Birding Diversity ~ Northern California Birdwatching

Male House Sparrow

I love the variety of birds you can find at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge!

Male Ring-necked Duck

Male Ring-necked Pheasant

Red-tailed Hawk

Let's go birding!

Shots of the Day ~ Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge ~ Bird Photography

Hubby took this amazing shot of a Western Meadowlark singing at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, but I swear I took the rest of the photos!

Female House Sparrow

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

As always, you can find more of my (our!) bird photography on social media!

Too HOT To Handle

Greetings from sweltering, sunny California!

Guess what. It's been much too hot to go birding :(

Hanging out of your car window in the triple digit heat, looking for birds to take photos of on the refuge auto tour, isn't as fun as it sounds. So, here are some of my backyard birds to tide you over until the outdoors become bearable again.

Anna's Hummingbird

Savannah Sparrow

Western Scrub-Jay

Eurasian Collared Dove

American Goldfinch (at the wrong feeder!)

House Sparrow

Here's hoping that summer doesn't hang on until Halloween like last year!!!
~RV

Shifting Seasons

Colusa National Wildlife Refuge

It's hot and dry in the North State (100+ degrees) and that's no exaggeration! Fortunately, there are a few permanent ponds at our local refuges to provide wildlife, well, refuge.

 This juvenile Pied-billed Grebe was all by his (or her!) lonesome...

 Boy, they sure grow up fast!

You're almost guaranteed to see at least one Black-crowned Night Heron, peeking out from their year-round habitat along the water...

And you might remember the Cliff Swallow nest-building frenzy I talked about in May (read the post here). Well, the nests are still underneath the bridge on the auto tour, but that's not a swallow inside one of them!

Maybe this male House Sparrow is thinking about moving in. He'll have to redecorate a bit, and move in some furniture suitable for a bachelor pad, but it just might work. 

Tomorrow and the next day, I'll be posting more egret photos than you can handle. (Or maybe you will. I'm sure there are other birders out there who like them as much as I do!)

Oasis in the Valley Part 3

Colusa National Wildlife Refuge

Auto Tour

Oasis in the Valley Part 2

More pics from the auto tour at the Colusa National Wildlife Refuge...

Winter Residents

Here are some of the smaller birds we saw during our last visit to the Sacramento NWR...

This little golden-crowned sparrow was foraging around on the ground, right next to the visitor center...

 Saw several flocks of finches on the auto tour...