A down day in Sacramento.

Having a down day, in this case is not really a bad thing. As we got closer to Sacramento, the winds really started to pick up, gusting up over 20 MPH. That really throws our 5th wheel rig around quite a bit. We had considered pushing on a little farther, but the winds, and the traffic were enough, so we pulled into the Sacrament Expo Center and RV Park. This park is right along the American River, and the huge green belt that is set aside for birds. I was a pretty happy camper, when the California State Police put out a travel advisory for the highways north of Sacrament. They were calling for 25-35 MPH winds and recommended that all over sized trucks, campers and trailers not travel on I-5 on Sunday. Yee Haa...a full day of Birding!!

This area turned out to be awesome, adding not only 21 birds to my years list, but 4 brand new Life List birds!! I will list the 21 birds below, and high light the new lifers! 

Snow Geese
Canada Geese
Mallard
Common Goldeneye
Common Merganser
Hooded Merganser
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Coopers Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Sand Hill Crane
Herring Gull
Nuttall's Woodpecker - New Lifer
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Oak Titmouse-New Lifer
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Wrentit-New Lifer
Gold-crowned Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow-New Lifer

I have a lot of photos to go thru but here are a few from the first afternoon when we arrived here.

These tiny little Bushtits are always on the move so they are quite difficult to get a good photo of!

I managed to snap off a couple of nice shots as this Peregrine Falcon flew thru the area, in their typical blazing speed!

This is my first ever Nuttall's Woodpecker!

Gold-crowned Sparrows are so beautiful, and I had not seen any since my trip to Kodiak, Alaska a few years back.

Common Mergansers are another bird that I have not seen in many years. In fact, I believe that last one was in Desolation Sound, BC on our way to Mexico.

These are Common Goldeneyes, a bird that is quite common in the Seattle area, as well as much of the coastal parts of the PNW.