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
The female bluebird has been investigating multiple nest possibilities, including the interiors of three cars at work. She perches on the side rear window and hovers by it, looking inside apparently at the heating vent. Today she hovered just outside my office window, twice. I tried to catch the pose but you have to be quick!
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We’ve had bluebirds come to the heated bird bath, but haven’t noticed if they’re checking out our nest boxes or not.