Dermot Breen's Blog: black-necked grebe

Saturday, 4 April 2015

California 16th February 2015

Been very busy with work of late, more of that in due time. Continuing on with the US trip I started the morning of 16th February in search of an American Dipper that was being reported from the Leo Cronin Fish Viewing Area near Point Reyes. After a bit of searching along the river and its two tributaries I came across the bird on the Lagunitas Creek which lies just below Peters Dam. Cracking bird and a bit more approachable than our own European/White-throated Dipper. The light was a horrendous for photography underneath the huge redwood trees and early in the morning.

On leaving the Point Reyes area I came across a small flock of Band-tailed Pigeons around the village of Olema, my first and last of the trip. A little further on up the road I had a large flock of Pine Siskins feeding in Eucalyptus trees at Millerton Point beside Tomales Bay, another overdue lifer. From here I headed up to Bodega Bay. This is supposed to be another good area of coastline for waterbirds. My first stop here was by Diekmanns Bay Store which overlooks Bodega Bay. A wintering Lucy's Warbler was using shrubby vegetation just below the small store. There were numerous Nashville and Orange-crowned Warblers also wintering here but no sign of the Lucy's Warbler. Several birders came and went in the hour I was there but it didn't show for anyone during that time.

I explored the bay itself and had very close views of Great northern Diver, Slavonian, Black-necked Grebes right by the roadside. There wasn't the large numbers of waders or wildfowl that I was expecting despite the low tide. As I headed out to the west side of the peninsula I encountered a thick wall of sea fog making it impossible to look out onto the Pacific. This was another spot I was hoping to pick one or two murrelets/auklets namely Marbled or Ancient. I never did manage to see either of these on the trip.

While I was passing by Diekmanns Bay Store again I decided to have a look at the shrub from the waterside. I flushed a small grey warbler from an isolated patch of willows on arrival. Thankfully I managed to get brief but good views of the Lucy's Warbler a few minutes later. I finished up reasonably early in the evening as I was travelling up to see the wintering Falcated Duck up north at Colusa the following day. The traffic along the north side of San Pablo Bay on the 37 was grim but I eventually made up to Williams which is very close to the Falcated Duck site.

American Dipper

Black-necked Grebe

Slavonian and Black-necked Grebe

Slavonian and Black-necked Grebes

Slavonian Grebe

Great Northern Diver

Great Northern Diver with crab.

Black Brant

Mostly Lesser Scaup with some Ruddy Duck, Bufflehead and Western Grebe.

Female Goosander

Female Red-breasted Merganser

Peregrine

Marbled Godwit

Coloured ringed first-winter Western Gull

Nashville Warbler

Orange-crowned Warbler

Pacific Wren

Varied Thrush

Saturday, 14 March 2015

Arizona 10th February 2015

Our first stop today was on the outskirts of Willcox town in an area of shrubby desert. James picked up a Harris Hawk which perched up on a telephone pole. We also had a bird carrying in nest material into a small copse beside a house. It was great to see this species in the wild as opposed to in captivity. They're very popular falconry birds. This was quite a fortunate stop as it was an incredible "birdy" spot with lots of birds in the mesquite brush on both sides of the road. Today was quite a good day for sparrows. Between this and other spots during the day we had Brewer's, Black-throated, Chipping, Vespers, Savannah, Song, Lincoln's, White-crowned, Lark Bunting, Green-tailed and Canyon Towhee. Also by this roadside stop we had our only Vermilion Flycatchers of the trip(amazing looking things), Cactus Wren, Curve-billed Thrasher, Crissal Thrasher and Pryyhuloxia.

We tried the Twin Lakes on the other side of town. This can be a good spot for Chestnut-collared Longspurs with the very occasional McCown's Longspur. Our luck had been a little poor while trying for some target species on this trip and unfortunately that bad luck seemed to hold out yet again. There was a good selection of duck on the lake and we were fortunate to come across a large covey of Scaled Quail as we were leaving the site. They kept very close to cover and the best views of them were to be had as they ran rapidly from cover to cover.

Our next spot was back further South again, this time at Whitewater Draw. This wetland must have been named in a somewhat ironic manner as I've never seen such muddy water before! As we arrived into the car park we could see a large open sided barn right by the car park. Amazingly there was a roosting Great Horned Owl sat inside in the gable end completely unperturbed by the many birders watching from below. This was beginning to become a bit of a bogey bird for me. I've previously missed them on my two previous US trips so it was great to get such good views of a species that is relatively common in the States.
The other big attraction of this site is the huge roost of Sandhill Cranes. Estimates vary from 20,000 to 30,000 birds and there was certainly a good proportion of these here during our time at the site. They really are quality birds and it really was a spectacle to see and hear so many birds together. A few of the younger birds were busy displaying trying to attract a mate which consisted of jumping quite a height straight up off the ground while giving its "bugling" call. I went a bit OTT on shots of the cranes but they were very hard to resist. I've uploaded a video of part of the flock of cranes below.

Whitewater Draw Sandhill Cranes from Dermot Breen on Vimeo.

An American lady who was photographing the cranes with what appeared to be a 800mm lens, had brought along a child's buggy to carry the large lens, not a bad idea. On the way back North to our motel in Benson we passed through the famous town of Tombstone, scene of the O.K. Corral gunfight.