Thanksgiving Day Birding.

Well, it's been awhile.

And Ryan and I have seen a lot of birds.

On Thanksgiving we went to Harkin's Slough, in Watsonville, and then Kirby Park, which is only a few miles south of Moss Landing.  We saw:

Tricolored Blackbird

Lesser Yellowlegs

Willet

Cinnamon Teal

Black-crowned Night Heron

Comoon Moorhen

Ruddy Duck

Northern Flicker

Yellow-rumped Warbler

American Avocet

Northern Pintail

White-faced Ibis (which is actually pretty rare in this area)

Long-Billed Curlew

Whimbrel

Say's Phoebe

Western Sandpiper

Red-Shouldered Hawk

Western Gull

Black-necked Stilt

All those species in only one day!  Our total "life list" of species has now topped 60.

Eventually we need to get a better pair of binoculars with a higher magnification (we're using 7X).  Some of the birds are so small and so far away that it's nearly impossible to make out differentiating markers that point to their species.  10x binoculars would be better.

Anyway, best way to spend Thanksgiving: outside.  No one is usually out and about and we practically had the whole slough to ourselves.