Point Reyes CBC - 2013

This year I had the privilege of participating in the Point Reyes Christmas Bird Count - a lifelong ambition of mine. My cousin Whitney happens to live near Point Reyes and has done the count for about the last 6 years. As some of you may know, I also organize/compile the Las Vegas, NM Christmas Bird Count every year with my dad. This year, we did our count on December 14, and the Point Reyes CBC was on Dec. 21, so it worked out perfectly. I few out to San Francisco on the 20th ad was picked up by my cousin. After a wonderful dinner, we sacked out for the night at a lovely little B&B near Point Reyes.

The only negative part of doing bird counts like this is the reality of getting up at some ungodly hour to go birding. But its all worth it in the end. Especially when you're dong the Point Reyes CBC. We woke up at 5:30am and met up with the rest of our group at about 6:00am. We started the day birding at a local farm owned by a family who has allowed access to their property for the CBC each year. We walked about 4 miles out to Drake's Head and had a wonderful lunch of crackers, cheese, and prosciutto. The highlight of the day was a Eurasian Wigeon, which we spotted in the large lagoon we were hiking parallel to. Other notable birds were a Marsh Wren, Peregrine Falcon, Golden Eagle, and Savannah Sparrow. We ended the day with 71 species, which was in fact on the low side, compared with most counts for this particular area. Nevertheless, it was a very impressive day in my eyes.

The end of a long day of birding.