Lewis's Woodpecker - Melanerpes lewis

On our December trip to the Central Valley refuges we stopped by Lake Solano Park to see if the Lewis's Woodpeckers might still be there, and were not disappointed. We watched one particular bird at a granary tree. It would leave and find an acorn and bring it back to this snag. The broken top of the tree served as an anvil, on which the bird hammered to break open the acorn and extract the meat. These photos were taken over a 3-1/2 minute interval, during which time I also took a very poor quality video to try and show the activity.

Photo #1 shows the broad view of the top of the snag, with what looks like an acorn wedged in the hollow (smooth rounded bit that looks like a finger-tip). Note the green sheen of the back feathers, the impressive zygodactyl toes, and the use of the strong tail feathers to create a firm anchor to the tree. (Zygodactyl toe arrangement refers to the arrangement of the 4 toes of a bird in which the innermost toe has been rotated to point backwards, the 2 middle toes stay pointing forward, and the outermost toe backward, i.e. 2 toes forward and 2 backward, great for gripping tree bark. Seen in woodpeckers and other birds such as parrots.)

In photo #2 I think it is reaching for an acorn stashed earlier in a crevice. A shaky video was then attempted, which shows him extracting the acorn, placing it in the hollowed anvil portion of the snag, and then hammering at it to extract the mast: 

At this point I attempted a video: Lewis's Woodpecker video

Success! In Photo #3 the meat of the acorn has been extracted, after which the bird left to quickly cache the future meal in another portion of the dead tree and then back to open another acorn. The beautiful maroon color of the face is muted because of the overcast lighting.

The last, #4, shows how the the feet of the woodpecker fully released from the tree as it forcefully drove the bill downward, sort of "action and reaction" I guess.

I presume the Lewis's will remain in the Lake Solano Park area for another month or two, as those birds that elect to migrate will usually leave in late March/April, although most will not travel great distances. This year witnessed many more Lewis's Woodpecker sightings in Californnia's Bay Area than usual.

American Kestrel - Falco sparverius

Always fun to watch raptors in flight, but with my gear (scope + attached camera) it's hard to follow the action, much less attempt a photo. Hovering birds are an exception. As they look for mice below, like this female American Kestrel seen on a recent walk to Abbot's Lagoon, they sort of stay in one spot. Here I got off a few shots, and even with serious cropping they still show useful detail.

The female American Kestrel is easily distinguished from the male by the color of her tail and wings. The first shot shows the tail, fanned while hovering, with narrow bands of orange and black (the male has an orange tail with a black band near the tip).

 The wings of the female are seen better in the second shot, and show a similar orange and black barring like the tail colors.  

We can see the barring better when she is perched (the male has striking blue-gray wings), as in this shot from Las Gallinas some year back.

Another shot of the female Kestrel, also from Las Gallinas:

The male American Kestrel is equally striking. Took this one at County Park, Mono Lake, a while back. There are probably not many shots of a Kestrel on tufa!

The Kestrel is our smallest falcon, just a bit shorter than the fearsome Merlin, but much more slightly built. They Kestrel ranges widely across the U.S. and of course its range extends well south.

American Pipit - Anthus rubescens

Our walk at Abbott's Lagoon a few days back produced scores of American Pipits foraging on the sand near the lagoon's edge. As with many birds it works best if one just stands still in one spot and lets the bird approach, as moving towards it will cause it to flush. This one paused long enough for a photo, but usually they move along the sand in a constant search for prey items. I've noticed in the past that when the Pipit does pause for a bit it often stands near a plant or piece of debris on the sand.

Pipits usually forage in a loose group, looking mostly for insects, but will eat other fauna, and some seeds. Their busy foraging makes a good photo a challenge, as does the frequent bobbing of the tail. Note the streaked chest, warbler-like bill and pale throat. This one may be a juvenile bird, as the streaking on the breast is not heavy or well-defined. Here's another shot taken years ago along the coast. The streaking on the back and the pale legs suggest that it might be the asian subspecies:

The family Motacillidae consists of songbirds known as Wagtails and Pipits. The Wagtails tend to be more showy than the drab Pipits, but both pump their tails up and down much of the time, as seem in Spotted Sandpipers and others. Friends who travel a lot tell me that the pipits all look pretty much alike, which is to say it's difficult to identify the various taxa. This next shot is from one of my favorite local spots, the water treatment ponds of Las Gallinas, in San Rafael. Note how the bold streaking on the breast contrasts with the fainter streaking on the bird in the first photo:

There are some 65 species of Motacillids, distributed throughout the world. We have mainly the American Pipit, Anthus rubescens, while Sprague's Pipit is seen in the prairie states. The Red-throated Pipit appears here as a vagrant, as do at least 3 of the Wagtail species. The Water Pipit is a Eurasian species, closely related to the American Pipit, which was split from the Water Pipit not so long ago. So if you hear an old-timer call out "water pipit", you'll understand what is meant. We see the occasional Red-throated Pipit in the Bay Area, including spots such as the grassy areas of Crissey Field in S. F. and Arrowhead Marsh in Oakland. Key feature of the Red-throated is the bold streaking on the back and flanks. The red throat is a breeding plumage feature, but here you can see the suggestion of a red wash on the face: