California 15th February 2015

I started the day in the Golden Gate Park where a Rustic Bunting had been wintering for much of the winter. I managed to find the right spot and was joined by half a dozen other birders later on. There were plenty of sparrows and juncos feeding in the bunting spot but despite waiting for an hour and a half it was a no show during that whole time. I would have seen it had I stuck it out but I really didn't have enough time to be wasting on a single species even if they are very rare in the States. Lots of other birds and places to see.

I headed north from here, thankfully the traffic wasn't too bad as I was leaving San Francisco. It was a bit surreal driving over the Golden Gate bridge having seen so many pictures of it and seeing it in numerous films. Point Reyes National Seashore was my next destination. This is a huge area encompassing a large range of different habitats. I had a short walk around the visitor centre. It was very busy here which wasn't surprising considering it was a Sunday. Parking was a bit of an issue which wasn't helped by a few snarky folk with horse boxes. "Horsey" people only just come second to golfers in my distain league! I had my two ticks of the day here - Pacific Wren and California Quail.

I then headed out towards the headland of Point Reyes but had to get hop onto a big shuttle bus out to the Chimney Rock. I didn't bother with the Lighthouse on the way along the way as most on the tourists hopped off here. There was a Northern Elephant Seal colony viewpoint near the Lifeboat Station which gave good but distant views of about two hundred seals on the pebble beach included several dead pups which may have been accidently crushed by the enormous battling bulls. A few of the "beachmasters" looked like they had been branded with identifying marker numbers. I had four Brown Boobies out on Chimney Rock itself in with a few cormorants and gulls. There was also a Great Horned Owl calling from the Lifeboat Station but I didn't have time to look for it as the last bus of the day was due to leave around the same time. On the way back to the car park a few calving Friesian cows seemed to be a big novelty for most on the bus. Probably not a common sight in suburban California in fairness!

Two Brown Boobies

Four Brown Boobies

Female California Quail

Male California Quail

American Robin

Black Phoebe,

Black Phoebe

Fox Sparrow (Slate-coloured?)

Golden-crowned Sparrow

Golden-crowned Sparrow

Hermit Thrush

Pacific Wren

Song Sparrow

Male Townsend's Warbler

Male Western Bluebird

White-tailed Deer

White-tailed Deer

White-tailed Deer

White-tailed Deer

Tule Elk

Bull Northern Elephant Seal

Mother and pup Northern Elephant Seal

Northern Elephant Seals

 

California 1st February 2015

We were finally in California and would remain in the State for the next six days. Our morning spot was in the Santa Rosa/San Jacinto Mountains. The line up of birds here was distinctly different from what we had seen of so far. This would also be one of the few high elevation spots that we visited in California. The quality and quantity was really good. It was particularly good for woodpeckers with six species seen which included Acorn Woodpecker, Williamson's & Red-breasted Sapsuckers, Nuttall's & Hairy Woodpecker and Northern Flicker. We failed on our attempt of White-headed Woodpecker here though. We also clocked up some nice passerines here like California Scrub-Jay (Western Scrub-Jay split into California and Woodhouse's by IOC), Mountain Chickadee, Oak Titmouse, Pygmy Nuthatch, Brown Creeper and Golden-crowned Sparrow (only ones of the tour surprisingly). There seemed to be birds on show all of the time.

American Bushtit

American Robin

Acorn Woodpecker

Acorn Woodpecker

Brown Creeper

California Scrub Jay

"Oregon" Junco

Fox Sparrow

Golden-crowned Sparrow

Hairy Woodpecker

Lesser Goldfinch

Mountain Chickadee

Nuttall's Woodpecker

Pygmy Nuthatch

Red-breasted Sapsucker

Red-breasted Sapsucker

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

White-breasted Nuthatch

William's Sapsucker

William's Sapsucker

 

Wrentit

Our next stop was along the way to San Diego. We were travelling along the Ramona Expressway when we passed a large farmyard pond which had good numbers of gulls. This proved to be a very productive site for a larophile like myself. There were about six first-winter Thayer's Gull in amongst the mainly Cailifornia and Ring-bills. There were smaller numbers of American Herring and Glaucous-winged Gulls also present. On reviewing the shots I spotted a likely adult Thayer's candidate which wasn't noticed at the time at all. This pond also attracted a fly-over Merlin and a pair of White-faced Ibis.

 



White-faced Ibis

First-winter American Herring Gull

Adult California Gull

First-winter California Gull

Mostly California Gull with a few Ring-bills and American Herrrings.

First-winter Thayer's standing in the water with a possible adult on the left.

First-winter Glaucous-winged Gull

First-winter Thayer's Gull

First-winter Thayer's Gull

First-winter Thayer's Gull

Three first-winter Thayer's Gulls

Three first-winter Thayer's Gulls

Two first-winter Thayer's Gull with Ring-billed, California, Glaucous-winged and American Herring Gulls

Merlin

Our very last stop of the day was at San Jacinto Wildlife Area where the aim was Tricoloured Blackbird. We eventually picked up at least one monotone female which was distinctive against numerous brighter coloured female Red-winged Blackbirds. To finish off the day we had very close views of a Sora Rail right by the track although it typically kept very close to the dense vegetation while the rapidly disappearing light meant that all of my shots were rather blurry.
We made our way south into San Ysidro in the darkness which is only a kilometre away from the Mexican border. The drive was certainly one of the toughest bit of driving I've ever done. Trying to keep up with James's van in rapidly increasing and decreasing speeds in up to six lanes of traffic at times was challenging to the say the least! I was glad when we finally reached our destination.



American Coot

"Harlans" Red-tailed Hawk

"Harlans" Red-tailed Hawk



Sora Rail



Tricoloured Blackbird

Tricoloured Blackbird with Red-winged Blackbird