Snaggy tree sticking up from golden grass hill with fog and oak trees in the background

More Dawn Birding

After experiencing such a magnificent dawn chorus at Santa Rosa Creek Trail, we craved more dawn birding! The following day, we arrived at Sweetwater Springs Road at 5:13 AM just before first light.
 
The special “dawn song” of a Western Wood-Pewee greeted us – a reward for waking before the sun. As with many other flycatchers, the dawn song is typically reserved for a short period before sunrise and sometimes at twilight. Continue reading “More Dawn Birding”

Trail cutting through green grass and yellow flowers with oak trees in the distance

Dawn Chorus at Santa Rosa Creek Trail

Last week, we rose extra early and headed out to enjoy the incredibly rich dawn chorus at Santa Rosa Creek Trail. We arrived at first-light and captured this dawn chorus recording at 5:40 AM – about 10 minutes before sunrise. Feast your ears on this magnificent avian symphony! Continue reading “Dawn Chorus at Santa Rosa Creek Trail”

Lesser Goldfinch perched on skinny willow branch

February Birds

Though the area rain levels were disappointingly low in February, the flipside was an abundance of spring-like birding days. With the relaxation of shelter-in-place restrictions and beautiful weather beckoning us, we made it out several times to enjoy Sonoma County’s bird life. Continue reading “February Birds”

House Wren singing with mouth open while perched on skinny branch against green background

Our 10 Favorite Bird Audio Recordings From 2020

Recording bird sounds has a been a source of great joy for us, as well as a boon to our birding-by-ear skills. First, making a recording forces us to listen intentionally for much longer than we may have otherwise, which helps commit vocalizations to memory. Then, uploading audio to The Macaulay Library allows us to revisit a recording with the helpful visual addition of its corresponding spectrogram.
 
In 2020, we uploaded 270 audio recordings to our eBird checklists. We picked our favorites to compile this Top 10 list, presented in chronological order. We hope you enjoy them! Continue reading “Our 10 Favorite Bird Audio Recordings From 2020”

Eared Grebe with bright red eye swimming in water

An Afternoon in Bodega Bay

In the recent months of the pandemic, we’ve mainly stayed close to home to do our part to curb holiday spread and then because of the regional stay-at-home order during December and January (now recently lifted). This has meant foregoing our normally frequent visits to the bird-haven that is Bodega Bay.
 
Yesterday, at long last, we headed to the harbor for the first time in four months. A lovely winter day greeted us – sunny and mild, with barely any wind. Continue reading “An Afternoon in Bodega Bay”