 PM, 27 species

Snow Goose (Anser caerulescens)  X     thousands
Ross’s Goose (Anser rossii)  X
Greater White-fronted Goose (Anser albifrons)  X
Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)  X
Tundra Swan (Cygnus columbianus)  X     hundreds
Northern Shoveler (Spatula clypeata)  X
American Wigeon (Mareca americana)  X
Mallard (Northern) (Anas platyrhynchos platyrhynchos/conboschas)  X
Northern Pintail (Anas acuta)  X
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)  X
Great Egret (American) (Ardea alba egretta)  X
Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)  1
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)  X
American Coot (Fulica americana)  X
Long-billed Curlew (Numenius americanus)  4
Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla)  50
Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis)  150
Herring Gull (American) (Larus argentatus smithsonianus)  30
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)  3
American Kestrel (Falco sparverius)  4
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)  X
Common Raven (Corvus corax)  X
Lark Sparrow (Chondestes grammacus)  1
White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys)  X
Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla)  X
Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis)  X
Brewer’s Blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus)  X

Rancho Llano Seco, Butte, California, US
Jan 24, 2018.  18 species

Snow Goose (Anser caerulescens)  X
Ross’s Goose (Anser rossii)  X
Greater White-fronted Goose (Anser albifrons)  X
Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)  X
Tundra Swan (Cygnus columbianus)  X
Northern Shoveler (Spatula clypeata)  X
American Wigeon (Mareca americana)  X
Mallard (Northern) (Anas platyrhynchos platyrhynchos/conboschas)  X
Northern Pintail (Anas acuta)  X
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)  X
Great Egret (Ardea alba)  X
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)  X
American Coot (Fulica americana)  X
Herring Gull (Larus argentatus)  X
Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor)  120
Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla)  X
Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta)  X
Brewer’s Blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus)  X