Dermot Breen's Blog: February 2015

Saturday, 28 February 2015

California 3rd February 2015

We spent our second morning in coastal California at La Jolla. It was our first visit to rocky shoreline so we were hoping for a few new wader species. We did have a few Black Turnstones feeding amongst the resting California Sea Lions and Brandt's Cormorants. However there was no sign of any Surfbirds or Black Oystercatcher. Thankfully I had an extra week around San Francisco for a second chance at these species. We also had our first Pelagic Cormorants here along with good numbers of Heermann's and Western Gulls.

We spent the afternoon at a nearby local park where several Varied Thrushes had bee reported on eBird. We eventually managed to catch up with a few individuals but they were rather elusive in nature. California has experienced a bit of an influx of this species this winter and they are often difficult to come across in normal winters. We also had our first Califronia Towhees, White-throated Swifts, Red-shouldered Hawks and Goshawk.

Wester and Heerman's Gull

Adult summer Heermann's Gull

Adult winter Heermann's Gull

Adult Heermann's Gull

Second-winter Heermann's Gull

Adult Heermann's Gulls

Adult Heermann's Gull

Adult Western Gull

First-winter Western Gull

Second-winter Western Gull

Third-winter Western Gull

First-winter California Gull

Royal Terns

Royal Tern

Brown Pelican

Pelagic Cormorant

Snowy Egret

Spotted Sandpiper

Black Turnstone

Red-shouldered Hawk

Varied Thrush

White-throated Swift

Hermit Thrush

California Ground Squirrel

This caused a bit of confusion when I called Osprey.

Friday, 27 February 2015

California 2nd February 2015

After arriving in San Ysidro the previous night which headed the short distance up to San Diego harbour to go out on one of the whale watching boat tours. The main focus of these trips are the Pacific Grey Whales that past along here during their migration down to Baja, Mexcio where the females give birth. We saw several Grey Whales during the three hour trip. Their heart-shaped blows were quite distinctive. These trips can also be good for picking seabirds that aren't often seen from the shoreline. The winter months tend to be rather quiet but we still saw a few good seabirds such as several Scripp's Murrelets (recently spilt from Guadalupe Murrelet), Rhinoceros Auklet, Cassin's Auklet, many Black-vented Shearwaters and probably up to ten Brown Boobies. Most of the Murrelets/Auklets were very difficult to get decent views of. They would either dive or fly off long before the boat would come near to them.
There was a heavy military presence in the large harbour as San Diego harbour is largest naval base on the west coast of the United States.

After the boat trip we had a look for California Gnatcatcher which is a species that's restricted to SW California and the Baja peninsula. We had excellent views of these gnatcatchers that seem to keep themselves to low scrubby vegetation that seemed to be common in the undeveloped areas of this area of California.