Natural History Wanderings

Today we went back to Arcata Marsh. We had planned to go to the Humboldt Wildlife Refuge for an Audubon walk but remembered last night that it would be closed due to the government shutdown. Arcata Marsh was so successful yesterday we decided to go back and try some new areas as well some we were at yesterday.

The first thing we did was run into a local birder who was very excited about a sighting of a Painted Bunting. It was only the fourth recorded sighting of this bird here. We found a group of birders who had seen the Painted Bunting about five minutes before we got there and it did not reappear.

Yesterday our group had looked for a Bobolink that has been seen earlier in the day without success.

Today we identified 44 birds, which seem impressive as there were just two of us and no local experts. A highlight was watching the flyout  of hundreds or even thousands (I’m terrible at estimating) Marbled Godwits as the tide went down. They were a brilliant orange in the reflected light of the sun that had only recently broke through the fog. The bird of the day was a Green Heron.  We again saw an Eurasian Wigeon and Blue-winged Teal. To see today’s bird list go to: Arcata Marsh Bird list 10/13/13.

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