Greetings birders! There is an important event coming up on April 15-17, the statewide triennial Tricolored Blackbird Survey. This survey has been conducted since the 1980s and is a joint effort betwe

It was pretty birdy and sparrow diversity was good along the east fork of Grayson creek today. We had the usual White crowned and Golden crowned, a Song sparrow, 12 Savannah sparrows and re-found a Wh

23 seen along fence here 37.857256, -121.702440. 8 females 15 males. Alan Bade Pleasant hill

Mountain bluebirds continue along fence lines. 5 seen now kiting and posing along the fence. Western bluebirds with them. Thanks for posting! Alan Bade Pleasant hill

I forgot to add a link to some fish photos; https://alanbade.smugmug.com/Anadromous-fish-Grayson-creek/n-JgJfpQ/ . I welcome ideas on what they are. And, just so Aaron doesn't admonish me for posting

We did our Grayson creek bird survey today. Birding was especially good along the EBMUD trail and in the creek sections north of Pleasant Hill Middle School ballfields, despite the PH Library construc

Our ground birds (white crowned sparrows, one white-throated sparrow, towhees, even mourning doves) are eating seeds on the ground where they usually forage. Seems like almost the same behavior as bef

Update on our yard White-throated sparrow; this time I watched from dawn until about 8 AM and got photos. https://ebird.org/checklist/S95981635 Alan Bade Pleasant Hill

This morning a tan-striped White-throated sparrow came to the exact same spot as last year, about a 3 foot square area in our yard where we put seed for our ground birds. This is the 3rd year, assumin

This afternoon we had errands in Walnut Creek, so I walked around the mostly natural pond at Heather Farm Park. There were two juvenile males and one beautiful adult male Wood duck out on the pond in

In the last two days, I've noticed a number of migrant warblers either returning or moving through our neighborhood. We've had a Black-throated gray, a Wilson's, two yellow-rumped, and three orange-cr

Does anyone have advice on recognizing Townsend's/Hermit hybrids? As we see more migrants returning or passing through our area, they could be around, but I guess they may be rare. Maybe they are beco

This morning along the ridge trail above the Claremont Regional Preserve we saw an early Townsend's warbler. We hoped to find the Hermit warbler(s) and Nashville warbler reported by Teale Fristoe on F

Correction; I meant to say that SMD's burn area maps are NOT detailed topos. They are just to show the fire's perimeter. You'll want more detailed maps for hiking. Alan Bade Pleasant Hill

On Friday April 30th, 3 of us went to Morgan Territory to see where the SCU Complex fire burned in the park. Save Mt Diablo organized a Bioblitz focused on the SCU fire areas, so we wanted to contribu

Today we went to the east side of Mt Diablo. It doesn't seem to get a lot of birding visits, at least as evidenced on eBird. We went to Perkins Canyon up the utility access road past the high voltage

Hi Fred- Thanks for the sparrow report. We still have our regular White-throated sparrow amidst its small flock of white-crowned sparrows. We live in southern Pleasant Hill. It over-wintered here last

After taking our feeder down due to sick Pine Siskins, our White throated sparrow has been much less frequent. (It's been a regular for 2 winters.) I've been putting seeds out for it on rocks in the y

Hi Paul- I'm glad you saw the Creekside Park White-throated sparrow again. We need to make it over there. We're happy to report our 2nd year yard White-throated sparrow continues over here in southern

Hi Alan- I just realized you live in Richmond....well outside our CBC circle. Oops... Alan Bade Pleasant Hill