Bonaparte's Gull - Larus philadelphia

Bonaparte's Gulls have been foraging at the Las Gallinas ponds for several weeks. On November 16th we saw 3 first winter birds picking items form the surface of pond #3, flying and feeding much like a tern. The young birds are rather attractive, with some brown feathers that form a distinctive wing stripe or "bar" in flight. Other features shown in these distant cropped shots are white eye arcs, a black smudge behind the eye, a slender black bill and a wide sub-terminal black band on the tail. Sibley notes that Bonaparte's typically does not mix with other gull species.

Bonaparte's is one of 5 tern-like "Masked Gulls", but the only one seen here. The most similar gulls you might rarely see here are Laughing Gull and Franklin's Gull, both described as "Hooded Gulls". Detailed accounts of these birds can be found in Howell & Dunn's Gulls of the Americas.

A few years back we had some spectacular views of many Bonaparte's Gulls foraging in the crashing surf at Drake's Beach (PRNS), in the company of many Red-necked Phalaropes. It was a most unusual and exciting feeding frenzy. Note the dark carpal bar and black tail band, again marking them as First Winter birds.

Phainopepla - Phainopepla nitens

Lake Solano Park is one one of the best spots in the Bay Area to find the splendid Phainopepla, a bird that has no common name other than that of the genus. "Phainopepla" is said to mean "shining cloak", for the green iridescence of the adult male, as this in this shot from a prevous visit:

Here's the male on a high perch, scanning for insect:

The female Phainopeple shares the red iris and long crest, but is cloaked in muted gray:

Taxonomy: Phainopepla is one of only 4 species in the family "Silky-Flycatchers" (Ptilogonatidae) and the only species in the genus Phainopepla. There is no accepted common name, but "Southwest Silky" would have been nice, as it is seen mainly in California, Arizona and a bit of New Mexico, as well as in Mexico. The other 3 Silk-flycatchers are the Gray Silky (highlands of Mexico), the Black-and-yellow Silky-flycatcher (Costa Rica mountains), and the Long-tailed Silky-flycatcher (mts. of Costa Rica and Panama). And that's the whole family!

Phainopleplas eat berries (especially Mistletoe), and insects caught in mid-air. They breed in spring in the dessert, but summer in the oak woodlands in our valleys. It's uncertain whether this represents 2 different populations, or whether the same population might breed twice in one year, first in the desert and then again further north when food supplies are exhausted in the deserts and the birds move north. Or perhaps the "failed breeders" from the desert get a second change when they move north. Good discussion by Chu and Walsberg in Birds of North America #415."

And from the Wiki Account:

DIET: 

Berries, any small insects, fruits, vegetables. Phainopepla have a specialized mechanism in their gizzard that shucks berry skins off the fruit and packs the skins separately from the rest of the fruit into the intestines for more efficient digestion. So far this is the only known bird able to do this. They appear to relish the fruit of Phoradendron californicum, the desert mistletoe.

SONG:

Phainopeplas have been found to imitate the calls of twelve other species, such as the red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) and the northern flicker (Colaptes auratus).

Lewis's Woodpecker - Melanerpes lewis

At Lake Solano Park, near the end of Pleasants Valley Road, 10-15 Lewis's Woodpeckers were busy sallying out from the tops of the trees to catch flying insects. Others carrying acorns, some so large the bird would lose it in flight.

Birds at the tops of trees are a challenge for the photographer, and the Lewis's rarely stayed for any length of time before launching for another insect:

The above photo shows the adult Lewis's WP, with red face, gray chest and collar, rose belly and green back. Note the bill, shape, which is rather broad at the gape to facilitate capture of flying prey. The bill is less sturdy than that of many woodpeckers, so Lewis's has to find a dead tree to excavate a nest hole, often choosing a burned Ponderosa Pine forest in the foothills, or further north.

Turns out that Lewis's Woodpeckers cache food much like their Acorn Woodpecker cousins, using a tree as a granary to sustain them when other food sources are diminished during the winter. Rather than using carefully constructed holes to hold each morsel, the Lewis's will break the acorns and stash the mast in nooks and crannies of tree bark, or in a cavity. The cache is aggressively defended, as there is a lot of poaching by Acorns Woodpeckers, and vice versa.

We saw a number of Lewis's there that were darker and more monochromatic, indicating a juvenile bird, and some like in the second photo that were just replacing their juvenal plumage with adult type feathers, with red in the face, green sheen on the back and rose underparts. No problem confusing this species with any other woodpecker, for sure.

Lewis's Woodpecker is an bird of western U.S., with a breeding range that includes southern Canada and a wintering range that includes Baja California. Their numbers have declined, and they are rarely seen in large numbers at any location. Some of them don't migrate at all, or form small flocks to search for productive foraging areas. Such nomadic behavior makes finding them unpredictable, kind of like looking for a roving flock of Pinyon Jays. In some years Lake Solano park becomes a destination for the winter, as there is a good supply of acorns, flying insects, and one of their favorite berries, that of the Oak Mistletoe. Which brings us to another great reason to visit Lake Solano Park, as the mistletoe attracts a small population of Phainopepla each year. Other goodies there includes a good selection of river ducks and dabblers, along with Wood Ducks. Best go on a weekday if possible, as it is a popular area for picnics, fishing, etc.

Here's an older shot of an adult Lewis's Woodpecker, from a trip to the Central Valley:

Merlin - Falco columbarius

On today's "First Thursday" walk at Las Gallinas (San Rafael, CA) we ventured out to find the Tropical Kingbird, which has been flycatching from the snags at the end of the open field, just before the path swings left to go north. No Kingbird today, as the same snag was adopted by a Merlin,Falco columbarius. If I were that Kingbird I wouldn't be returning any time soon, as the Merlin is a fearsome predator of birds.

Note the streaks on the chest, and the very weak mustachial stripe.

The shot above shows the white superciliary line better.

Merlins are fast powerful predators. At about 12" they are a bit larger than the American Kestrel, but as we read in Hawks in Flight (Dunne, Sibley, Sutton): "A Merlin is to a Kestrel as a Harley Davidson  motorcycle is to a scooter."

Western Scrub Jay - Aphelacoma californica

A recent Marin Audubon outing at Bodega Bay with Peter Colasanti produced a good variety of birds, including Western Scrub-Jays along the west side. At Owl Canyon a cluster of sparrows were feeding actively at the base of a tree near the road and this Western Scrub Jay came in to check out what had attracted them. Scrub-Jays eat a variety of foods, including acorns and pine nuts, and just about anything else. It puts some people off because the "anything else" can include eggs and nestlings of smaller songbirds. Nevertheless, everyone's gotta make a living, so we might as well admire the Scrub-Jay for its adaptability and cleverness, not to mention its rather striking blue plumage. The black bandit's mask is perhaps a fitting field mark. The bill is more robust than the interior race.

Check out the long tail, and the aggressive "attitude".

Another shot after it hopped up to the tree nearby:

Western Scrub Jays were once part of a larger complex complex, which was split to elevate the Island Scrub Jay (Santa Cruz Is.) and the Florida Scrub-Jay to full species status. Currently under consideration are further splits within the genus Aphelocoma, with the Western Scrub Jay split into 3 separate species. The shy interior (inland) race, A. c. woodhouseii, would become Woodhouse's Jay, and a race in southern Mexico, A. c. sumicrasti, would be known as Sumichrast's Jay.

For dedicated taxonomy fans, check out:

Genus Aphelocoma

Western Scrub Jay complex