January 1998 Field Journal 1/18/98 Panoche Pass and Santa Fe Grade
Alan and I had a pretty good day today. We flushed an AMERICAN BITTERN
along Santa Fe Grade and there were several WHITE-FACED IBISES. We had two
BALD EAGLES, one a Paicines Reservoir and the other a not far from the
reservoir on Panoche Road. Other raptors included a couple of FERRUGINOUS
HAWKS, a couple of PRARIE FALCONS, a very soggy GOLDEN EAGLE found by Alan
on I5 and a PEREGRINE FALCON/MERLIN on Santa Fe Grade (hey, it was pouring
rain by then!)Ah, but one of the more interesting birds was the CASSIN'S KINGBIRD that
Alan found near the Paicines Reservoir. When we saw it was a kingbird, I
was thinking TROPICAL KINGBIRD, but we finally got good enough looks to
conclusively identify it as a CAKI. MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDS were found near
Silver Spring Ranch and we found a VESPER SPARROW along Panoche Road.Ah, but New Idria had something better to offer. Alan was scoping for
vagrants in the large flock of LARK SPARROWS at MP 3.0 in a fierce breeze.
I was about ready to pack it in with scanning only with my nocs when,
almost on a whim, I went back to the car to get my scope. I planted it
next to Alan's, with no real expectation of seeing anything interesting.
However, about the fifth bird (!) I scanned was a BLACK-THROATED SPARROW.
We got brief looks at it, and then spent another half hour in the gale
until we finally got fully satisfying looks.Note that we had clear blue sky for the entire Panoche portion of the trip,
until at least 2:30 this afternoon.1.19 [SFBirds] Harris's Hawk in Inner Sunset
Anyone know anything else about the Harris's Hawk reported this morning? Or how
(un)likely that this is a recordable bird?Home
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