NorCal Birding

01/22/2026

An epic day chasing West Coast and California birds today with visiting birder Bill Paquin from New Jersey!

We nailed 38 of 42 targets, but added a couple unexpected not on the target list that were lifers!

Some exciting targets included Yellow-billed Magpie, California Thrasher, Varied Thrush, Pacific Wren, Wrentit, Burrowing Owl, Ferruginous Hawk, Nuttall's Woodpecker, Band-tailed Pigeon, Golden Eagle, California Quail, Pygmy Nuthatch, and Tricolored Blackbird. 69 species in 6 hours of targeted birding!

eBird Trip Report...
https://ebird.org/tripreport/467044

01/15/2026

01/15/2026

A great target birding excursion with visiting birder Ricardo Cruz! We did well with 3 out of 4 targets we chased! They included ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK, HARLEQUIN DUCK, and MOUNTAIN PLOVER. We tried hard twice for the Yellow-billed Loon but no luck.

The Rough-legged Hawk was a fun chase. We drove an hour from the loon spot to Robinson Road area, searched for about 30 mins with no luck then we stopped to scan as there was a couple raptors in the distance. One was a Ferruginous and the other a Red-tailed. I kept scanning and found super high a roughie. I got Ricardo on it but the looks were not satisfying so we waited to see what it would do. He worked the field far and landed but far. Then it lifted and flew right at us and over us for just killer looks and then perched! Wowza! We were ecstatic!

10/15/2025

A nice raptor day while conducting Burrowing Owl conservation work! Even had two goldens talon grabbling nearly to the ground and a White-tailed Kite roost of ~25.

Submitted by Ryan Phillips.

10/06/2025

Big Year birder, Debi Hirsch, and I had a great day out after missing a day due to Debi unable to get off her ship in SF because of government shutdown and not enough customs agents. We had a good day with 16 lifers and ABA Big Year Birds for Debi!

An amazing experience with a young wild hatched California Condor being chased by an immature Bald Eagle.

09/07/2024

Another incredible birding excursion with visiting birder from Florida, Pam Meharg, yesterday in the Pinnacles National Park area. We nailed 100% of our targets!

Those targets included:
California Condor
Yellow-billed Magpie
Bell's Sparrow
Lawrence's Goldfinch
Tricolored Blackbird
Hutton's Vireo
California Scrub-Jay
Pacific Wren
California Quail
Wrentit
Oak Titmouse

It was hot (97f), but that actually helped us as there was no crowd at Pinnacles and birds were concentrated and active at water.

The rarest bird found was an early HERMIT THRUSH (possibly a local breeder of the slevini subspecies.

Thanks Pam for a great day!!

02/06/2024

Something about birds with crests!

Check out this Hooded Merganser video at Shoreline at Mountain View in Santa Clara County, California.

11/10/2023

An amazing birding excursion with returning visitor birder and friend, Mark Hoffman from Virginia, yesterday. One of our main targets was VARIED THRUSH.

We started at Henry Cowell State Park for Varied Thrush and then weaved through the Santa Cruz Mountains before starting from Pigeon Point working our way south to Santa Cruz searching for Ancient Murrelet.

We ended the day with 71 species with highlights being 4 VARIED THRUSH with great looks, large flocks of PINE SISKINS, a large flock of TRICOLORED BLACKBIRDS, lots of TOWNSEND'S WARBLERS up close, hoards of RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHES, a large group of SURFBIRDS, a foraging RHINOCEROS AUKLET relatively close range, a close Bobcat, and thousands of monarch butterflies!

05/26/2023

An epic day spent with visiting photographer and birder Alan Zhou from Texas! The focus was to get good photos of lifer birds, not quantity for him and we accomplished that! He even got his nemesis bird, the Hooded Oriole.

Insane views and experiences with Pacific Wren agitated because a Steller's Jays feet away from its nest, Wrentits up close giving its bouncing ball song point blank, a male California Quail showing off, a family of Chestnut-sided Chickadees feeding recently fledged young, nesting Pigeon Guillemots, Whimbrels on the ocean edge and many more.

Thanks for the great memories and I can't wait to see all your photos!

A few of Alan's pics (Hooded Oriole and California Quail).

04/13/2023

Pinnacles NP with Andrew Bradshaw and visiting birder from the Netherlands! Go time!

10/24/2022

An exciting day taking visiting birders Madison and Juan from South Carolina around the SF area with a western focused target birding, as well as a chase for the mega rarity WILLOW WARBLER at Rodeo Lagoon. The warbler is a first California and a 3rd? lower 48 states record! It winters in southern/central Africa! As you can expect there was a crowd.

We nailed most of our targets and had insane views of the Willow Warbler. We tallied 58 species in our short day and enjoyed perfect SF weather (sunny, light wind and 70f!).

10/10/2022

It has been a while since I posted! Will get back on it!

Today I chased arguably one of the most beautiful members of the Parulidae family in North America, the PAINTED REDSTART (Myioborus pictus) This individual has wandered out of its normal range and is the first Santa Clara County record and California rarity. It was found by Meg Barron and Elly Corey on September 28 at Agnews Historic Park in Santa Clara.

This is a common bird in Arizona and is usually the place that people get their lifer, but it has a relatively restricted range, but is know to wander and move especially during dry years when resources are limited.

We located it today by its Pine Siskin like call (at least to me but some say like House Sparrow, but I think closer to PISI). It showcased that flaring white tail, the reason some checklists and authorities call them whitestarts, not redstarts.

A truly pictus bird, which is the species latin name.

A new Santa Clara County and California bird for me!