My name is Pica. I live in Davis, California and I have another blog, Feathers of Hope, which I keep with my partner Numenius, and which isn't primarily about sketching birds. My ABA list stands at 697 700, which seems a fine time to start sketching birds instead of spending a fortune on a camera and lenses to start photographing them all... The first post from August 2007, detailing all this, can be found here. I am currently participating for the third year in the Big Green Big Year; a list of birds seen on foot from our house in 2010 can be found below. (We did 2008 by bike; I ended up with 173 species. 2009 on foot only yielded 86, will try to do better this year. We already saw a moorhen by mid-January which was a bird we missed last year.)
Contact me: pica at magpienest dot org
Greater White-fronted Goose
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
Bufflehead
Common Merganser
Wild Turkey
California Quail
Pied-billed Grebe
American White Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-heron
Turkey Vulture
White-tailed Kite
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Common Moorhen
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
Killdeer
California Gull
Herring Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Eurasian Collared Dove
Barn Owl
Great-horned Owl
White-throated Swift
Anna's Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Nuttall's Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Black Phoebe
Say's Phoebe
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Western Kingbird
Warbling Vireo
Western Scrub-jay
Yellow-billed Magpie
American Crow
Bushtit
White-breasted Nuthatch
Bewick's Wren
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Western Bluebird
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
American Pipit
Cedar Waxwing
Orange-crowned Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's)
Wilson's Warbler
Western Tanager
Spotted Towhee
California Towhee
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Brewer's Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Bullock's Oriole
House Finch
Lesser Goldfinch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow
We went out this morning as a group of 9 hoping for shorebirds. We weren’t disappointed. We saw a marbled godwit in among some long-billed curlews not too far from home. This gorgeous blue grosbeak stole the show, however.
Previous: A Big Sketching Day Next: Red-tailed Hawk
I hadn’t seen any blue grosbeaks at our house this year. Will have to enjoy yours instead.