Peace Valley Morning

Stopped by Peace Valley this morning for an hour or so and had 33 bird species, including First of Season (FOS) Barn Swallow and Brown Thrasher. Some of the White-throated Sparrows are looking sharp, the one above was at the bird feeders at the nature center feeders.


Down by the Chapman Road bridge there were 192 Double-crested Cormorants hanging out in the water and on some trees. A few were preening each other and making a lot of weird dinosaur-like noises. Pretty cool.


On my way back home I noticed a male American Kestrel on a pole with a kestrel box on it. There aren't many nesting kestrels around here, so I took a look and noticed that the bird had a yellow wing tag on. Unfortunately I couldn't get a good enough look to read the number, but hopefully the bird will stick around and someone will be able to read the tag. I think it will stick around because after it flew from the box it landed in a low tree next to a female kestrel. Would be great to see them nest here this year!

(Sparrow and cormorant shots with Canon Power Shot SD780 IS through my Zeiss 7X42s, kestrel shot through my Bausch & Lomb Discoverer. Time to get a better scope?)