Saturday, September 30, 2017

Preying on Road P

Herons and Egrets aren't the only birds we see on our favorite country road.
County Road P in Willows, California has also been known to have a hawk or two hanging out on telephone poles, surveying the farmland for its next meal...

These high voltage birds of prey are so fierce!
Tomorrow I'm excited to share an entirely different bird we spotted out in the country...

Friday, September 29, 2017

Pretty Great

We spotted this Great Blue Heron in front of a farmhouse on County Road P in Willows, California...

What I would give to be able to look out my front window at THIS!

I could have sat in my car and taken pictures of him for hours, but I had to (reluctantly) let him get back to his hunting...



I can sleep peacefully at night knowing that something this gorgeous exists out there in nature...
No wonder I count my lucky stars every time I see one of these magnificent birds in the wild!



Thursday, September 28, 2017

Herons Galore

In today's post, we return to County Road P in Willows, California, for some more heron admiration...
I could take photos of herons and egrets all day. Their combination of elegance and fierceness interests me to no end...




I'm definitely framing some of these photos, by the way!

I hope that you're not tired of seeing herons!
Because tomorrow I have some more Great Blue pics to post!


Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Blue Highway

Today we return to my favorite road for birding. County Road P in Willows, California. This time during our drive through, we were lucky enough to spot my favorite bird.
 The Great Blue Heron.
There's just something about these striking-looking birds that takes my breath away each and every time I see one.


They don't often pose for me as much as some other birds, but when they sit still for a few seconds, my camera absolutely loves it!

 Look at that gorgeous profile!

Tomorrow, I'll be posting pics of some slightly different herons...



Tuesday, September 26, 2017

A harsh name for a cool bird...

It's always an exciting day when I'm able to add a new bird onto my Big Year list, much less my lifelist. Today, I got to add a Great-tailed Grackle to both!
We saw this female on County Road P, which is located near the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge.
I knew right away when I saw it that it was something special. I've never seen one before in person (on every range map I've looked at they aren't even supposed to be in our area) and she is quite striking--and much bigger than the average Brewer's Blackbird she's perched next to!

I didn't notice any males around, but I could have been distracted by the 40 egrets that she was hanging out with that I posted about yesterday.



Tomorrow, I'm dedicating an entire post to my absolute favorite bird...


Monday, September 25, 2017

And the award for best road goes to...

Today's post is jam-packed full of photos from one of my favorite places on the planet. Road P.
The south end of County Road P in Willows, California, to be exact. I've mentioned this backroad gem before and it's because we've found some of the best birding opportunities here where you'd least expect them. Road P (Road 60 is the crossroad) is located near the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge and there have been times we've seen more birds here than at the refuge. This time was no different.

 In fact, we drove up on an egret party of sorts...
There were Great Egrets (about forty of them altogether!), Snowy Egrets, Great Blue Herons and even twenty or so White-faced Ibises, all congregated together in and around the irrigation ditch.





We usually see a few Kestrels on this road and have even seen a Cormorant, Osprey and a Kingfisher who makes his home on this road, but we've never come upon such a large group of egrets before.

 As wonderful as the refuge is, Road P consistently delivers when it comes to birds!



 Tomorrow, I'm sharing the bird we just added as #164 on our Big Year list. And (you guessed it!) we saw it on Road P...