A Brit abroad

Loonacy! Part 2

A little more about an excellent day's birding around Monterey Bay. We enjoyed excellent views of the Elkhorn Slough Yellow-billed Loon feeding, preening and napping from Kirby Park (see previous entry for many photos of this bird). Also at this location was a Merlin devouring an unidentified shorebird, several Forster's Terns and my first California Caspian Terns.

Next stop was the Moonglow dairy, a migrant trap located next to a cattle ranch. There was little migrant activity here, though we had nice views of Anna's and Allen's Hummingbirds, and not-so-nice views of Turkey Vultures devouring a dead cow!

We then drove to Santa Cruz to chase up a report of a Rock Sandpiper at the high tide Black Turnstone roost on West Cliff Drive. We failed to locate the bird (though it was seen about 90 minutes before we arrived - ouch!), but did see a single Wandering Tattler and a few Black Oystercatchers. A few more stops along the coast west to Natural Bridges beach were surprisingly fruitful. Several Pacific Loons were coming into summer plumage, and amongst the more numerous Pigeon Guillemots we were treated to a pair of Marbled Murrelets and a single Ancient Murrelet close inshore (both new birds for me). Mammal-watching was good too, with a few Gray Whales seen at close range and a party of Sea Otters anchored in the kelp.

Our last stop of the day was Neary Lagoon, to look for Black-and-White and Palm Warblers which had been seen in the last few days. Some searching turned up a couple of Orange-crowned and many Audubon's Warblers, but not the desired duo. However, this was more than compensated for by the wonderful views we obtained of a Pied-billed Grebe nest and Wood Duck family. Here are a few shots of mother and chick Pied-billed Grebe - amazingly, she was hiding 6 chicks about her person!

Posted by rjhall at April 19, 2004 5:51 AM