2025 Birdathon Friends & Family Fundraising

Yesterday I headed up to Sebastopol for 8 hours of bluegrass/folk music. I decided to make a mini vacation out of that and spent the night in Petaluma. The next morning I headed over to Shollenberger Park.

Winter is a great time to see migratory shore birds, and I wasn't disappointed: saw American avocets and black-necked stilts. See photos. They both have impossibly long, skinny legs.

The good thing about this place is that there are trees along one of the trails, so you also get to see birds that like trees. The surprise of the day was a common yellowthroat. So handsome!

I finally have taken photos in my neighborhood, and more importantly, in the Bay Area! It was such a lovely day, so I had to take advantage! There were so many highlights, including the Black Scoter that love to come to the marina the last few winters. It was so fun to take a moment to watch them interact, dive, and call their melancholy tones.

eBird Checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S217128008

Flickr Album: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjC2H55

Yesterday (3/6/25) was my first official outing for Birdathon 25. I chose Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary as it is one of my favorite spots for birding. Total count for the 2 hour visit was 31 species. The most unexpected bird for the day was the Black Skimmer - a total of nine were perched on the mudflat. Always wonderful to see the Black Bellied Plover in breeding plumage.

I'm happy to share my first update! My goal for the Spring Birdathon is to photograph 100 species in the East Bay this spring. It's going to be really helpful if I can find some of the winter birds before they head out. I had a quick, bad-light visit to Point Isabel Regional Shoreline where managed photos of 19 species, mostly shorebirds and waterfowl! Great start to the Challenge! It's fun to start my challenge, here, since when I first moved to the Bay Area more than 25 years ago, this was my favorite local birding spot. Although I was hoping for a burrowing owl (they haven't been seen for a few weeks there apparently), I did have a treat of a gorgeous Eurasian Wigeon at the mouth of the channel.

eBird List: https://ebird.org/checklist/S216065920

Ok, So I'm out of the gate with a big day!

March 1 and I visited 3 locations. EBRPD MLK r\Regional Shoreline/Arrowhead Marsh, EBRPD Garin/Dry Creek Pioneer Regional Park and EBRPD Coyote Hills Regional Park. Thank you East Bay Regional Parks!!! What a fantastic resource we have here!

Species seen today:

1. Canada Goose 2. Blue-winged Teal 3. Cinnamon Teal 4. Northern Shoveler 5. American Wigeon 6. Mallard 7. Gadwall 8. Ruddy Duck 9. Lesser Scaup 10. Bufflehead 11. Common Goldeneye 12. Ridgeway's Rail 13. American Coot 14. Common Gallinule 15. Am. Avocet 16. Black-necked Stilt 17. Marbled Godwit 18. Willet 19. Dunlin 20. W. Sandpiper 21. W. Gull 22. CA Gull 23. Forster's Tern 24. Eared Grebe 25. Pied-billed Grebe 26. Western Grebe 27. Snowy Egret 28. Great Egret 29. Great-blue Heron 30. Turkey Vulture 31. Northern Harrier 32. Red-tailed Hawk 33. Red-shouldered Hawk 34. White-Tailed Kite 35. AM. Kestrel 36. Common Raven 37. AM Crow 38. White-crowned Sparrow 39. Golden-crowned Sparrow 40. Savannah Sparrow 41. Song Sparrow 42. CA Towhee 43. Spotted Towhee 44. W. Meadowlark 45. Brewer's Blackbird 46. Red-winged Blackbird 47. Black Phoebe 48. Say's Phoebe 49. CA Scrub Jay 50. Acorn Woodpecker 51. Nuttall's Woodpecker 52. N. Flicker 53. Oak Titmouse 54. Tree Swallow 55. Barn Swallow 56. Bushtit 57. Ruby-crowned Kinglet 58. Bewick's Wren 59. Marsh Wren 60. European Starling 61. Yellow-rumped Warbler 62. House Finch 63. Lesser Goldfinch 64. Dark-eyed Junco 65. W. Bluebird 66. AM Robin 67. CA Quail 68. Wild Turkey 69. Band-tailed Pigeon 70. Eurasian Collard-Dove 71. Mourning Dove

I'm excited to share that between a walk at Arrowhead Marsh on Feb. 20th and a walk today, Feb. 27th at Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary, I've spotted 30 species of birds. The highlights were Ridgeway Rails at Arrowhead and a DOZEN Black Skimmers at Elsie Roemer! Follow along as I try to find 100 species of birds. Here are my checklists from these two walks:

https://ebird.org/checklist/S214558481

https://ebird.org/checklist/S215712291

Thanks for your support!

Sharol

I've seen 97 species since Birdathon started on February 10th. The vast majority of those I saw at Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary District in Marin with my friend Sharon. I've been birding for almost 20 years, and I had never seen a Least Bittern before! We got great looks as it fished in the reeds.

Last weekend my boyfriend and I went to Point Reyes National Seashore to see the breeding elephant seals. I understand this was actually a record breeding year for them. On the way back we stopped for late lunch in Point Reyes Station. I was looking at a bare tree with about 10 robins in it, trying to find the Cedar Waxwing that I could hear. As I was looking an odd sapsucker flew into the tree. I knew right away it was one of our rare visitors. It ended up being a Yellow-bellied sapsucker! I often get to see rare birds that other people find, but I rarely find them myself. So it was super exciting!

Ring Billed Gull

American Coot

Killdeer

Thank you all for donating to my Birdathon fundraiser! I spent the weekend taking some photos and have had a great time! I've attached my checklists where I've posted my photos. I also have an album on Flickr! Here's a picture of a kestrel that looked so cute on this wire!

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjC2H55

https://ebird.org/checklist/S213609777

https://ebird.org/checklist/S213910510