1. Last week I had two doctor's appointments in Sacramento in the AM. And then a 2 hour Zoom from 10-12. I decided it would be nice to do the Zoom while in some scenic spot & I remembered I had seen reported of a pretty rare bird at the Nimbus Fish Hatchery close to where I was
2. I don't normally chase reported birds - just not my thing really - but I had to find somewhere to go and I do read some of the rare bird reports so I headed off to So after my second appointment I zipped on over to the Nimbus Fish Hatchery. wildlife.ca.gov/Fishing/Hatche…
3. I got there, connected to the Zoom on my phone and AirPods, video off, said hi, got out a battery backup charger, and got out of my car. Now, I was not there JUST to try and find the rare "long tailed duck" but figured I would look for it.
4. Only one major problem. I did not know where it was reported or what it looked like. (OK, I did not read the rare bird reports in detail, because, as I said, this was not my thing really).
5. So I got out my phone, opened my iBird app and looked up the long tailed duck. Wow. Really cool. Then I headed down towards the water from the parking lot, because, well, "duck" right? (OK I stopped at the fish ladder first because, OMG it is a ladder for fish)
6. And I got down to the water and boom - right there was a type of duck I had never seen. Now, mind you, it did not look a lot like the bird I had seen in the app, but I figured this had to be it. So I took, like a fuckton of pics. Here are some.
7. All the time, I was on the Zoom call, chiming in, even answering some polls. And eventually, I wandered around, ditching the duck, & took some more pics of birds & stuff. More about these in a bit but if you want to skip and see pics go to jonathaneisen.smugmug.com/2022/2022-1-5-…
8. Meanwhile I had contacted @lonna_wright (PhD student in my lab) who lives somewhat near there and since she had wanted to talk about work stuff we arranged to meet at the hatchery after my Zoom call would be over.
9. So I sat on a bench, took some more pics, did the Zoom, and waited for @lonna_wright. Ended the Zoom, and @lonna_wright showed up and we wandered around the fish hatchery for a while and I took yes, even more pics. Including of the educational signs at the hatchery.
10. And some more signs.
11. And got some creepy / cool pics of reflections of us looking at the fish in the ladder
12. And eventually I headed home and been very busy. So it has taken me until today to finish looking through the pics. And some really came out nice so I am going to share some here.
13. First, here is a collection of pics of the long tailed duck. jonathaneisen.smugmug.com/2022/2022-1-5-…
14. Also saw tons of common goldeneyes including these
15. But much cooler - another pretty rare bird - a Barrow's goldeneye with a nice crescent spot on its face
16. And got a nice series of pics of the Barrow's goldeneye that I made into a gif
17. And also made gifs of two series of pics of common goldeneyes too here is one
18. And here is the other
19. And just tons of common mergansers all over the place including these
20. And these
21. And a few more. I really love the last one with the water dripping off its bill
22. And I also made some gifs of mergansers in flight including this one
22. And this one
23. And this one
24. Oops forgot some of the common goldeneye pics
25. Also - got some nice shots of a ruby crowned kinglet flashing its ruby crown
26. Some cormorants
27. Lots of gulls such as these, the last of which might be a glaucous winged gull (I suck at gull ID, but that is what someone said on @inaturalist)
28. Yellow rumped warbler
29. White throated swifts
30. And more - again - best pics are here jonathaneisen.smugmug.com/2022/2022-1-5-…
31. And all observations for the day are at @inaturalist here inaturalist.org/observations?o…
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