Lena Hayashi, Betty Kanne (eBirder), Dave and Sharon Telford, Jim Kendall, Nancy Kappelmann, Brenda Sabin, and Deborah Brin came out this morning.  We welcomed back Brenda Sabin and were delighted to have Deborah Brin join us for the first time. It was a beautiful sunny, calm, and clear day with temperatures ranging from the mid-60s to 70 degrees.

We saw 7 more species than last month. Returning today for the winter was one Hermit’s Thrush, heard and seen, and four Ruby-crowned Kinglets. The White-crowned Sparrows are singing everywhere, especially along Phil and Robin’s creek area. Make sure to look and listen to these beautiful sparrows throughout the winter. Their breasts are plain grayish-tan and the adults have black and white stripes on the head while the stripes on the immatures are brown and tan. The Yellow-rumped Warblers, our most plentiful winter warbler can be heard calling, “chwit,” throughout the forest, but be on the lookout for the Townsend’s Warbler, our other wintering warbler.  It can be found with the Yellow-rumps, Bushtits, and Swinhoe’s White-eye flocks. A new species to our three years of surveying the Urban Forest was spotted by Jim Kendall within the corral of trees at the top of the hill.  It was a beautiful Red-breasted Sapsucker daggetti, the expected subspecies for our area.

Below are the species and their numbers. Scroll through the checklist below to enjoy photos taken by the photographers. You can also click the name of the bird, printed in blue, to open a link to more information from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology including what sounds the bird makes and its status and distribution!