THE F DUCK WISHES YOU A HAPPY NEW YEAR

07:45 a.m. CHICO, CALIFORNIA


We find the house on Stanley Lane, Chico, where a Blue Jay has been visiting the feeders.

CAVEAT: lots of laymen i.e. non-birders see jays that are blue in color, and call them Blue Jays. They are all wrong. Blue Jay, Cyanocitta cristata resides in the eastern half of North America. Some winters—and it’s pretty darn rare—one or two Blue Jays from Idaho or thereabouts show up in Northern California. The “normal” jays in California—also blue in color—are Steller’s Jay, Cyanocitta stelleri, Pinyon Jay, and Western Scrub Jay Aphelocoma californica. Non-birders get really mad at them, when I try to explain this to them.

So, the point is that it’s been 5 years since the last Blue Jay was seen in the state, and—darn—this one is an hour north of the F Duck. So we spent New Year’s Eve in a Motel 6 in Chico, with a bottle of champagne.

PHOTO CREDIT: MIKÓ TAMÁS (TOM MIKO)

Canon EOS Digital Rebel T2 with 70-300 mm lens

Well, that was problematic. In our room I took the foil of the bottle neck, and discovered that Asti Moscato is not a sparkling wine, and that the bottle did not have the usual plastic champagne cork that you pull out with your bare hand. It had a real cork shoved in, that needed a corkscrew. That’s embarrassing: I bought a bottle of the same stuff for a co-worker, and told her to drink it with his wife at New Years.

No problem, let me get my German Bundeswehr army knife. Uh, oh. It doesn’t have a corkscrew. Apparently, the Germans don’t want their soldiers drinking while shooting guns. Oh, wait! I have my Swiss fireman’s rescue knife! Uh, oh. It doesn’t have a corkscrew. Apparently, the Swiss don’t want their firemen drinking while rescuing car crash victims.

At 10:30 p.m. we gave up on getting that stupid cork out (or in), and went to bed, and fell asleep before midnight. Wow, that was one wild New Year’s party.

PHOTO CREDIT:  MIKÓ TAMÁS (TOM MIKO)

So now it’s 8 in the morning, and we’re in some stranger’s back yard, waiting for a bird who should be on a Toronto baseball team’s hat. While we’re waiting for the bird to show up, we are admiring the local Yellow-billed Magpies—who only occur in California—nowhere else in the world. There are quite of number of Scrub Jays in the yard, taking peanuts from the bird feeder, and I notice that one of the Scrub Jays is vigorously chasing another jay. My instincts are right: the Scrub Jay is harassing the Blue Jay. The Blue Jay lands at the feeder, and perches in a perfect circle of golden morning sunlight. I push the button on my camera, and get the world’s blurriest photograph. That’s the second time that happened to me! We saw the last Blue Jay in California 5 years ago, when my son was a baby, and right when I pushed the button to take a picture, he grabbed the lens, and I missed the shot. I have a Blue Jay photo curse. So now we have to wait half an hour, until he shows up again, for another peanut.

10:00 a.m. Esquon Road

PHOTO CREDIT: CHUCK CARPENTER

The other birders at Stanley Lane told us to drive out here for Trumpeter Swans. They didn’t tell us about the thousands of Tundra Swans. There are tens of thousands of Greater White-fronted Geese, and the Bald Eagle wasn’t too shabby.

Sandhill Cranes, Grus canadensis

 PHOTO CREDIT: MIKÓ TAMÁS (TOM MIKO)

Canon EOS Digital Rebel T2 with 70-300 mm lens

American Pipits, White-crowned and Golden-crowned Sparrows are all over the place, along with a few California Gulls, Greater Yellowlegs, Killdeers, and some Long-billed Curlews. After hours and hours of staring at thousands of swans, we head south for Colusa National Wildlife Refuge.

Large swan at the rear: Trumpeter Swan, Cygnus buccinator

Smaller swan in front of it: Tundra Swan, Cygnus columbianus

I NEED COMMENTS ON THE BIG SWAN BEHIND THE LITTLE ONE PLEASE USE THE COMMENTS FUNCTION,  AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE

PHOTO CREDITS: MIKÓ TAMÁS (TOM MIKO)

Digiscoped photos taken with Nikon 100 pocket camera through Brunton Spotting Scope

THIS ONE, TOO, PLEASE

Tundra Swans, Cygnus columbianus
PHOTO CREDIT: MIKÓ TAMÁS (TOM MIKO)
Canon EOS Digital Rebel T2 with 70-300 mm lens

1:45 p.m. COLUSA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE.

PHOTO CREDIT: TOM MIKO

PHOTO CREDIT: TOM MIKO

Canon EOS Digital Rebel T2 with 70-300 mm lens

 

PHOTO CREDIT: TOM MIKO

Canon EOS Digital Rebel T2 with 70-300 mm lens



I walk up to the crowd—and I do mean crowd—of birders who are photographing the F Duck, who has decided to pose for us. Awesome. After searching in vain among the Buffleheads, Pintails, Cackling Geese, Snow and Ross’ Geese, Coots, White-faced Ibis, and American Wigeons for one of the reported eight Eurasian Wigeons, we never found a single one. Wow, that takes talent,

3:30 p.m. IN N’ OUT BURGERS, STOCKTON

Man, we are HUUUUUNNNGGRY! We have been living off of dried figs, bananas, and roasted almonds, and it’s time for some real food. And some coffee. Look at that: Starbucks is across the street! Excellent

5:15 p.m. HIGHWAY 5, SOMEWHERE ON HIGHWAY 5

The sun is sinking fast. I can hardly see the keys on my keyboard, any more. We are flying south on the 5, doing 80 mph while playing a Led Zeppelin CD. We only have 250 more miles to go, and tons of stuff we haven’t talked about. No problem.