Dermot Breen's Blog: bufflehead

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Saturday, 28 March 2015

California 14th February 2015

Most of today didn't quite go to plan but it did have it good parts.
At least two Nelson's Sparrows had been reported from Elkhorn Slough recently so that was my destination first thing in the morning. They were reported from a series of ponds adjacent to the south side of the slough/estuary but trying to assess them proved to be impossible. One track which came near to them lead down to a dairy farmyard which looked like private property so I promptly left before being shot. Another track way down to the estuary came to an end shortly after leaving the main road so the Nelson's Sparrows were a no go.
I tried the reserve centre a few miles away to see if there was much there but this was closed and wouldn't open for another two hours.
I drove further around the estuary to try and get close enough to have a look. A little further on up the way the road passed right by a section of the estuary. There was a handy pull-in spot on the left hand side of the road which I parked in. I had look from here seeing Cinnamon Teal, Blue-winged Teal and American White Pelicans along with lots of other waterbirds. I headed back to the car and was messing with the Sat Nav for a few minutes when there was a knock on the window. There was a County Sherriff standing beside the window who looked like he was going on patrol in Sangin, Helmand rather than rural California! I had apparently parked on the wrong side of the road, facing oncoming traffic even though I was completely pulled off the road. I wasn't going to argue with him and after asking if there were any outstanding warrants out for me (!) and checking my details he was quite friendly and let me off on my way. He also said I shouldn't be driving without an International driving license which I also didn't quite understand - why would a car hire company give me a car for a week if I didn't have the proper license? Anyway drama over and onto the next spot which was the beach on the north side of Moss Landing. A flock of gulls sitting inside of the channel entrance held one first-winter and an adult Thayer's Gull although they weren't particularly close. There were a lot of typical California surfers making good use a big swell off the sand dunes. One Red-necked Grebe and at least one male White-winged Scoter were in with the numerous Surf Scoters offshore.

My main plan today was to get one of the Whale watching trips out from Monterey in the afternoon. I dropped into Laguna Grande Regional Park which was only a short distance away. This was a great little site with lots of passerine action. Big numbers of Audubon's Warblers which contained my only tick of the day in the form of Townsend's Warbler. There were several of these very bright warblers present.

I left here and made my to the Fisherman's Wharf. Even though it was only 3 miles away it took a good half an hour to drive there thanks to very heavy traffic. On arriving at the large car park I discovered that there were completely full and had been closed to incoming traffic. I hadn't counted on the fact that it was a Saturday and Valentines Day on top of that so it was exceptionally busy. The whale watching trip would have to wait.

I eventually managed to escape from the town and made my way along the coast towards Point Pinos. I made several stops along here and it proved to be a very productive stretch of rocky coastline. Most of the birds here were accustomed to people as it was a popular tourist area. I really enjoyed the Surfbirds in particular. There were good numbers of Black-vented Shearwaters and Pacific Divers passing offshore but there was no sign of the hoped for auklets or murrelets. I also had a nice close first-winter Thayer's Gull here on the rocks with a small gull flock. The Thayer's shots are slightly ruined by a brown wash that has been added when I uploaded them here. This brown wash is apparent on a lot of the shots and it's not something I've noticed in the past but it is very annoying.

To top of the day my accommodation for the night was a bit of an nightmare. To top off the fact that it was a weekend on Valentines day I quickly discovered that some stupid Pro Am Golf tournament was taking place locally so there was zero accommodation to be had in Monterey, as if I needed another reason to completely detest golf and everything that comes with it! I left Monterey and tried Salinas, 20 miles away and everything there was also completely full. I think I tried another town even further away (it was getting rather late at this stage) and it was the same story. I eventually ended up all the way back in San Jose just south of San Francisco. I normally don't book motels when on trips like this and it obviously didn't end well on this occasion. Richard Bonser and co were in the same area on the same day and they had the exact same problem. I didn't have any disasters with accommodation after this on the trip thankfully, things could only improve after today!

Adult Brandt's Cormorant

Immature Brandt's Cormorant

Pied-billed Grebe

Male Bufflehead

Red-shouldered Hawk

Black Oystercatcher

Black Turnstone

Grey Plover

Hudsonian Whimbrel

Hudsonian Whimbrels

Hudsonian Whimbrel and Marbled Godwit

Marbled Godwit

Surfbird and Black Turnstone

Surfbird

First-winter American Herring Gull

First-winter Glaucous-winged Gull

First-winter Glaucous-winged Gull with a first-winter Thayer's Gull

First-winter Thayer's Gull

Adult Thayer's Gull

First-winter Heermann's Gull

Adult Heermann's Gulls

Adult winter Herrmann's Gull

Second-winter Heermann's Gull

American Bushtit

Male Brewer's Blackbird

California Scrub Jay

Townsend's Warbler

California Ground Squirrel

Tuesday, 24 March 2015

California 13th February 2015

So I was to be in my own company for the next week. This is how I usually bird for the majority of my time out birding anyway. As much as I enjoyed the tour and the participant's company I have to say it was a bit of a release not to be on other peoples timetable and trying to round up tour members into the van which was like trying to herd cats at times ;-) As I've mentioned before my aim for this week was to spend a bit more time by the coast and concentrate on some target species. I would also have a lot more time to spend on photography and found the quality of my shots increased during my solo week.

I had flown into San Francisco the previous evening and was out at the Lucy Evans Baylands Centre first thing in the morning. This is right by San Francisco Bay and the saltmarshes here are supposed to be a favourite spot for Ridgway's, Virginia and even Black Rails (rarely seen). The boardwalk across the saltmarsh beyond the Interpretive Centre was closed when I arrived as it looked like it was falling apart. So that was that plan for rails out the window! However the area around here was still excellent. I was amazed at how common Golden-crowned Sparrows were here and just about everywhere else during the week in Northern California. During the first two weeks we had only seen the species once up in the San Jacinto Mountains. There was a decent amount of duck about also. I really wanted to get acquainted with Canvasback on this trip. We had already seen numerous Canvasbacks on the trip already but I had some really nice close views of them at this site. Some of the birds seemed to digging around in the mud at the bottom of lagoons for food as a few came up with their foreheads covered in black mud. A few male Greater Scaup were also giving great views on the Duck Pond as well. Interesting wingbar pattern on one bird which flapped while I was there.

From here then I left the "Bay area" and headed west up into the hills which stand between the bay area and the Pacific coastline. I hadn't planned on stopping here but as I was making good time I dropped into Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve. Some nice large redwoods here which was a habitat that I hadn't yet visited. I had been hoping to add new species such as California Quail (surprisingly missed it on the tour), Pacific Wren, Band-tailed Pigeon and Townsend's Warbler. Although I didn't get any of these here (got all later in the week) I managed one tick in the form of Chestnut-backed Chickadee, which proved to be common during the week. There were a few ther good birds here as back-up like a showy Wrentit, Pygmy Nuthatch, lots of Steller's Jays and Hutton's Vireo.

I hit the Pacific coastline next and headed south until I got to Pescadero State Beach. This proved to be a productive spot for me. My main reason for visiting here was the presence of male Harlequin Duck. It's an area of rocky shoreline and with a minute of setting up the scope I had ticked Surfbird and Black Oystercatcher along with the bonus of seeing more Black Turnstones. Following a tip-off from another birder on site I picked up the male Harlequin beyond the breakers. Harlequin's are far from common in this area of California so it was a good one to see. Most of the stuff was just too distant for photography unfortunately.

I continued south stopping off at Lake Lucerne which is just off the Cabrillo Highway. There wasn't a huge amount of birds on the lake although there were about 50 Mew Gulls washing in the freshwater, the biggest gathering of Mews that I had seen yet. They proceeded to fly overhead as they made their way back out to the coast which gave a good opportunity for photos. It was good to get an idea of the variation in the wing patterns of several individuals. Surprisingly of the 50 or so birds present there was only one second-winter and no first-winters at all.

The final stop of the day was Pigeon Point Lighthouse. This is know as a seawatching spot with the right conditions and I was hoping for possibly a few auklets and/or murrelets offshore. The conditions while I was there weren't obviously up to much as it was very quiet. Some nice views of Bottle-nosed Dolphins passing close by the point though. I spent the night in Santa Cruz.