Greetings from the Central Valley of California where it’s cold and rainy (for now). Highlights from birding yesterday include the Falcated Duck, a Eurasian form of Green-winged Teal, 8 Eurasian Wigeons, Golden Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, Prairie Falcon, Merlin, 3 Ferruginous Hawks (2 light phase & 1 beautiful dark phase), Yellow-billed Magpie. For this Ohio birder it was also pretty exciting to see some western regulars like Anna’s Hummingbird, Spotted & California Towhee, Western Scrub-Jay, Lesser Goldfinch, California Gull, Nuttall’s Woodpecker, Golden-crowned Sparrow, and Cinnamon Teal.

So much for a rainy cold day in California! 🙂

Falcated Duck – digiscoped with Swarovski 80mm  photo: Bruce Webb

Falcated Duc  photo: Mike Peters