[cobirds] California quail (but maybe an escapee) for your list

Hi Thomas,

A California quail appeared in my yard on Baseline Road in the early 1960s. I was taking an ornithology class from Dr. Gordon Alexander at the time, and he said it might have been an escapee, which seems probable. Are you counting escapes?

Over the 60+ years that I've been birding, there have been so many memorable moments. When we lived on Mariposa, Bluebell Creek ran in the backyard and was like a highway for wildlife. Once I heard a bird song and said, "If I didn't know better, I'd think that was a cardinal." It WAS a cardinal—a female. First time I realized female cardinals sang. When we first moved there in 1973, Steller's were the only jays.Then blue jays moved in and were dominant until the scrub jays arrived and lorded it over the other two species. Scrub jays would come to the bathroom window to remind me to replenish the peanuts.

A brown thrasher once spent the winter near our feeder when we lived on a slice of land surrounded by Teller Lakes Open Space. While we lived there we got a few one-day wonders: sage sparrow, red-headed woodpecker, and yellow-billed cuckoo. We occasionally had peregrine falcons and sandhill cranes and often saw osprey and bald eagles. Isn't it wonderful that bald eagles are now almost common!

My most memorable moments were during the six years when a pair of Swainson's hawks nested in a willow very near the house and successfully raised young each year. The protective parents were o.k. with us until the young fledged. Then they became so belligerent that I had to carry an umbrella to flourish when they dive bombed me. Or, maybe the most memorable moment was the time during a light rain shower when a great horned owl, who had been incubating in a nest near our home, decided the endeavor had failed. She flew up to branch, lifted her wings, took a long shower, and left. The male stayed around the nest for several days, sometimes looking into it and appearing disconsolate.

Now that we live in a retirement community, I'm thrilled just to get a kestrel perching on the balcony railing.

A mouse (or kestrel) is miracle enough,
Ruth Carol Cushman

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