Natural History Wanderings

Today we did our annual Great Backyard Bird Count with friends. We observed our yard for a few hours than walked around the neighborhood in North Berkeley. We had at least 23 different birds. We were unable to ID the woodpecker as we only heard it and the gulls were all flying to high to ID.  The highlight was a Red-breasted Nuthatch, which spent most of the day in yard. (Normally they are only an occasional and relatively brief visitor. Here is our list

gull sp.  3
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)  3
Mourning Dove  2
Anna’s Hummingbird  4
woodpecker sp.  1     heard drumming but not seen
California Scrub-Jay  1
American Crow  9
Common Raven  1
Chestnut-backed Chickadee  2
Oak Titmouse  1
Bushtit  10
Red-breasted Nuthatch  1
American Robin  1
Cedar Waxwing  31
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1
Fox Sparrow  1
Dark-eyed Junco  3
White-crowned Sparrow  4
Golden-crowned Sparrow  2
California Towhee  4
House Finch  1
Lesser Goldfinch  5
House Sparrows 5