Birding the Sacramento Bypass

Yesterday morning I got up early and drove over to the Sacramento Bypass Wildlife Area to do some birding.  It was a lovely, and fairly cool, morning with a beautiful light layer of valley fog nestled over the low, wet areas.  I spent a couple of hours simply roaming around following whatever seemed interesting.  My very first sighting was a Swainson’s Hawk sitting in a tree right above me and calling.  It took off and flew in front of me as it crossed the bypass to begin its day.  Just a little farther along was a Lark Sparrow foraging in the open grassy area.  These large and dramatically patterned sparrows are a favorite of mine, so a day that started with finding one was sure be delightful no matter what else I found.  As I walked past the tule wetland a group of 5 Wood Ducks (1 male and 4 females) lifted off giving their whistling call, and I saw a Great Blue Heron hunting along one edge.  I stopped for a little while and watched the heron catching crayfish, of which there were apparently many!  It was impressive to watch this bird swallow the crayfish alive, claws and all.  What stops the crayfish from damaging the birds esophagus and stomach?  Something must because the heron caught and ate four over the course of about ten minutes.  Successful morning!  Another cool predator/prey interaction was a Brewer’s Blackbird that had its bill stuffed with dragonflies it had caught.  It must have had at least five dragonflies in its bill stacked like a puffin lines up anchovies.  I am not even sure how a Brewer’s Blackbird, not the most aerially adept bird, goes about catching dragonflies!  I stopped between two large cottonwood trees at the edge of the north channel for a while and listened and watched.  A family of Spotted Towhees came by working their way through the bushes and calling to one another.  the group was comprised of an adult male, and adult female, and two hatch year birds.  The young birds were doing little other than following their parents movements and begging whenever one of the adults found something worth eating.  Cute family!  As  I walked back to the car, with the sun light slanting through the trees, I got to see and hear numerous Common Yellowthroats as I passed from territory to territory.  They can be so densely packed into and area, it is rather amazing.  So, it was a lovely morning, and I am especially glad to have gotten out birding since it has been quite a while for me.

Here is the full species list for the morning.

Great Egret, Great Blue Heron, Green Heron, White-faced Ibis, Mallard, Wood Duck, Turkey Vulture, Northern Harrier, White-tailed Kite, Swainson’s Hawk, Ring-necked Pheasant, Killdeer, Mourning Dove, Rock Pigeon, Anna’s Hummingbird, Belted Kingfisher, Downy Woodpecker, Black Phoebe, Western Kingbird, Western Scrub Jay, American Crow, Tree Swallow, Barn Swallow, Bushtit, House Wren, American Robin, Northern Mockingbird, European Starling, Common Yellowthroat, Spotted Towhee, California Towhee, Lark Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Red-winged Blackbird, Brewer’s Blackbird, and House Finch.