~3600 miles and 30 new species later, I am elated to be in Oakland at Noah's lovely home. The biting cold was wearing on me a bit, but oddly seeing the wind farms around Mojave was the first visual that really improved morale. It also reminded me of the bankrupted startup I interned at which was headquartered there.

We are preparing a vat of vegetable stew and I'm recounting to him what's led up to this point. The saga of the Oklahoma dust storm somehow feels like ages ago. 

This marks roughly a quarter of the trip complete and it's time the birding ramps up. In the morning I went to a cemetery up the block which was teeming with Bay Area year-round species. Its topography was not dissimilar to Green-Wood Cemetery, and it was charming to see some West Coast relatives behaving in similar ways, like this Black Phoebe which seem to love perching on tombstones. 

 

A very exciting bird to see out here, the idiosyncratic Acorn Woodpecker. 

 

My fourth chickadee so far, Chestnut-Backed!

 

One of three Violet-green Swallows orbiting a Palm tree:

 

 

I saw and heard several other lifers as well. It was beatific.

 

TODAY: 29

 

LIFE LIST: 207 -> 217