Date: 10/28/26 4:44 pm From: Denise Hamilton via groups.io <2napabirders...> Subject: [northbaybirds] If you haven't seen enough Lewis's Woodpeckers this fall, head to Lake Berryessa
Hi all,
David and I went out to Lake Berryessa, Napa Co, yesterday just to see what
is out there. Stops at the Olive Orchard Day Use area and a stop at the
Eticuera Creek 'fishing area' that comes* before* the day use area with the
bathroom added some nice birds to the trip. (At Eticuera Creek Day Use
Area (where we've seen Vesper Sparrows in the past years) is now a staging
area for a lot of stuff for some PG&E work out on East Side Rd, so not very
birdy at times.)
No ducks out on the lake yet, just lots of Coots and Canada Geese. We
drove to the end of East Side Rd, seeing a few Lewis's Woodpeckers, but
when we turned around to drive back they were everywhere! Going down to
the lake for a drink, hawking insects and chasing each other around. And a
first for us was seeing multiple birds several times down on the road
eating grit. Birds of the World, online states: *Grit, from small rocks,
makes up large component (50–98%) of stomach contents during periods of
fall and winter when acorns are part of diet, but much less during summer
(Neff 1928a, Snow 1941).*
We counted over 60 birds out there, guessing probably more since they were
constantly on the move. This eBird reports shows a pic of them down on the
road:
Then we drove down Berryessa-Knoxville Rd about 3 miles where we came upon
more Lewies!! This time, some were flying around so high, they looked more
like swifts or swallows. Well over 100 of them here! eBird report has
more info:
