Dermot Breen's Blog: pacific diver

Thursday, 16 April 2015

California 18th February 2015

So managed to eventually get out into Monterey Bay on one of the whale watching trips on my last full day of the US trip. We saw a lot of Rhinoceros Auklets but most would dive as the boat approached them. Smaller numbers of Cassin's Auklets but these would fly off at even greater distances. A few Black-vented Shearwaters and two Northern Fulmars really the only other proper seabirds around. I was expecting much anyway given the time of year though. Certainly the highlight had to be a very inquisitive Humpback Whale that came right up to another whale watching boat and later came to ours. I've never experienced anything like it before. The exhalant breath was over-powering!

I headed down along the Big Sur coastline to have a look for California Condors. Plenty of Turkey Vultures and a nice pair of Golden Eagles but no condors unfortunately.

Black-vented Shearwater, Heermann's and Western Gulls

Black-vented Shearwater

Pacific Fulmar

Great northern Diver

Pacific Diver

First-winter male Red-breasted Merganser

Surf Scoter

Cassin's Auklet

Rhinoceros Auklet

Black Phoebe

Great Blue Heron

Lincoln's Sparrow

Varied Thrush

Harbour Seal

Humpback Whale

Pacific Grey Whales

Sea Otter

Saturday, 7 March 2015

Arizona 7th February 2015

So we were back again in Arizona. We checked out the Santa Cruz flats. This is a big area of agricultural land that has a good amount of turf lawns. This is one of the favourite wintering locations for Mountain Plover. Despite a good search we didn't see any on this occasion although we had big numbers of Buff-bellied Pipits along with Shore (Horned) Lark, Prairie Falcon, Yellow-headed Blackbirds and Bendire's Thrasher,

Yellow-headed Blackbirds

Black-tailed Gnatcatcher

Prairie Falcon

Shorelark

Further along the road we made a quick stop at the small lake at Amado Sewerage Plant which had a Pacific Diver on it for a while. As you can guess the species isn't exactly common inland. It wasn't to hard to pick up especially with a few local birders already being on it. It spent most of its time asleep. It also showed a lot of while all along the flanks.

Pacific Diver

We ended up at Tubac at the end of the day where the target was the long staying and very rare Sinaloa Wren. This Mexican species is extremely rare in the US and this one had been holding territory here for nearly a year and had even built a nest. We spent a few hours here looking for it. Eventually just two of our group happened to see it very briefly. Even though the rest of us missed it there were a few other good birds about the place such as Broad-billed Hummingbird, Rufous-crowned Sparrow, Bewick's Wrens, White-winged Dove, Bridled Titmouse and Pyrrhuloxia. We would have another try for the Sinaloa in two days time though.

Broad-billed Hummingbird, showing its broad bill.

Broad-billed Hummingbird

Bridled Titmouse

Bewick's Wren

Green-tailed Towhee

Rufous-winged Sparrow