Happy New Year!

We started the new year off right with a spectacular day of birding at Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge (mainly at the Sacramento Unit, but with a stop at Colusa) with our friends Kevin and Susan.  Yes, we dragged out butts out of bed at 3:30 a.m. on New Year's Day in order to be there before dawn, but it was worth it.  We saw a gorgeous sunrise and many thousands of birds on a beautifully sunny, clear and cold day, and even managed breakfast at the Black Bear Diner in Willows. Here's our list for the day (all seen at the Sacramento Unit unless otherwise noted, many were seen at both locations): 

Pied-billed Grebe

American White Pelican

Double-crested Cormorant

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Green Heron (at Colusa)

Black-crowned Night Heron (at Colusa)

Turkey Vulture

Greater White-fronted Goose

Snow Goose

Gadwall

American Wigeon

Mallard

Cinnamon Teal

Northern Shoveler

Northern Pintail

Green-winged Teal

Bufflehead

Ruddy Duck

Bald Eagle

Northern Harrier

Cooper's Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

Ring-necked Pheasant

Black-necked Stilt

Long-Billed Curlew

Great Horned Owl (at Colusa)

Northern Flicker (at Colusa)

Black Phoebe

Loggerhead Shrike

Western Scrub Jay (heard only, at Colusa)

American Crow

Common Raven

Tree Swallow (at Colusa)

Bushtit

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

American Pipit (at Colusa)

Yellow-rumped Warbler

California Towhee

Song Sparrow (at Colusa)

White-crowned Sparrow

Red-winged Blackbird

Western Meadowlark (at Colusa)