Saturday, May 16, 2009

Woodpeckers, Herons and Egrets, Oh My!



Today a friend and I went over to the Bothe-Napa Valley State Park for a hike. It was a little cooler than Sacramento, at least, and we got to look at vineyards along the way. But the coolest thing was that we saw a pileated woodpecker! I was pretty excited, let me tell you. I had only seen one once before, down in Alabama.

On the way over, we had driven back into the farmlands behind Davis to check on a rookery we've been observing for the past 3 or 4 years. There are tons of black-crowned night herons, snowy egrets, and cattle egrets nesting there now. No babies yet -- probably by mid-June they will have hatched.





3 comments:

  1. Wow! There is also a rookery along the American River near Nimbus Dam. The only pileated woodpecker I've seen was in Florida.

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  2. Beautiful photos! The woodpecker is especially gorgeous. What is the bird in the third photo? I like that one.

    p.s. Don't stop blogging! You should keep it going.

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  3. That's a black-crowned night heron. Their babies are very large but look completely different, brown striped instead of black and white.

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