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.
