I’m Crittering Right Now

As we wrote about in our post “10 Things We Learned From Keeping An eBird Checklist 365 Days In A Row,” we love that birding naturally leads to other wildlife encounters. Birding gets us outside, slows us down, and heightens our awareness. We appreciate the opportunity that birding provides to observe and learn more about our local fauna.
 
Deer are certainly one of the more abundantly seen mammals, and it’s nice to notice them in different stages of their life cycle.

Squirrels and chipmunks, all within the Sciuridae family, are common critters. Since we began birding, we’ve learned the differences between the five that reside in Sonoma County – Western Gray Squirrels, Douglas Squirrels, California Ground Squirrels, Fox Squirrels, and Sonoma Chipmunks. We still occasionally pause at a squirrel vocalization while our brain unsuccessfully tries to determine what mystery bird it is.

We’ve also learned about the two local lagomorphs – the large Black-tailed Jackrabbit and the diminutive Brush Rabbit.

We’ve discovered that it’s the burrowing Botta’s Pocket Gopher making many of those holes in the coastal grasslands, and that if you’re incredibly still while observing them, they just might pop up inches away!

 
The longer we stay quietly in one spot looking and listening for birds, the less of a perceived threat we become to all wildlife, and sometimes skulkier critters appear.
 
While birding one evening, we watched this Gray Fox in the company of some California Towhees.

We continued to observe the fox quietly until it eventually sauntered over to a rock even closer to us, and curled up to take a nap. A true honor!

While surveying birds in the Petaluma wetlands, we’ve watched Striped Skunks mosey by just feet away.

We’ve even managed to glimpse the elusive American Mink twice while birding!

While birding by kayak along the Russian River, three baby raccoons cautiously watched us as we floated by at a crawl.

Bobcats typically keep their distance from humans, but we’ve observed them numerous times while birding wild spaces. Encountering these creatures is special every time, and we have birding to thank for it.

We’d been standing along Santa Rosa Creek Trail for several minutes observing bird life before noticing this nearby bobcat, comfortably hidden in a tangle of roots and fallen leaves.

This beauty sauntered by directly below us along a creek, as we watched from above.

Once, while standing quietly in a tangle of brush in Owl Canyon, we heard a rustling from something obviously larger than a bird. Several moments later, a coyote popped out from the foliage onto the trail just fifteen feet from us. We were stunned as it peered the other way, seemingly oblivious to us. When it finally looked our direction, it trotted away with a start.
 
Though we were too surprised to snap a photograph, here’s a selection of other handsome coyotes we’ve come across.

Let’s not forget about the marine mammals! Birding near the coastline gives us many opportunities to see these playful pinnipeds.

This past March, we encountered something truly unexpected while birding at Foothill Regional Park – an albino squirrel! We sent the photo in to The Windsor Times, and discovered from the Facebook comments that this squirrel has apparently been around for at least a couple of years.

Birding while traveling also puts you in a better position to see and learn about unfamiliar wildlife you might otherwise miss.

Because we were constantly on the lookout for birds, our two trips to Costa Rica were extra rewarding. Naturally, we ended up seeing many mammals, lizards, spiders, snakes, insects, and butterflies as well.

Some of the monkeys in Costa Rica are easy to spot, birding or not – like the raucous Howler Monkeys.

Others like the White-faced Capuchin Monkeys are slightly more inconspicuous.

While scanning for birds, it was downright easy to spot Costa Rica’s two species of sloths.

We feel incredibly lucky to have fallen in love with birding for a multitude of reasons. The fact that it fosters an ever-increasing awareness of all the surrounding fauna is just one!
 
And… among the many wildlife encounters while birding, once in a blue moon, there’s that one incredibly rare critter sighting that just flabbergasts you!