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Having found a large aggregation of hawks south of Grimes on March 13 we drove to scout the Plainfield Elementary School area that was so productive in the past (December 2018, February 2019, July 2019). The productive times were characterized by big alfalfa fields which have been rotated out with a simultaneous lack of hawk masses. Today we spotted 3 Swainson’s hawks: one perched on a bare tree limb and two were soaring high.

We moved on to Yolo ByPass. The yellow-headed blackbirds were scarce, but there were still a good number of red-winged blackbirds. Photos were taken of relatively tame red-wings perched in wild mustard near the edge of the road. We also saw high altitude Swainson’s and ravens. There was a quick look at a fast moving harrier.
Ponds were full of shorebirds including lots of resting greater yellowlegs and some nice white-faced ibis.

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