April 10th - Oroville Wildlife Area and beyond. Saturday morning started out wet and blustery. Mike Skram and I were the only ones at the Park & Ride so off to Oroville we went. It rained until we arrived at the Wildlife area, then the rain ceased as if on cue! We pulled in a little ways and spotted an Osprey on a snag. We backed closer to the road to wait for the Orovillians, but alas it was only Mike and I. While sitting waiting we had numerous Robins and Northern Mockingbirds. We decided it was just going to be us, so we drove and parked near the River. We were immediately treated to California Towhees and the first of numerous House Wrens for the day. We spotted a Greater Yellowlegs on the shore and saw Common Mergansers, Mallards and Common Goldeneye on the River. Yellow-rumped Warblers (both Audubon's and Myrtle's) and Orange-crowned Warblers were the only Warblers we saw or heard. We kicked up White-crowned, Golden-crowned Fox and Lincoln's Sparrows. Both Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned Kinglets were abundant. Winter appeared to still be hanging on. We both thought we heard a Bullocks Oriole but couldn't find it. Driving farther down stream we got out of the truck and knew we heard the Orioles, so we went to search in earnest. We finally saw a brilliantly colored male Bullock's Oriole. We commented how amazing they are in that they are so bright, but can hide from you so well!!! We saw Kestrels, Red-tails, Red-shouldered Hawks and a Merlin. We decided that we should go see if the White-winged Scoter was on Pacific Heights Road, and it was. (We believe that this was the last time it was seen; if anyone saw it after April 17th please let us know). We also saw our first Forster's Tern at the pond.

We decided to go back toward Chico. We took Nelson Road and picked up Savannah Sparrows and our first Western Kingbird of the Spring.

We drove out to Llano Seco to see what was there, and were treated to White Pelicans, Black-necked Stilts, American Avocets and Long-billed Curlews. We saw most of the Ducks that are here with a few exceptions. In all we saw 96 species and had a beautiful day! - Richard Redmond

April 25 - Butte County Big Day. Richard Redmond, Mike Skram, Phil Johnson, and Skip Augur chose a late April date to see how many species they could come up with in Butte County. The hardest part was keeping these 4 independent spirits from wandering off; the rules required that all participants see 95% of the species, which meant we had to stick together at almost all times!

We started at an early 5 AM at Butte Meadows, and spent the remainder of the day birding around the Oxidation Ponds and Sacramento River, Llano Seco, Oroville, and various areas in-between. We came up with a healthy 139 species (handily thrashing Richard, Phil, and Skip's 1997 total of 116!). Hhighlights of the day included unexpected surprises such as Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher (along Hwy. 32), Black-Bellied and Semipalmated Plovers (at Llano Seco), several Whimbrels (Oxidation ponds & Llano Seco), and a Common Loon (in Lake Oroville). Even though 139 is good, it's nowhere near a record (the highest we've heard of is 161, set in 1980,according to Joe Morlan's web page), so get out there and beat us! - Skip Augur