109th Christmas Bird Count

Yesterday, Andrew and I took part in our first Christmas Bird Count. This is the 109th year of a tradition that is the longest running wildlife census in the world. The local Yolo County Audubon Society put together ten teams of people who spread out across the county to perform bird counts. We chose to join a group going to a closed-to-the-public area of the Coastal Range near Winters, CA. Andrew and I joined three other people - Ian, Estella, and Dave - all far more experienced than us. Because we realized quickly that we had no auditory birding skills to contribute, we chose to be the scribes, recording the species and numbers of birds we heard, and sometimes saw. In all, we counted around 40 species of birds, saw a huge variety of mammal scat, mammalian bones, a few newts, and went for a great hike. Andrew and I learned that if we are going to be even adequate birders, we need to learn to rely on our ears, rather than our eyes for bird identification - not an easy task.

A little after the rain began, we watched several of these beautiful Coast Range Newts emerge in the dry stream basin.
Some of the species we recorded were: acorn woodpecker, flicker, ruby-crowned kinglet, juncos, raven, scrub jay, western bluebird, spotted towhee, california towhee, oak titmouse, anna's hummingbird...