This was our first 2025 Ford’s Pond bird field trip of the year!  This week was full of cold temperatures and snow at higher elevations around us. We still had 7 intrepid participants who, of course, were all bundled! We had light rain in the middle of the walk, but it got really nice toward the end.

We saw 30 different species, encompassing 384 individuals. This is up from the 2024 February trip of 26 species and only 55 individuals (Wow that is quite the difference in the number of individuals!).

We had several highlights. We had 3 Bald Eagles we got to watch: one flying over and around Ford’s Pond, one perched to the right of the documented nest (south hill), and a third that was perched in a different tree. There were 65 Ruddy Ducks; the only other time we had a lot of them (45) was January 2024. It was also cool to see one White Pelican to get another opportunity to marvel at its large size and large bill.  Switching to passerines, a Black Phoebe was very active flitting around the entire time at the junction of the pathway where we veer left to walk down the south side of Ford’s Pond. Further down the path, a California Quail belted out its song by Church Rd. We all agreed it sounds like a bird you would hear in a jungle. One of the participants said they had never seen a Western Bluebird before and just before we got ready to climb the hill back to the parking lot one came in and landed in a tree limb next to the path! Click on the ebird list below to see all the birds we saw.

https://ebird.org/checklist/S212778887

Thank you to Stacy Burleigh, Lucas Lile, and Bill Fuller for helping lead the field trip.

It was so nice to be outside and sharing the morning with everyone!