February 19

Among the stars of our Turtle Bay birding expedition were the Bald Eagles. As the newbies to town, we were mightily impressed when two Bald Eagles flew by, posing in perfect profile for their ‘put me on the stamp’ picture. Then we saw the shiny something next to their enormous nest: a web cam. Turns out that these two eagles are indeed local stars: named Liberty (female) and Patriot (male) They began nesting here in 2004; they hatched their first eaglets in 2006. They were fierce about remaining in their nest even when CalTrans began a highway project just yards from the nest in 2008. The web camera was installed then. Liberty and Patriot have successfully fledged 20 eaglets, and the day after we visited them they laid two additional eggs. You can see them for yourself at www.turtlebay.org/eaglecam.

We saw a juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk, learning from our fellow birders that even before the identifiable red tail, these hawks show black on the leading edge of their wings. These birds soar, apparently effortlessly, with fanned tails and very little flapping. And we saw a Great Blue Heron, that royalty of the marsh. These fishermen stand quietly in the shallow part of the stream, waiting for dinner to be delivered.

And we enjoyed a bounty of woodpeckers. All these birds of the Picidae Family are built to stand upright on tree trunks, and that is where we found them. They use their stiff-pointed tail feathers with their legs to form a tripod to brace themselves against the tree. It is always surprising they don’t knock themselves silly drumming on the trees. We saw a Downy Woodpecker, on the small end of woodpecker range, who was actively poking into the tree for a snack. We saw a Nuttall’s Woodpecker, slightly larger and with a more speckled back than the Downy, but similar behavior. We also saw the Red-breasted Sapsucker, with a blacker head and bright red chin and throat. These are bigger than either of the other woodpeckers we saw. Apparently, they are named for the sap wells they drill in trees in order to attract and trap insects. (Despite our long-held belief that the name was just trash talk in the bird world.)

We saw American Goldfinches, social and busy little creatures, although not as bright a yellow as they will become when fully breeding. Even so, it is easy to see why they are sometimes called the Wild Canary. We also saw Yellow-rumped Warblers, who have a yellow throat in addition to that rump. These are cheerful birds, with their slow warbles and their tendency to come in bunches.

We saw Spotted Towhees, also called Rufous-sided Towhees. They wear black hoods with streaky chestnut and white markings. We also saw California Towhees, plainer gray-brown, with a ‘chip…chip….chip’ call. These Towhees are overgrown sparrows with the large, seed-cracking bill of the sparrow.

Total to 2/19: 34