Hi Ronnie - Thanks for posting the photo of the female. It is a Lazuli Bunting based on bill shape and size, the wing bars, and unstreaked underparts with warm peach coloration to the breast. I believ

Hi all - We still have a couple of spaces left in our banding and molt workshop on August 15-16, 2015 at Richardson Bay Audubon Center. This will likely be the last banding workshop I give for a while

Hi all - We still have a few spaces left in our one-day workshop around Bolinas Lagoon this coming Sunday, April 12th. It includes a two-hour slide presentation and review of digital images at the end

Hi all - Excuse the cross-posting. After our successful workshops last fall we will be offering additional one-day and two-day molt workshops this April and August. The April workshops are coming up s

Hi Scott - This is a 4th-cycle male Western Gull. The bill is too large amd back too dark for a Herring or any other gull around here, and the age explains the slightly mottled head and dark on the bi

Team Merced of 8 birders in 3-5 parties recorded 112 species (Josiah, a gauntlet throw-down for next year?). Highlights were 3 Black-vented Shearwaters far off Ft Funston 1250-1315; a Cassin's Auklet

Hi Peter and Russ - Warbling Vireo is nearly unprecedented in the Bay Area in December, so very interesting report. Bell's Vireo may actually be more likely here. I can't quite tell from the photos wh

Hi all - Keith Hansen asked me to forward this link to his video of the mystery warbler on outer Point Reyes last week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVK2OWgm7LI There has been lots of lively opinion

Our October banding workshop this coming weekend had a late cancellation so there is an open slot now. The Nov 14-16th workshop currently has 2 slots left. See my last post on this (below) for more in

Via Kirsten Lindquist at Gulf-of-the-Farallones Hqtrs. It was an HY headed toward the gate. Peter

Hi all - Ted Beedy has some complete series of the above journals available to whoever can come by and pick them up in Nevada City (or arrange for shipping): "I have full sets of the Auk (1947-2013) a

An update from Jim Tietz this morning from SE Farallon. The Blue-footed Booby was also still there last week, as was an adult male Painted Bunting. We've aged the booby as an ASY (at least 2+ years ol

via Pete Warzybok.

Excuse the cross-postings and the pitch. In conjunction with Richardson Bay Audubon Center we will be offering two three-day weekend workshops on banding birds this fall, October 24th-26th and Novembe

Hi all - The scraggly Wood Duck is a healthy adult male which is gaining it's alternate or "eclipse" plumage. Male ducks do this in June so that they can be more camouflaged during the simultaneous wi

Hi all - Thanks to Josiah, Logan, and other posters here I also heard the Oak Titmouse yesterday morning. It is the first county bird I've gotten in almost a year, after trying but missing titmice (5x

Hi Logan - Great recap. It seems you made correct assumptions for the Farallon Island (SEFI) list. A couple of small comments: McCown's Longspur - hypothetical (probably good) record for SEFI Flammula

Ewan MacDonald of Bolinas describes a sapsucker he saw this morning along Rodriguez Street ("lower end") that he describes as without red on the breast, stripes in the face, red on the head and throat

I had work to do at CAS yesterday and had some time to try and chase down a couple of County birds. I tried twice (0915 and 1630) for the Oak Titmouse in the oaks near the southeast corner of Mountain

I spent 1:30--3:00 pm today at Sutro without luck. Others there reported none all day, during ~continuos coverage. But, meanwhile, while I was there Jim Tietz finally spotted and photographed one sitt