Bird-Biking for Lunch

Some places are made for birding by bike and Laguna Lake is one of them. I had 1 1/2 hours for lunch today so I pedalled over to the lake to look for geese and other wintering species. Birding is like gambling in that you never know for sure what hand you are going to be dealt. Today I was getting good hands - in an hour of biding at the lake and on Foothill Road in san Luis Obispo I added 10 new BIGBY species. Working the edge of the lake from Madonna Road all the way to the very back end of the lake usually yields some interesting species and today I had an immature Thayer's Gull, a young Merlin, and 6 Wilson's Snipe. While there was a Cackling Goose (Aleutian Cackling Goose pictured above) near the front of the lake with a few Canada Geese, the main flock was to the west, across Foothill, to the ponds visible from Foothill and Los Osos Valley Road. Eleven Ross' Geese were mixed in with a large flock of Canadas and over 30 White-fronted Geese. There was a good variety of ducks including a male Gadwall right next to Foothill. A Cooper's Hawk and 3 Tree Swallows completed my days total of new BIGBY species. And I got back to work on time!