Hopefully the delay will be minimal - cheers!
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Similar to the Ellis Creek Facility in Petaluma, this waste water facility is in San Rafael, and has a series of really beautiful holding ponds where ducks, herons, geese and birds and critters of all types abound.  Common Gallinule - lots of these in the first pond, Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary District  Another view of the common gallinule - previously named the common moorhen - related to coots!  Male common merganser - there were several pairs of these in the second pond.  Female common merganser, Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary District  Marsh wren singing from a high perch in the bordering shrubs.  Best photo I could get of a much pursued common yellowthroat.  A group of black-crowned night herons were roosting among the reeds.  Muskrat? Munching on something among the reeds in the first pond.  Lots of cinnamon teals in the ponds, Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary District  Flocks of cackling geese fly frequently overhead.  Forster's terns were diving and skimming pond two for small fish fingerlings.  The graceful Forster's Tern  A juvenile Cooper's hawk on a utility pole side arm, Las Gallinas  A juvenile red-tailed hawk eating a snake, at the end of the day as the sun was setting, Las Gallinas Valley SD Osprey actively hunting for fish, Bodega Bay  Here are some previous photos from Bodega Bay, before the most recent rains.  European starling at Bodega Head  Female Northern Harrier perched on a dead tree trunk, Bodega Head  Male Bufflehead duck, Bodega Bay  Pelagic cormorant in Bodega Bay  Great Blue Heron in flight, Bodega bay  Bushtit at the Doran Beach bird walk, Bodega  Common merganser, female, in Bodega bay  Ferruginous hawk, Coleman Valley Road Was reading in various bird reports that the migratory Allen's hummingbirds were being seen locally as early as the last week of January, and on February 3rd, there was a female Allen's at the deck feeders here.  Female Allen's hummingbird, deck feeders, Camp Meeker, Sonoma County  Male Townsend Warbler scoping out the deck feeders, there's been two different males and a female most of the winter.  Female Townsend, fainter black markings, less black on the front.  White-breasted nuthatch a regular visitor - also the largest and loudest of the three local variants, the other two being the pygmy and the red-breasted.  A male Pileated woodpecker dropped into the neighborhood a few days ago!  It began digging out a large hole in one of the nearby utility poles.  A male and female kinglet have used the feeders daily through the winter, this is the male ruby-crowned kinglet.  A small flock of mourning doves - very shy - drop by to clean up any stray seeds.  A white-throated sparrow visits the side yard, even staking it out, this is the best photo I could get.  The local Acorn woodpeckers never miss a day.  A few fox sparrows mingle in the side yard, this one at the buddha in the bird bath.  Of course the chestnut-backed chickadees, always a cheerful group of chirpers and chatterers as they visit. |