Today we had the morning to play around before meeting good friends Ann and John at Yolo Bypass NWR for a visit and birding. Since I’ll be spending most of Feb and March in California, I plan to see how many new CA life birds I can find in the state. Today Kay and I made some headway on that goal by birding some local eBird hotspots. First up was the Sacramento City Cemetery. We were both pleased when we got there to find a beautifully kept cemetery with large varied trees and bushes and sunshine. In a mile or so walk around the cemetery we found the targeted Pine siskins mixed with a flock of Lesser goldfinch, along with a nice variety of birds.
Next stop was the Port of Sacramento hotspot, where we found getting good views difficult, but did manage the hoped for Common merganser. The PRFA seen there recently was not located, and we set off for Bridgeway Island Pond. There we found the expected Blue-winged teal, and had a “nature moment” when a juvenile Red-tailed hawk came screaming in on a large tight flock of Rock Pigeons roosting on a sandy tip of the island in the middle of the small pond. The flock of pigeons minus one took off at the last second, and the RTHA sat on the sand with a pigeon thrashing about in its talons as it died.

We spent the afternoon at YOLO Bypass NWR on the auto route and saw most of the same birds as yesterday, plus 6 GWFG and a Downy woodpecker (CA lifer on eBird at least).
Tomorrow we set off for Fullerton and settle into our vacation home. CA Life list is now at 278.