Birding at Caswell State Park

It's Easter (or Spring) break now, and typically that means I use the week to catch up on work and projects at home that need to be done.  Today my brother and I took a break from work to spend a few hours at Caswell State Park, located in the central valley of California.  This beautiful forest is lush and green and runs along the Stanislaus River.  It's what is known as a riparian woodland, which just means it's the lush green woods typically found around a body of water, like the Stanislaus River.

Here's a copy of their brochure, for more information:
http://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/557/files/CaswellMemorialbrochure.pdf

We saw some amazing birds today. Unfortunately I was unable to get good pictures of the birds with my personal camera.  I will list the birds I saw and suggest that you look up the birds on the Audubon website: www.audubon.org

Here's the list:
Spotted Towhee
White-Crowned Sparrow
Bank Swallow
Wood Duck
Great Blue Heron - white morph
Belted Kingfisher
Swainson's Hawk
Turkey Vulture
Yellow-Rumped Warbler
White Breasted Nuthatch
Black Phoebe
Nuttall's Woodpecker
American Crow
Western Bluebird
Western Scrub Jay
Marsh Wren

I was definitely most excited about the Heron and the Kingfisher.  They were very hard to spot and very shy.  Almost as soon as we found them, they would take off and hide again.  The hawk was amazing, too.  It was quite close and screamed several times.  I hope you look up pictures of these birds, and perhaps next time I will have pictures of my own to show you!

Fun Front Yard Birds!

My family and I were coming home from breakfast one morning when I noticed a handful of birds with unusual profiles (unusual to me).  I could see a slight crest to the feathers on the back of their head, and I got kind of excited, so I ran inside, quietly so as not to scare these birds away, and grabbed my binoculars, camera, and bird book.  I suspected they might be waxwings, though I had no real idea why I thought so.  I'd seen pictures of the waxwings in my bird book while looking for other birds, but I had never studied the pictures or read any of the information about them.  Turns out I was right!  A small flock of Cedar Waxwings called the tree in my front yard home for about two weeks.  They were there everyday.  I sat out on my front porch for almost an hour studying these birds, watching their behavior, practicing taking close-up pictures with my sad little point and shoot camera.  It was a great time.  Scroll down for pictures of these pretty little birds.  Here's a link to their information on the Audubon website:
http://birds.audubon.org/birds/cedar-waxwing
(I have no affiliation with the Audubon Society, other than finding their information most helpful)

Notice the crest behind the head

Yellow tip on tail feathers

There is a small red spot on the wings, this is not always visible

Getting into Birding

I grew up with a love of birds, instilled in me by my paternal grandmother.  I spent a lot of time with her as a little girl, and everywhere we went, she would point out different species of bird and ask me what they were. I loved it!  It even went so far, in my funny little girl's mind, that I thought I could tell the difference between birds of the same species I saw around my house, and I would name them and talk to them when I played outside.  When my grandmother passed away, I was 9 years old.  I inherited her field binoculars and bird book, the same binoculars and book we used when we went anywhere to look at birds.  Now, I'm 24, and my parents bought me a very nice pair of binoculars for Christmas. So, what did I do?  I took up bird-watching, or birding, of course! I'm still very much a beginner, but I'm loving everything about delving into the world of birds.  It's not just about what birds you see, identifying said birds.  It's about the time spent to find an elusive bird, even if it turns out to be a common sparrow.  It's about watching the bird's behavior, taking your time, understanding what they're doing.

The best resources I've found for anyone interested in bird watching are the Sibley Guides (written by David Allen Sibley) and the Audubon Society.  I own several guidebooks, field guides, and other literature on birding from both of these sources.  There is also a Sibley phone app that I am looking into purchasing, which (in addition to having field notes on the birds) has sound recordings of bird calls and songs.

I've been on a few bird watching excursions since receiving my new binoculars, and have since listed the species of birds I was able to identify.  My list now stands at 22 different species, and I know that I will add to that every day.  I will post pictures that I took on these excursions soon.  In the meantime, here are generic pictures of some of my favorite birds:

Nuttall's Woodpecker

Western Bluebirds - male/female

American Goldfinch - female

Black Phoebe

Downy Woodpecker - female

House finches - male/female

Pileated Woodpecker

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Spotted Towhee (I've also seen it called Rufous-sided)