Stateside birding (part 2)

I then flew over the Rockies towards the San Francisco Bay Area, where I birded my old patches of Lake Merritt and Arrowhead Marsh in Oakland.  Here, I was glad to find this elusive Ridgway's Rail out in the open, since it was still known as a subspecies of Clapper Rail the last time I saw it.

We also went to Russian River, where there were lots of singing Wilson's Warblers and Black-headed Grosbeaks, an Osprey nest visible from our garden, and I even did some kayaking!  My final day in the Bay Area was spent in San Francisco itself, admiring the views and getting to see a small group of the city's famous Red-masked Parakeets in flight; the first new species (albeit an introduced one) of my trip.

Stateside birding (part 1)

I spent the second half of April in the US catching up with some birds I'd not seen since my last visit there fifteen years ago!  My arrival in New York coincided with the first day of spring and it seemed as if the whole city had decided to go to Central Park.

My first native species, having seen plenty of House Sparrows and Starlings in downtown New York, was, appropriately enough this American Robin.  It looked like there had been a fall of Hermit Thrushes, which were everywhere, but I was a little too early for the main push of migration since there were very few warblers around.  I had just two and a half days in New York, this being more of a stopover on my way to the west coast, but it was especially nice to see and hear displaying Red-winged Blackbirds at Jamaica Bay since I've never really visited in spring before.