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Cassin's Sparrow
30 May 2005 along Latrobe Road |
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 Sacramento
County is a fairly small county in the middle of the Central Valley,
and centered around the State's capital city, Sacramento. The county was
one of the original 27 counties and is unusual in that its borders have
not significantly changed throughout its history. A long southwestern arm
reaches down to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta bottomlands. There is
much agriculture south of the City of Sacramento, but to the east are mostly
grazing lands, including some extensive grasslands. Purple Martins still
nest in "Old Town," in downtown Sacramento. The Cosumnes River Preserve
in the south part of the county has extensive marshes and riparian corridors,
some of which is now open to the public.
County birding statistics and links are on Joe Morlan's site. |
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For Sacramento County the headline shot is of an
amazing vagrant: a singing Cassin's Sparrow in the eastern grasslands of
this Central Valley county. It was present for about two weeks, and was
the first really 'chaseable' Cassin's in all of northern California; elsewhere
on this web site I have more
details about this bird. These same grasslands along the eastern edge
of the county have nesting Grasshopper Sparrows annually; one of them is
shown below (left; 23 May 1999 along Meiss Road). I have a number of long-time
birding friends who live in Sacramento. I think it was Ed Harper who told
me about this roosting Western Screech-Owl (below right) near the American
River near downtown (4 Apr 1980).
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| All photos & text © 2006 Don Roberson; all rights reserved. | ||
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