This past Friday we joined our friend Adam Cimino for his section of the 2021 Eastern Alameda County Christmas Bird Count. We lucked out with a brilliantly sunny day for our walk along the Arroyo del Valle Trail. Over a 4-mile stretch of creekside trail, we ended up with 49 species — let’s explore some of the species we spotted.
Right away, we happened upon this Chestnut-backed Chickadee inspecting a tree trunk cavity.
Who could Miles and Adam be peering at?
It very well could have been a Yellow-rumped Warbler, considering the abundant numbers we observed throughout the day.
The Bewick’s Wren is a species that sings nearly year-round, even on a chilly December day. We stood and enjoyed this sweet, rhythmic, 3-part song for some time.
After a while, we finally spied the sneaky songster through the leaves.
As we walked past, a small group of camouflaged Mourning Doves startled us with a burst of loud wing-flaps from low in the brush.
Also abundant were Lesser Goldfinches. Here’s a male who also inhabited the dense tangle that housed the Mourning Doves.
For the second time in four years, we came upon a wintering Western Tanager — an unexpected treat! This species typically heads down to Mexico or Central America for the winter.
This male House Finch soaked up some rays. Underneath his cherry-red coloration, can you see some orange undertones?
The other red finch — Purple Finch — appeared as well, munching away in a group of Chinese pistache trees where we find them each year.
Often, we’re initially alerted to a Purple Finch’s presence during winter by hearing its quiet, low-pitched “pop” call — like this one we recorded during 2019’s Christmas Bird Count, discovered in the exact same Chinese pistache trees.
Hmm… what’s the past tense of “flycatch”? Flycatched? Flycaught?!
In any event, this Black Phoebe was doing some flycatching near the Purple Finches. We like how this black-and-white “tuxedo bird” looks against the brilliant blue sky and pretty pink of the tree!
Along the homestretch, we first heard and then saw our only Hairy Woodpecker of the day.
Multiple Red-shouldered Hawks enjoy hunting along this creek — we spied at least four individuals. We had been standing directly underneath this particularly fluffed-up darling for a few minutes before noticing it!
What could be better than spending a sunny day with your birding buds while contributing to science?! Here’s to another successful Eastern Alameda County CBC in the books!
Looks like a lovely day and nice birds. If you were on the SRCBC yesterday, you know how foggy and chilly it was! We had some nice birds including 3 Ring-necked Ducks , a lovely pair of WTKites, and a single Selasphorus Hummer feeding with a bunch of Anna’s (12,15 or more?) in a stand of blooming Eucs at the very top of Bennett Ridge. (Yes, our area was Bennett Valley over to Crane Creek). It was foggy and cold all day, but we did tally 49 species in our area. Next is Sonoma Valley!
Kathleen – 🌻 gratitude
Black Phoebe is such a friendly bird and that photo is gorgeous!
Another lovely post, exquisitely illustrated with your photos. Thanks!
Gorgeous photos, nice recordings
Beautiful photos, nice recordings. Good to see you all enjoying your day of birding together. Thank you!
As usual, nice photos, sound recording, and great story. Here up North, we will have our Brome-Missisquoi, CA-QC, Christmas Bird Count on January 2nd. Hope it will not be too cold.
Cheers !!!
Oh Boy this CBC team is great. So many good species and photo too!!