Early Spring at Peace Valley

After several days of just barely getting my Bird RDA from home and around town, I headed over for an hour to Peace Valley to catch some early spring birding. Common Grackles have been moving through the area for a couple weeks, an early sign of spring. Fox Sparrows have been seen at the bird blind at the Peace Valley Nature Center for a couple weeks, but I'd missed them on a couple visits. Today there were four of them hopping around. Nice to see their rusty bodies and gray faces shuffling along under the feeders and bushes. (photo:wikipedia)

At the bridge on Chapman Road past the nature center, there were three Horned Grebes hunting in the lake. One bird was already molting into breeding plumage, and I watched it kill a small frog and eventually swallow it whole. The other two birds were in their black and white winter plumage, and spent most of the time underwater.

Not a lot of other surprises, but its a good day when you see a Bald Eagle, so it was fun to see one try to grab a fish out of the water and then fly off empty-taloned. I ended up with 36 species at the lake and nature center. Not bad for a quick morning trip.