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Pee Wee Audubon

October Birding in Sonoma County

Through the Garden Gate: Backyard Birding

Welcome New Members

Fewer Ducks

Future Pee Wee Events

October Birding in Sonoma County

by Betty Burridge

The changes that autumn brings to Sonoma County are measured not only in shorter days, cooler temperatures, and more vibrant leaf colors in the vineyards and woodlands; our bird populations are shifting as well. Madrone Audubon plans its autumn bird walks to see as many of the newly-arriving species as possible.

By the first of October most of our seasonal summer breeding birds, largely neo-tropical migrants, have headed south to the warmer climes of Mexico, Central America and even South America. The swifts and swallows have departed, as have the Allen's Hummingbirds, Swainson's Thrushes, orioles, tanagers, grosbeaks, Lazuli Buntings, warblers, most flycatchers, and Chipping Sparrows. These species depend for food mostly on such items as small invertebrates and insects, which become increasingly scarce here as winter approaches.

At the same time, new bird populations are moving in. Some of them summer as far north as the Arctic or high in the western mountain ranges, then come here for our relatively mild winters and rich food resources. Our coastal wetlands and estuaries are preferred habitats for many of these winter residents. In October at Bodega Bay we can begin to expect to see Common, Pacific and Red-throated Loons, Horned, Eared, Western, and Clark's Grebes, most waterfowl, Snowy Plovers, Long-billed Dowitchers, Dunlin, most gulls, and, if we are lucky, Red Phalaropes (1).

Sharp-shinned and Cooper's Hawks will increase, as will numbers of most other raptors and falcons in the hawk migration flyway, which includes the Willow Creek drainage near the mouth of the Russian River (2).

Some winter-resident land birds that will begin appearing in October include Say's Phoebes, Varied and Hermit Thrushes, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Water Pipits, White- and Golden-crowned Sparrows, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and perhaps Red-breasted Nuthatches (3).

In addition to the arriving winter residents, we can also glimpse some migrants that are passing through on their way farther south, and others that are here due to navigational mistakes. The latter species are called "accidentals" and are, for the most part, eastern natives that are seldom seen in California. In Sonoma County, the Owl Canyon at Bodega Bay is probably the best place to look for accidentals (4); in Marin, the outer Point Reyes peninsula is another good location (5).

There is, of course, no guarantee that all of the anticipated birds or hoped-for accidentals will be seen on each Bird Walk and Field Trip coming up in October, but this is a glorious time of year to get out and welcome as many of our returning Sonoma County residents as we can.

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(1) Madrone Audubon Society bird walks, October 8 and 28; see Calendar.

(2) MAS bird walks, September 30, October 3, and November 11.

(3) MAS bird walks, October 14 and November 11.

(4) MAS bird walks, October 8 and 28.

(5) MAS bird walks, October 21 and November 4.