Welcome to birdWalker, a website of birding photos and trip reports by Bill Walker and Mary Wisnewski, California birders based in Santa Clara County. We've been collecting our trip reports since 1996, we have now recorded 660 trips and 539 species.

Some of our favorite places to go birding include Charleston Slough and the Duck Pond in Palo Alto, Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, and the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.

So far in week 2 of 2009 we have seen 0 species. Last year at this time we had seen 130.

The Bird of the Week is the Wood Duck
Photographed Thursday, January 11, 2007 at Union City Library

in the back we have a peanut feeder, a thistle feeder, and a general purpose seed feeder

An abandoned town along the Amtrak tracks in the marshes of Fremont. We got to go there during a San Jose Christmas Bird Count.

Located near Point Reyes in Marin County, California. We have recorded 168 species during 14 trips. The first trip was over 11 years ago, the latest trip was 16 days ago.

Note to photographers: Take the auto tour route in the winter for some great opportunities for close-up shots at overwintering birds. If lighting permits, be prepared to shoot out both sides of the car, preferably by sitting in back and having someone else drive (thanks, Mary!) Also walk the trees near the parking lots for passerines. Check the trees and ponds near the visitor center, and look for rarity sightings in the notebook inside the visitor center. Bathrooms available. Entrance fee (or b...

Located near Pacifica in San Francisco County, California. We have recorded 70 species during 1 trips. The first trip was 6 days ago, the latest trip was 6 days ago.

Other observers saw American Pipit, Thayer's Gull, and Lincoln's Sparrow

We observed 4 species 10 days ago at Our House in Santa Clara County, California.

Section 20-something of the Pt. Reyes Christmas Bird Count is rural cattle land and a few upland wooded habitats around riparian areas. Our target species included Loggerhead Shrike (wiff) and Rufous Crowned Sparrow (score!). The chilly morning of frost gave way to a sunny day with little wind, high around 50 in our sector.

Today, Mary and I participated in one of our holiday traditions, the San Jose Christmas Bird Count (CBC). As you probably know, our job is to count every bird we see within our small piece of a 10mi circle drawn around the center of San Jose. We constitute Party #4 of the Alviso Sector. We are entrusted with a key to the National Wildlife Refuge. Our most important task is to ensure that the San Francisco Bay's population of Snowy Plovers gets into the CBC database for San Jose.

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We observed 57 species about 1 month ago at Sacramento NWR in Glenn County, California.

We observed 4 species about 1 month ago at Bolinas Lagoon in Marin County, California.

We observed 2 species about 1 month ago at Drake's Bay Oyster Farm in Marin County, California.

We observed 70 species about 1 month ago at 2 locations in Sonoma County, California.