Black Diamond

.Although I would have added more birds to my year list by spending most of Saturday at Mitchell Canyon, I left the park in the late morning to drive over to Black Diamond Mine Regional Park. This isn't the most productive birding site in the East Bay but I think it's one of the most beautiful. Also, it doesn't attract as many visitors - and particularly bike riders - as other parks in the area.

After entering the park and driving a mile to the parking lot, I made the short walk up to the main (but small!) picnic area. On the way I spotted more California and Spotted Towhees and Lesser Goldfinches.

On this visit I didn't walk up to the pretty little cemetery, where (mainly Welsh) miners and their families are buried.

Instead, I stayed in the picnic area, which was busy with resident birds, including a House Wren and a couple of Western Bluebirds.

I sat down at a table to have a midday snack and was immediately joined by a very friendly White-breasted Nuthatch.

One of the reasons that I love this park is that the picnic area has a water fountain whose overflow gathers into a small stone basin. Since there isn't any other water in the area, the basin attracts lots of birds. Even better, the basin is right next to the path and so the birds are used to people, making it easy to sit and observe them from just a few yards away.

In the half-hour I sat or stood near the fountain, it was visited by a whole succession of birds: White-breasted Nuthatch, Lesser Goldfinches, House Finches, Dark-eyed Juncoes, Oak Titmice and even an Anna's Hummingbird.

Although Black Diamond isn't known as a birding hotspot and doesn't attract many unusual species, I hope you can see why I like it so much!

P.S.
On my way out, I stopped near the entrance kiosk to look for Phainopepla. I didn't see any but I did add two more species to my year list: Violet-green Swallow and Bullock's Oriole.
.     

California 2: Oakland

.Last Sunday we drove over to Arrowhead Marsh in Oakland, which is one of the best winter birding sites in California. Unfortunately, it was a little early in the year and so we saw a comparatively small range of birds.

The most common water birds there were Western Grebes.

I didn't spot any Clark's or Eared Grebes but there were a few Horned Grebes.

As everywhere we went on our trip, there were Ring-billed and California Gulls aplenty.

An American Pipit was busily beating a large bug to death on a picnic table.

Apart from some Golden-crowned Sparrows, the best bird we saw was a Burrowing Owl. If we had seen no other birds, getting good views of a Burrowing Owl would have made the trip worthwhile!

After Arrowhead, we went over to Lake Merritt, which is also in Oakland. Again it was rather early in the year for this site but we still saw some good birds. The lake had lots of Double-crested Cormorants as well as a colony of Great and Snowy Egrets.

Some young Black-crowned Night Herons allowed us to walk up within a few feet of them.

In nearby trees we watched American Robins enjoying some berries.

A Cedar Waxwing looked stunning as it paid a quick visit to the same trees.

Another tree had a Townsend's Warbler. 

Our final views were of a bunch of Dark-eyed Juncos grazing in the grass.

.

Phoenix Zoo

On the way from the Botanical Gradens to the airport, we stopped in at Papago Park to check out the large pond at the entrance to Phoenix Zoo. There were a lot fewer water birds than I had hoped, but we still spent a pleasant hour lazing by the water.

One of the nice things about the site was that the birds were very used to people and so many of them came right up to where we were. This enabled me to get some close photos of Ring-necked Ducks ...

and this Northern Shoveler.

Non-water birds were scarce - after all, it was now early afternoon. However, I spotted a Common Yellowthroat, a Gila Woodpecker, a couple of Cactus Wrens and, of course, many Great-tailed Grackles and House Sparrows.

This Black Phoebe, catching flies from a nearby branch, was our goodbye bird.

So that was our winter trip west. It provided some good birding, even though I missed some birds I'd really hoped to see, such as Burrowing Owls in Oakland and Phainopepla in Phoenix. As well as the Long-eared Owl lifer, the trip added 38 birds to my year list, taking the latter to 129 species.

California: American Wigeon, Northern Shoveler, Greater Scaup, Surf Scoter, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye, Ruddy Duck, Horned Grebe, Western Grebe, Clark’s Grebe, Black-necked Stilt, American Avocet, Willet, Least Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowitcher, Western Gull, Herring Gull, Western Meadowlark, Brown Pelican, Golden-crowned Sparrow

Arizona: Canada Goose, Common Merganser, Ring-necked Duck, Black-crowned Night Heron, Gambel’s Quail, Greater Roadrunner, Anna’s Hummingbird, Belted Kingfisher, Black Phoebe, Verdin, Cactus Wren, Curve-billed Thrasher, Abert’s Towhee, Black-throated Sparrow, Gila Woodpecker, Rock Wren, Lesser Goldfinch, Common Yellowthroat

San Francisco Bay Area

.

We started last Sunday with a mid-morning visit to Arrowhead Marsh, near Oakland Airport.

.

Surprisingly, there were very few non-water birds around. In fact, the only ones we saw were White-crowned Sparrows, a Northern Flicker, a Western Meadowlark and a Turkey Vulture.

It was a different story near the water though. The edges of the bay had Great and Snowy Egrets, Black-necked Stilts and American Avocets, as well as Ring-billed, Western and Herring Gulls.

American Avocet

The shallows had flocks of Long-billed Dowitchers, together with a few Least Sandpipers, Willets, Lesser Yellowlegs and Marbled Godwits.

Long-billed Dowitchers

Marbled Godwit

This ground squirrel clearly wanted to join in all the fun going on in the water.

Further out there were Double-crested Cormorants, American Coots, American Wigeon, Northern Shovelers, Northern Pintails, Ruddy Ducks and three types of Grebe: Clark's, Western and Horned.

Ruddy Duck

It was good to see the rather clownish-looking Surf Scoters again.

Greater Scaups and Common Goldeneyes were abundant, as were Buffleheads.

Female Common Goldeneye

Male Bufflehead

Female Greater Scaup

Male Greater Scaup

We headed over to Cliff House, where we added Golden-crowned Sparrow, Brewer's Blackbird and Brown Pelican to our day list.

The old Sutro Baths at Cliff House

Golden-crowned Sparrow

Brewer's Blackbird

We had an excellent lunch at the Beach Chalet in Golden Gate Park, where we saw our last birds of the day, House Sparrows.

Male House Sparrow

Note: I had to work in downtown SF the following day but a coffee break in Yerba Buena Gardens turned up Mourning Doves, European Starlings, American Robin and Orange-crowned Warbler.