January is a month for fresh starts and that is especially applicable to birders. As the calendar rolls into a new year, birders start their year lists anew and wait for January 1st to count their new year Black Phoebe and Anna’s Hummingbird on January 1st. For some of the more “intense” birders, this also usually entails chasing wintering rarities that they may have already seen just a few weeks prior for their new 2022 list. This has yet to be the case in 2022. For the first time in recent memory Yolo doesn’t have any stakeout rarities wintering. Hopefully in the next month or two before winter ends, this changes and one of you pops a ripper at your feeder.
With all that said there were still some great birds in Yolo this month. Leading it off were a couple of first cycle GLAUCOUS GULLS: one spotted at the Davis WTP (JL) and another at the Deepwater shipping channel (BW). A SWAMP SPARROW was found skulking in the reeds along Cache Creek on New Years Day (MP).
Confusion emerged when a RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER was reported near Clarksburg (MP), only for other birders to chase it and photograph a hybrid (Red-breasted x Red-naped Sapsucker). The initial observer clarified that it was not the hybrid that they saw and provided a detailed write-up from the field. Unfortunately, other birders haven’t had luck chasing this bird in the last couple of weeks.
Continuing birds of note include a GRASSHOPPER SPARROW at the Yolo Bypass that was last seen on January 11th. The MOUNTAIN PLOVERS on Highway 45 have been seen recently as well.
Thanks to the following for their reports: Jasen Liu (JL), Bart Wickel (BW), and Michael Perrone (MP).
Compiled by Emmett Iverson, Davis, CA