The excitement and possibility of September gives way to somewhat milder expectations for October. That said, October is still one of the most pleasant times to be in the field and there is plenty of opportunity to turn up interesting birds. It offers an interesting mix of lingering summer residents while nearly all the typical wintering birds have arrived. It won't be until November when large numbers of wintering waterfowl and raptors settle in, but representatives of most of the expected species do turn up by month's end. Band-tailed Pigeons were reported sporadically on the flats of the Valley. On 10/15, a Greater Roadrunner was seen along Hwy 16 between Rumsey and Guinda in the Capay Valley. This species is increasingly hard to find in our area, where grasslands, rolling hills, and chaparral in the low foothills are filling up with vineyards, orchards, and houses. Common Poorwills have also been harder to find, so one along Latrobe Rd adjacent to Deer Creek Hills on 10/14 was a nice surprise.
Shorebirds were relatively low-key for a month that often holds a surprise or two. A late Baird's Sandpiper continued from 10/11-10/17 at the Sacramento Regional WTP, while Pectoral Sandpipers were reported at several regular locations including Cosumnes River Preserve, Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, the Davis Wetlands, and the Woodland WTP. The most surprising find among the Charadriiformes came on 10/27 when two Heermann's Gulls (eBird Checklist S153200213 and eBird Checklist S153207345) were among a small flock of California Gulls at the Sacramento County Bufferlands. The birds continued for a few hours, and a handful of people were able to see them, but they flew away in the late afternoon and were not refound. This is a first county record and one of very few records for the Central Valley.
Blue-headed Vireos are extremely rare in California, so the second for our area this fall was a big surprise when it was found and photographed (eBird Checklist S151233525) on 10/1 near Fishing Access #2 on both the Yolo and Solano sides of Putah Creek upstream of Winters. So far this fall it is shaping up to have a decent if not huge invasion of some montane/northern species, with lowland Steller's Jays, decent numbers of Golden-crowned Kinglets and Varied Thrushes, and good numbers of Red-breasted Nuthatches and Pine Siskins. On 10/24, a Winter Wren was found at the same site where it spent last winter near Lake Solano. Another was found upstream near the Hwy 128 Putah Creek bridge on 10/30. It is odd that this species is turning up more than ever, while the expected Pacific Wren is found less frequently than it was a decade or two ago. An Evening Grosbeak was a nice find at Sacramento Bar along the American River Parkway on 10/3. An Orchard Oriole was found at the UC Davis Arboretum on 10/11 (eBird Checklist S151955749), and it continued into November. It can be challenging to separate this species from the much more common, larger and lankier Hooded Oriole, but this bird was seen and photographed by many observers. Warbler migration tapered off by mid-month, and no unexpected warblers were found this October.
The Sacramento Area is roughly defined as lying between Hwy 20 to the north, Hwy 12 to the south, and the 1000-foot contour to the east and west, plus all of Sacramento and Yolo counties. Many reports first appeared on the Central Valley Bird Club listserv (groups.io/g/centralvalleybirds) and in eBird (ebird.org). It is impossible to list everyone, but we thank the following for their reports: Max Brodie, Lyann Comrack, Konshau Duman, Gil Ewing, Joshua Greenfield, David Hamilton, Denise Hamilton, Cliff Hawley, Jeri Langham, Andrew Lee, Mark Martucci, Ethan Monk, Gerrit Platenkamp, Zane Pickus, Steve Scott, Kim Tenggardjaja, Kevin Thomas, John Trochet, Bart Wickel, and Lynette Williams. Thanks to everyone for their reports--without them, this column would not be possible.