What Kind of Duck Climbs a Tree?

A Wood Duck, of course. On a trip with the Sea & Sage Audubon Society this morning at Santiago Oaks Regional Park, we found this pair apparently scouting out possible nesting sites:

They were being mobbed by Acorn Woodpeckers, but didn’t seem to mind too much. About half a dozen European Starlings were also present and scouting some of the same holes. I hope they lose the competition for the space.

In about 4 hours we logged some 30-odd species including:

• Wood Duck
• Great Egret
• Turkey Vulture
• Osprey
• Cooper’s Hawk
• Red-shouldered Hawk
• Red-tailed Hawk
• Mourning Dove
• Anna’s Hummingbird
• Belted Kingfisher
• Acorn Woodpecker
• Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
• Red-naped Sapsucker
• Nuttall’s Woodpecker
• Northern Flicker
• Cassin’s Kingbird
• Western Scrub-Jay
• American Crow
• Common Raven
• Tree Swallow
• Bushtit
• European Starling
• Orange-crowned Warbler
• Yellow-rumped Warbler
• Common Yellowthroat
• Spotted Towhee
• California Towhee
• Song Sparrow
• Dark-eyed Junco
• House Finch
• Lesser Goldfinch
• Nutmeg Mannikin

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is a very good bird for the West Coast, though I’ve had numerous in New York already this year.

Red-naped Sapsucker and Cassin’s Kingbird are both life birds. (I’ve seen Cassin’s Kingbird before but mis-identified it.)

I’ll have to check and see whether the Nutmeg Mannikin is officially countable or not. Update: Nutmeg Mannikin wasn’t countable back in 2008, but in 2013 the California Bird records Committee added it to the state list, so I now count this as #993.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 at 9:06 PM and is filed under Birding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the Atom feed. You can make a comment, Digg this story, or trackback from your own site.