Looking Back ☼ Best Bird Sightings of 2019

Another year, another twelve months of wonderful birding adventures!

Now that 2019 is coming to a close, it's time to look back and be reminded of all the great bird sightings we had this year.

5. Phainopepla, Gray Lodge Wildlife Area

4. Northern Harrier encounter, Modoc National Wildlife Refuge

3. Western Tanager, Lassen Volcanic National Park

2. Evening Grosbeak, Lassen Volcanic National Park

1. Pileated Woodpecker, Lassen Volcanic National Park

Plus, a few more sightings that were too memorable to leave out!

Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird, Sacramento River National Wildlife Refuge - Pine Creek Unit

Osprey nest, Sacramento River National Wildlife Refuge - Pine Creek Unit

Great Blue Heron Rookery, Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge

Rough-legged Hawk, Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge

Cooperative Hawk, Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge

Western Kingbird, Logan Creek Trail, Sacramento NWR

American Bitterns Sacramento NWR

Here's to another wonderful year of birding!

Let's go birding!

Best of Great Blue Herons Video

Gosh, it's tough to play favorites when every bird is beautiful in its own way, but if I had to choose (at least from the birds I've seen in person), it would have to be a Great Blue Heron. Here are my favorite photos I've taken of these magnificent birds up until now...

Best of Duck Photography

🦆 Showin' some duck love on the blog today!

Gosh, we've taken so many great photos of ducks over the years that I thought I'd better put them into a video so they're all in one place!

Let's go birding!

Best of Great Egrets Video

Great Egrets might be common in our area, but that doesn't mean I don't love seeing them on country backroads, along the freeway, and at our local wildlife refuges!

Here are my favorite photos I've taken of Great Egrets over the years...

Reflection Lake Loop Trail ↔ Lassen Volcanic National Park Birding

 Sweet dreams from Reflection Lake in Lassen Volcanic National Park!

Watch the video from my hike around this beautiful lake here.

Let's go birding!

One of my favorite flycatchers... Black Phoebe

Black Phoebes can be tough to get photos of because they are always on the move, but I managed to put together a little slideshow of my favorite Black Phoebe photos...

📷 All photos were taken in northern California with my little Canon SX530 and have not been filtered or altered in any way. 

Sooty Grouse ☼ Lassen Volcanic National Park

Our very-first Sooty Grouse sighting and she was ten feet away from us on the trail up Brokeoff Mountain in Lassen Volcanic National Park!

Isn't she pretty?

She wasn't the least bit scared of us and continued to eat her manzanita berries while we stood and watching and snapped away with our cameras...

One more bird to add to the lifelist! That puts us only two away from 200...

(Read all about our hike to the top of Brokeoff Mountain on my travel blog Vaughn the Road Again.)


Let's go birding!

Moment of Zen ≈ American Avocet Edition

Today's relaxing Moment of Zen is brought to you by the elegant American Avocets at the Gray Lodge Wildlife Area in Gridley, California...

American Kestrel ☼ North America’s Littlest Falcon

I put together a video of all of my best Kestrel photos...

Autumn is coming to the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge!

What a beautiful day to take a drive through the auto tour route at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge!

There isn't much water yet, but there are still plenty of birds to be found. Ducks are already beginning to arrive and we spotted an American Bittern in one of the canals less than five feet away from the car!

I look forward to returning in a few weeks when the geese are there and filming some video of the walking trails...

Let's go birding!

Wildflower Wednesday 🏵 Places to find wildflowers in Northern California

This isn't exactly bird-related, but I've started a new website to showcase my wildflower photography and invite you to come over and say hello!

I'll be posting photos of lupine, poppies, wild sunflower and everything between on Wildflower Wednesday every Wednesday and on Instagram too.

Here's to blooming wherever you can find sunshine and not just where you're planted!

Rachelle

Moment of Zen ☼ Tricolored Blackbird Edition

This birding moment of zen is brought to you by a male Tricolored Blackbird on the Discovery Marsh Trail at the Klamath Basin Wildlife Refuge in northern California...

Let's go birding!

Lily Pond Trail ☼ Lassen Volcanic National Park

We spotted a few bird friends around Lily Pond during our hike down the trail in Lassen Volcanic National Park...

 These female mallards were feeding down under the lilies and finally emerged to take a nap in the sun...

What a nice way to spend an afternoon!

Let's go birding!

Bird Fun Trivia ☼ Avian Pedicure Edition

Which bird do these feet belong to???

Summer Birding ☼ Colusa National Wildlife Refuge

We usually don't make many visits to our local wildlife refuges in the summer because the triple-digit temps here in the Sacramento Valley can be brutal. Luckily, we had a cooler day (yes, we consider 95 "cool") and decided to take a drive through the Colusa National Wildlife Refuge.

I'm so glad we did! There was much more water than I thought there'd be and everything was green, green, green!

We saw Black Phoebe, Western Kingbird, Mourning Dove, Wild Turkey, Ring-necked Pheasant and the biggest gathering of herons we've ever seen...

The birds were extremely cooperative with having their picture taken on this particular day and that's always a big plus!

We had such a nice drive through the auto tour that we decided not to let the heat keep us away from our favorite places from here on out.

I usually don't take photos of Turkey Vultures because they kind of creep me out, but we spotted this juvenile and he was actually kind of cool looking!

So, the moral of the story is to not let the blazing, unrelenting sun keep you from doing the things you love!

P.S. There were A TON of wildflowers blooming all over the refuge, too! I'll be posting more picks of the colorful flowers we saw in Colusa over on my travel blog Vaughn the Road Again...

Let's go birding!