After a hot March nearly devoid of rain, a couple of large storms brought cooler weather and led to an ultimately respectable seasonal rain total for the region, albeit one with odd timing. A Long-tailed Duck was a great find on 4/14 at the Woodland WTP (eBird Checklist S321681112), and it continued through the end of the month. A Red-breasted Merganser was found on Folsom Lake, off Rattlesnake Bar, on 4/18. Common Poorwills were found on 4/13 at Mather Lake, 4/13 at Ancil Hoffman, and 4/29 at Dotan's Pt, Folsom Lake. There was a good smattering of Calliope Hummingbirds reported in the region. Single Allen's Hummingbirds were found and photographed early and late in the month at a private yard southwest of Clarksburg. To the southeast, across the Sacramento River in Courtland, one was found early in the month. A locally impressive five hummingbird species that included Calliope, Rufous, and Allen's were found at the Clarksburg yard on 4/29 (eBird Checklist S329675625).
Bucking recent trends, this spring produced fair numbers of Hudsonian Whimbrel reports, although they are much less numerous in migration than they were 15 to 20 years ago. A Willet was a nice find at the Granite Bay Boat Launch at Folsom Lake on 4/11. After a good winter for Ruff reports, one was found at the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area on 4/4. A beautiful adult Franklin's Gull was a treat (eBird Checklist S329662188) at the Woodland WTP on 4/25. Caspian Terns were surprisingly hard to come by, with just a handful of reports away from the Delta. A Least Bittern continued at Gibson Ranch from 3/29 until at least 4/9; two were found at Rancho Seco Park during the last week of the month. The Yellow-crowned Night Heron back for its fourth year was reported on 3/28 and continued to be seen, with some difficulty, in the trees of the North Natomas Regional Park rookery into May.
Perhaps the highlight of migration this April was the rather stunning numbers of uncommon Empidonax flycatchers, including very good numbers of Hammond's Flycatchers, widespread reports of Gray Flycatchers from dozens of sites (eBird Checklist S324770894), and good numbers of Dusky Flycatchers. Two Varied Thrushes turned up in a yard near Calvine Rd, just east of Vineyard, on the late date of 4/23 and accounted for the only report of the species this month. A Brewer's Sparrow was a nice find at Rancho Seco Park on 4/20. On 4/18, a female Dark-eyed Junco flushed from the ground, revealing a nest containing three eggs on private land along Putah Creek, between Davis and Winters. This species has been confirmed nesting in Davis, but happening upon a nest is a rare surprise. A Vesper Sparrow along Latrobe Rd, Deer Creek Hills, on 4/3 was the only record of the species for the region this month. A Green-tailed Towhee was found on 4/22 at Sacramento Bar along the American River Parkway, and another was visiting a private yard in Fair Oaks on 4/23. The passage of regular Western migrant warblers was on the thin side, but much better than last year, although no rarities were reported this month.
The Sacramento Area as covered here lies 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: Dan Airola, Lyann Comrack, Lynne Craft, Chris Dong, Konshau Duman, Lynette Williams Duman, Gil Ewing, Joshua Greenfield, Cliff Hawley, Mackenzie Hollender, Emmett Iverson, Julian Johnson, Jeri Langham, Andrew Lee, Dan Kopp, Manfred Kusch, Mark Martucci, Eric McKinley, Roger Muskat, Michael Perrone, Zane Pickus, Ron Pozzi, Sonia Santa Anna, Samuel Schmidt, Steve Scott, Sean Smith, Gavin Stacey, Kirk Swenson, Kevin Thomas, John Trochet, Tom Uslan, Jane Van Kessel, and Bill Yeates. Thanks to everyone for their reports--without them, this column would not be possible.