Big Trip! Days 4-6 UPDATED

Back in Oregon, here's the place where we stayed:

If you're ever in Gold's Beach, OR, stay here! Curt, the owner since the 1950s, was a wonderful host; the room was clean and the bed was comfy; and the tab for two was only $59!

Earlier that night, we saw dinosaurs!

Here's Li'l Nib, watching the coastline:

Here we are in Klamath, CA, at the Tour-Thru Tree!

Some redwoods:

This little beardtongue-looking flower:

had mint-like leaves, so I pulled a little leaf off and smelled it. BAD. MOVE. It smelled like corpse! And so did my hand! Watch out for this flower!

After watching several of these for a while and thinking they were something exotic, I've concluded they're probably Song Sparrows:

Curses!

We saw more elk, and this time I got a pic!

So we finally got to Matty's house in Cotati, CA, where he and his partner live. Matty has a hummingbird feeder out back, and we've been treated to several Anna's (I think) Hummingbirds:

His chin looks rather dark, and it's hard to see the red in it or on top of his head, but the only other hummer in this area (according to Peterson's) is the Allen's, but he would have a rufous belly. So I'm guessing Anna's; it was hard to see the red because of the cloud cover.

We walked around the Sonoma State campus and saw this Black Phoebe:

And on our way back home, we saw this beautiful Red-shouldered Hawk:

This morning, AB and I drove up onto Sonoma Mountain - the mountain I used to see from my bedroom window when I lived here.

We saw a few cool birds, including Eurasian Collared Dove:

At least ten White-tailed Kites:

and a bunch of Wild Turkeys:

Today, went to the Jack London Historic Park:

We didn't go to the cabins or anything, but we did hike some nice trails -- okay, I didn't hike. I stayed in the same place birding for like an hour while Matty, Jeff, and AB actually hiked around. I saw (and finally photographed) a California TOWHEE (not a thrasher):

Some California Quail:

AND MOST EXCITING! Acorn Woodpeckers! Bunches of them!

So cool!!! Lifebird! So for the trip so far, I have Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Acorn Woodpecker, and apparently California Thrasher which I'd already seen when I lived here but didn't count on my spreadsheet! That leaves me at (to this point) 341 birds!Oh so wrong! That wasn't a CA Thrasher; it was just a CA Towhee; I always mix those up. So now my count is wrong by 1! Oh the ramifications of this. Gotta change the sidebar, the spreadsheet, and the brain. Sigh. (updated 12/31/2012)

Today we went to Bodega Bay, and OF COURSE I didn't charge my camera battery or my phone, so I took no pics. However, I think I saw a Marbled Godwit and possibly a Pacific Loon!! But I can't be sure on either count, and so we're going back tomorrow with a fully charged camera -- we're hoping to see a whole bunch of things. Sadly I don't have my Shorebird Guide, which sucks -- I forgot it.

Until tomorrow, then, I'm hoping to see you again with a few more lifebirds!