Although the Acorn Woodpeckers took front-stage on our trip around Lake Ralphine and Spring Lake, there were lots of supporting acts.
Considering how many people walk those trails, I’m amazed at the number of birds I find there this time of year. Here’s a small sample of what I saw on my walk.
Three male Bufflehead,
one Swainson’s Thrush,
one Great-tailed Grackle,
several Yellow-Rumped Warblers,
and one very camera-shy Night Heron.
We had so many things planned on our recent trip to Santa Rosa that, unfortunately, I only managed to get one walk around Lake Ralphine and Spring Lake.
Luckily it was a great walk which began immediately when we were greeted near the parking lot by several Acorn Woodpeckers.
The woodpeckers seemed unusually busy gathering nuts. I think that is because park workers had cut down the tree where they had previously stored their acorns. But, for whatever reason, they weren’t shy on this visit, ignoring me as they searched for acorns,
gathered them,
and stored them away in a nearby tree.
I suspect they were ignoring me because they were hurrying to gather as many nuts as possible before the crowds started appearing. There wasn’t a single woodpecker to be seen when we returned from our walk.
Whenever I recommend a birding site to someone, I try to describe what they MIGHT see, depending on when they visit. I also warn that they will probably see different birds (or no birds) at different times of the day or the year.
Truthfully, even two birders riding together in a car looking out different windows are likely to see different birds or animals than the person they’re riding next to. For instance, on our visit to Colusa I got this shot of a White-Faced Ibis that Leslie didn’t see.
Right around the corner she got a shot of a Double-Crested Cormorant in breeding colors that I never spotted.
I got a shot of a Great Egret fluffing its feathers,
and she got a shot of two Wild Turkeys.
I couldn’t miss seeing the large Night Heron Rookery, but only Leslie could actually take pictures of it since it’s nearly impossible to hand-hold a 400 mm lens while pointing it out the opposite car window.
But that was okay because Leslie didn’t get to see the little Pied-Billed Grebe that popped up on my side of the car.
You never really know what you’re going to see while birding, but I do know that you never see the birds we saw at Colusa NWR while sitting at home on the couch.
When trying to identify ducks while birding it sometimes seem impossible to identify female ducks unless there is a male nearby. In a pond with thousands of ducks I would have had a hard time identifying the duck on the right in this photo (of course, it doesn’t help that I was so busy focusing on the male on the left that the female is slightly out-of-focus.) With the male in the picture, though, it’s pretty clear that the duck is a female Widgeon.
The same goes for these Cinnamon Teal
where the male is instantly recognizable by its bright color.
By herself, I would have a hard time telling whether this duck was a female Mallard, Widgeon, Gadwall, or Northern Pintail.
Once you notice that she is followed by this gorgeous male Northern Pintail, it’s much easier to see the silhouettes of the two are quite similar — except for the pintail, of course.
The same holds true with this pair of Gadwalls,
though the male looks so similar to the female that I often overlook it in a large flock of ducks.
Still, its subtle colors and refined beauty make it easily distinguishable from any other duck I know.