Poecile atricapillus

Had a 7-hour birdathon up the north coast with B today. What a day it was: two lifers (a Northern Shrike and a Thayer's Gull), a Yellow-Shafted Flicker (a new type of Northern Flicker for me), piles and piles of ducks, and many a little wintertime passerine, including sparrows, thrushes, kinglets, warblers, and Black-Capped Chickadees (who is blipped above).

Black-Caps are one of two species of chickadee found here on the northern California coast, the other being the Chestnut-Backed. I see both regularly but this one less so--thus it's always a small thrill to find them. The freedom to bird unhindered is certainly not something I am taking for granted during this break from school.