All I am seeing are Red Phalaropes. Tons of them. All flying south or huddled in puddles or, in the case of one, washed up on the shore almost dead. SO many Red Phalaropes! I don't think I have seen a single Red-necked Phalarope.

:)

Feather

I know that this is not a rare specie nor probably an unheard of occurrence. But, in over 30 years of bird feeding, it is the first time I have ever seen an owl come to my bird feeders and catch a bird (Amer Goldfinch). It was about 1:30 in the afternoon. It was extremely dark and rainy, which might explain the owl foraging at a feeder. Although I have seen many out in the daytime, just never attacking a bird at a feeder. It sat at a planter box for a few minutes, but was gone by the time I fetched my camera.

Dave Bengston
Ukiah

I wonder if that's the same Long-tailed Duck we found there on 12 November! I never got back down to check on it after that.

--
Cheers,
Tim
Mendocino Coast Audubon Society
Ecology Hour
Oak & Thorn
Facebook: Oak and Thorn

Hi All,

Here are two recent photos of the Rough-legged Hawk making appearances along
the southern Mendocino Coast. Gail mentioned seeing a second one, possibly a
juvenile. She's continuing to try and get photos.

Jeanne Jackson, Anchor Bay

1/2/23

This morning, Dan Maxwell found a long-tailed duck in the lagoon at the mouth of the Garcia River. Just now along Highway one at the Garcia Flats, Chuck Vaughn, Dan, Maxwell, and I saw a rough-legged hawk, likely continuing.

George Gibbs
Ukiah

Lisa, It looks like Rich has you covered! Message to all … if you find any rarities please share ASAP with others in case one wants to chase. A free dinner to anyone who can find me a sage thrasher or slaty-backed gull or snowy owl or ??? Happy New Year!

Hi Feather,

I just started seeing one in the healing garden at the hospital!  Eating bugs off of the Camelia flowers -sooooo darling and beautiful!

Hi, all!

Where are people meeting for the Manchester CBC on the 2nd and at what time?

Lisa

31 December 2022 - A Tennessee Warbler appeared in the garden right outside my kitchen window just after lunch today. New yard bird for us, and the fourth one reported on the coast recently. What is going on with these birds this winter? Are they popping up in other places as well, or just here?

Right after that bird, a Bewick's Wren popped up with a sizeable caterpillar, which it then spent at least a full minute pounding against the masonry wall. Guess I have to leave that bolting broccoli in the garden for a while - it's become valuable foraging habitat.

Hi, all!

This afternoon as I was returning to my car from a doctor appt at the Mendocino Coast Clinics on South Street, I heard a very distinctly different 'CHIP' call coming from some bushes that border the east parking lot. So I walked over to investigate. There, very briefly, was a Tennessee Warbler, beating a grub to death on a branch after catching it. It gave a couple more chip calls before beating it on the branch and then disappeared into the shrubbery. I noted the chip call, the white under-tail coverts and bright green plumage with a slight eyebrow marking before it flitted away. I wish I'd had my camera....


Happy Birding!

Lisa Walker-Roseman

28 December 2022 - A couple days ago I got an email from Scott Mercer with a photo of a Rough-legged Hawk that has been seen recently from Lighthouse Point. This morning we drove down to look for it, and while driving across the Garcia River bottoms I spotted it perched on a fencepost. We were able to get off the road (barely) and observe it briefly, before it took off and flew toward the Point. Gorgeous bird!

On the way down we stopped at a few of the usual hawk-watching turnouts and found three Ferruginous Hawks along with plenty of Red-tails. One Merlin zipped by on Stoneboro Road.

At 4:30 Tuesday afternoon, with the continuing usuals, were two splendid male and one female Hooded Merganser.

The huge newly green field just to the east of 101 freeway at North State Street, Ukiah was literally covered with Canada Geese and maybe others this afternoon.  There were hundreds carpeting the area, munching away.
Quite a sight. Merry Christmas

Apologies for the late reports!

21 December 2022 (Wednesday) - We tallied 56 species on our Earlybird walk at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, a pretty good count for December. Notable finds were a female Western Tanager near the farmhouse, and a first-winter Black-legged Kittiwake offshore, and a fly-by Iceland Gull. We also counted 15 Short-billed Gulls, which seemed like a lot.

Our preliminary tally from the Fort Bragg Christmas Bird Count on Monday December 19 is 142 species of wild birds. (Not including the Mute Swans.)
Best finds were:
Black-and-white Warbler found on Big River by Sarah Grimes and Penny Lancaster, and refound this morning
Swamp Sparrow at Lake Cleone, first reported pre-Count by Lisa Walker-Roseman and counted by Sean and Charlene McAllister
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Tennessee Warbler, both at Rose Memorial, found by Roger Adamson (both continuing birds)
Pink-footed Shearwater found offshore, spotted briefly by Bob Keiffer and photographed by Keith Leland
Heermann's Gull found off the south Mendocino headland by Chuck Vaughn
Harlequin Duck found off Virgin Creek beach by Lisa Walker-Roseman and Shannon Underhill
Three Wandering Tattlers at Glass Beach found by Esme Plascencia

Notable misses include Band-tailed Pigeon, Northern Pintail, Black-crowned Night-heron, and Bewick's Wren.

This morning, Shannon Underhill and I were at Laguna Pt checking out the hybrid Black/American Oystercatcher. We started searching for the Rock Sandpiper and ended up finding FOUR!!!!! Last year I found three here. So hopefully this means their population up north is doing better.


Checklist with photos here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S124494111

Happy Birding!

Lisa D Walker-Roseman (Feather Forestwalker) - Ft Bragg/Cleone

23 December 2022- The Black-and-white Warbler found by Penny Lancaster and Sarah Grimes on the Christmas Bird Count (December 19) was re-found this morning by Penny, Catherine Keegan, and me. It was on the Big River haul road trail, a short distance west of the bridge before the quarry. It was foraging with a guild of mostly Chestnut-backed Chickadees with one or possibly two Townsend's Warblers, a couple of Ruby-crowned Kinglets, a Downy Woodpecker, etc. I heard but did not see some Lesser Goldfinches calling nearby. When first spotted by Catherine and Penny it was in some understory brush, then it moved with the rest of the birds into some Alders. The flock moved on through the treetops going generally upriver and we lost them; I hunted around for about an hour after that and did not re-find them.