A Brit abroad

Back to Point Reyes

After completing a 16 hour Bird-a-thon the day before, any sensible person would have spent Sunday morning in bed recovering. However, when Marcel said he was heading back out to Point Reyes, I didn't need much persuading, so off we headed at 5am! We saw a few more migrants than on last week's trip, but numbers were still well below par for this classic migration site. The outer Point held a single Red-breasted Nuthatch! The New Willows again played host to photogenic Great Horned and Barn Owls.

A female American Redstart was the best of the migrants here, though we had inconclusive views of a MacGillivray's-type Warbler which may have been a Mourning. Raptors were much in evidence, and a couple of Peregrines put on a fine aerial display for us.

Drake's Beach provided some fine opportunities for photographing Elegant Terns.

Some of the adults had an obvious rosy flush to the underparts.

Look at the bill on this guy!

Juvenile Elegants look pretty different from the adults: note the difference in the bill shape (shorter and bulkier in juvs) and leg colour.

Plenty of Heerman's Gulls were also loafing on the beach.

After a much-needed ice cream in Point Reyes Station, we birded the woods adjacent to Bolinas Lagoon. Here we found a large warbler flock, including many Townsend's and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. I had brief views of a bird which Marcel was convinced was a Tennessee, and there was at least one other 'funny' warbler which eluded identification in the canopy.

The highlight of the day occurred on the way home, when Marcel spotted my first ever Bobcat. It stood for several minutes looking at us disdainfully before slinking off into the trees.

This Say's Phoebe also sat around for long enough to be photographed.

Bird-a-thon!

Last Saturday, I joined Roger Adamson, Betty Berteaux and Joan Humphrey in the PRBO Bird-a-thon (for those not in the know, this involves racing around the county trying to see as many species as possible in a 24 hour period). The aim of the Bird-a-thon was to raise money to fund a study of breeding Black-necked Stilts and American Avocets in the Central Valley. We spent a total of 16 hours in the field, and with some effort managed to rack up 129 species for the day. Rather than give you a bird-by-bird account of the trip, I've attached a list of the birds we saw at the end of this article.

Personal highlights were a most unexpected Grasshopper Sparrow in the Yolo Wildlife area (a life bird for Betty), 10 species of duck and 4 species of swallow at the City of Davis Wetlands (maybe down to 3 after a Cooper's Hawk ate one of them!). We had good views of a Turkey flock on Road 41, as well as a stunning view over the Capay Valley.

Up on Rayhouse Road, we put much effort into teasing out the chaparral species, but were rewarded with prolonged looks at this Sage Sparrow.

At Davis Creek Reservoir, we were treated to an atmospheric sunset...

... and I managed to digiscope the moon rise.

Having started the day with a Burrowing Owl by flashlight, we finished with a nice haul of calling owls (Northern Pygmy, Great Horned and Western Screech) and a most co-operative Common Poorwill sitting in the road.

The full trip list can be seen here

100th entry!

And it barely feels like I've started blogging! This week has seen a large influx of winter birds (White-crowned Sparrow, Yellow-rumped Warbler, American Robin, Cedar Waxwing) as well as the usual migrants. A migrant Spotted Towhee at Willowbank was my first for the site, while a MacGillivray's Warbler at the Pedrick Road bridge was a pleasant surprise. While scouting for a bird walk around UCD Arboretum for the new grad students, I came across this pretty male Cooper's Hawk.

The Peahen who thinks she's a duck continues to inhabit the west end of the arboretum - I'd love to know if she swam out to this island!

The bird walk itself was lots of fun. We had about 30 people, and a good selection of birds including both Nuthatches, a few warblers, and a drake Wood Duck. Most people got good views of Black Phoebe, Anna's Hummingbird and this smart Green Heron.

(Almost) a perfect day

Yesterday I headed into San Francisco to meet up with my great aunt and uncle, who have been on an exhaustive 2 week tour taking in LA, the Grand Canyon, Vegas and Yosemite. By happy coincidence, Fort Mason in downtown SF had hosted Dickcissel, Tennessee Warbler and Blackpoll Warbler over the last week, all of which would be new US birds for me. As a result, I got up stupidly early to catch the train, and arrived at Fort Mason at around 8:20am, in surprisingly warm, still weather.

Within minutes of arriving, another birder pointed out the Dickcissel sitting in a bare tree! The bird was somewhat larger than the accompanying House Sparrows, and its bright coloration suggests that it is an adult male. I managed a few not too wonderful digibinned photos of the bird in the tree, foraging underneath the bird feeder and an unexpected flight shot!

The feeder also attracted an unexpected Tricolored Blackbird, and this odd-looking Junco. Other birders reported Pink-sided Junco from this site today: is this the bird? And if so, why?

Given the high levels of bird activity and gorgeous weather, I ditched plans to go shopping and instead spent the next 4 hours birding around the Fort. During this time I saw a fly-by Yellow-shafted Flicker (or hybrid), 6 Sparrow spp (including Chipping and 2 races of Fox) and hordes of Pygmy Nuthatches. Another real surprise was a large and vocal flock of feral Red-masked (aka Cherry-headed) Parakeets - are these birds tickable?

When the sun became too hot, I found sitting on the shaded hill behind the youth hostel to be an excellent spot: in an hour's watch I noted huge numbers of migrants (see below), the best of which was my life Tennessee Warbler, a very grey bird with diagnostic white undertail coverts and strong supercilium. A Ruby-crowned Kinglet and (Audubon's) Yellow-rumped Warbler were my first of the fall.

After the morning's excitement, I spent the afternoon enjoying the view from Coit Tower and sharing a tasty Italian meal with my great aunt and uncle. All in all, the day went pretty much perfectly, until I came to get the train back to Davis. To cut a long story short, the 2 hour journey actually ended up taking 4.5 hours thanks to someone thoughtfully leaving shopping carts on the track, a police incident and a power blackout on the train! The latter problem was solved by attaching a couple of flashlights to the front of the train and crawling back to Davis at a snail's pace!

Read on to see a list of birds seen from Fort Mason, plus a few random scenery shots.

Birds seen from Fort Mason, 22nd September 2004

Brown Pelican, Elegant Tern, Heerman's Gull - good numbers of each in the Bay.
Cooper's Hawk - 2, possibly migrants.
Red-masked Parakeet - at least 50 birds in a noisy flock
Mourning Dove - lots
Yellow-shafted and Red-shafted Flicker
Downy Woodpecker
Rufous and Anna's Hummingbirds
Willow, Olive-sided, Pacific-slope Flycatchers and Western Wood-Pewee - a hat trick!
Vireo sp (probably Warbling)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 1, my first of fall
Pygmy Nuthatch - superabundant!
Western Tanager - by far the commonest migrant, larger numbers than I've ever seen in one place before
Warblers: Orange-crowned (10+, both races), TENNESSEE (1, lifer), Yellow (100+, commonest warbler), (Audubon's) Yellow-rumped (2), Black-throated Gray (5), Townsend's (2), Common Yellowthroat (1).
Tricolored Blackbird - 1 coming to feeder
Brown-headed Cowbird - 1
Western Meadowlark - 5, migrants?
DICKCISSEL - a life bird
Sparrows: House, White-crowned (both abundant), Fox (10ish, Slate-colored and Sooty), Savannah (10s), Lincoln's (3), Chipping (1).
Junco: 1 of unidentified race
Starling - lots, unfortunately
House Finch
American Goldfinch

Alcatraz as viewed from Fort Mason

The Financial District viewed from the Bay Bridge

Looking west from Coit Tower

Auntie Evelyn, Uncle Fred and I at Coit Tower

A close-up of the Trans-America Pyramid

More signs of winter around Davis

Last weekend we had our first rain here in Davis since early May! Since then the rain has abated, but the morning chill is decidedly autumnal. Flocks of American Robins are already appearing over North Davis, and on Monday I had a seven sparrow day (House, White-crowned, Golden-crowned, Lincoln's and Fox in Solano Park, plus Savannah and Song at the City of Davis Wetlands).

It turns out that I'm doing another Big Day in Yolo Co. this weekend, to raise some money for a project looking at breeding Stilts and Avocets in the Central Valley. On Monday evening, Joan and I scouted out the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, and were pleasantly surprised to discover plenty of suitable shorebird habitat, as well as a single Horned Lark (one of our Big Day target birds). A nice flock of California Gulls (interspersed with Ring-billed Gulls, Caspian Terns and a few Cattle Egrets) looked great bathed in the evening light.

Wot no migrants?

The thought of a trip to Point Reyes in mid-September is enough to get any birder's adrenaline pumping, so the expectations of Pete, Margaret, Marcel and myself were high as we left Davis at 5am. On arriving at the lighthouse, the only passerines in sight were the resident White-crowned Sparrows! The rest of the peninsula was disappointingly quiet migrant-wise: we failed to relocate a Tropical Kingbird that another birder had seen that morning, and only managed to find a single Yellow Warbler at Drake's Beach!

Fortunately, there was plenty of other wildlife to keep us interested. I was very impressed by my first living Striped Skunk - they really are pretty animals! The Tricolored Blackbird flocks were entertaining, and a steady passage of Turkey Vultures continued through the morning. We did surprisingly well for daytime Barn Owl sightings: we spotted 3 different roosting birds, including this rather sickly-looking individual.

A Great Horned Owl was also showing well in willows near the Elephant Seal viewpoint at Chimney Rock.

Seabirds were also obliging here. We saw the three regular loons including my first CA record of Red-throated Loon, still in summer plumage.

Amongst the Common Murres and Pigeon Guillemots was this Marbled Murrelet, only my second encounter with this species.

A couple of Wandering Tattlers were my first of the fall.

At Drake's Beach I was able to get close-up shots of this smart adult winter Ring-billed Gull...

... and this first-winter Western Gull.

Our next target was the Cassin's Sparrow reported at Stinson Beach. En route to this site, we saw a group of birders at Bolinas Lagoon, but they didn't seem to be looking at anything in particular so we pressed on. The sparrow's favoured site was a tiny strip of long grass alongside a parking lot, which was depressingly full of noisy people (someone was actually having a birthday party here), so we only gave it about 5 minutes before deciding it was a lost cause!

Back at Bolinas, we learned that a Chestnut-sided Warbler had been spotted around the time we drove past a group of birders in the same spot - oops! We searched for this bird without success, but did at least come across a reasonable flock of warblers, and my first Hutton's Vireo and Chestnut-backed Chickadees in a while. The lagoon itself was very birdy, and a Peregrine was terrorising the ducks and shorebirds before alighting on a post next to an Osprey. Elegant Terns, always nice to see, were here in good numbers (Marcel estimated at leats 160 birds). Brown Pelicans were in a feeding frenzy, flapping frantically to stay airborne just above water level while trawling the shallows with their enormous bills.

Perhaps the most unusual sighting of the day was an albino Shoveler, seen here almost glowing amongst the American Wigeon, Pintail, Shovelers and Willets.

Birders invade Davis!

Yesterday I took my regular bike ride along Putah Creek. The best of the migrants were a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, a showy Pac-slope Flycatcher and my first of fall Lincoln's Sparrow. To my great surprise, the Great Horned Owl with the eye injury that I spotted 3 weeks ago was still alive and kicking - the bird flew strongly across the creek, and other than the tumour-like growth below the eye looked to be in good shape.

Perhaps more unusual was the fact that I ran into two other birders here! Davis seems to be getting an unprecedented level of birding coverage this fall, and things look set to get even better: Alison has asked me to help lead a guided bird walk around the arboretum for the incoming students, after a staggering 80 people signed up!

In preparation for this, I birded the arboretum and neighbouring Solano Park Garden this morning. Sparrows are already moving through the latter site, with at least 3 Lincoln's Sparrows

and 2 juvenile White-crowned Sparrows

joining the Goldfinch flock.

The arboretum is looking good too, with one oak holding 4 warbler spp and a Pacific-slope Flycatcher. Other unusual birds here were a Downy Woodpecker, and with the Mallard flock, a single Wood Duck...

... and, bizarrely, 2 Green-winged Teal (one pictured here with a Mallard).

Am hoping we can dig up something good here for next week - a Waterthrush on the lake would be nice!

Vancouver postcard

Darry, a friend of mine from Cambridge, has just returned from Vancouver, and was just as entranced by whale-watching as we were. Of all the whale photos he sent me, this has to be my favourite - apparently Elvis is alive and living in Vancouver!

Winter on the way?

Caz Taylor and I birded the City of Davis Wetlands today. I have to confess I felt a little guilty dragging Caz off to the sewage treatment works on her birthday! The birding was perhaps more typical of winter than fall: we saw a Short-eared Owl on the entrance road, a Lesser Scaup in with thousands of ducks on Stormwater Lagoon, and this Peregrine causing mayhem amongst the local blackbirds.

This bird is much smaller than the large female anatum Peregrine that has been seen here over the last month, suggesting that it's a male. I'm not so good on ageing raptors or assigning them to a particular race, so any comments on this bird are welcome.

Abbott's Lagoon

Yesterday I joined Kevin, Karen, Roger and Julie at the shorebird mecca of Abbott's Lagoon. Over the last week, the site had played host to a number of California rarities, including a Yellow Wagtail, so hopes were high that the birding would be good. The day got off to a cold, misty start - in fact, I was worried that my optics would be unusably misty for the rest of the day! The shorebirds at this site are amazingly approachable, and I was able to get excellent close views of Snowy Plovers and many Red-necked Phalaropes.

Roger found us our first rare bird of the day - a particularly obliging Buff-breasted Sandpiper. In fact, this bird was almost too obliging to digiscope, and I found myself constantly backing away from it to keep it in the frame!

In a very short space of time the weather changed from cold and foggy to hot and sunny, revealing large numbers of shorebirds dotted around the lagoon. Shortly after seeing the Buff-breast, we located four good birds on the same stretch of mud! A few Common Terns came in to rest, showing the characteristic dark carpal bar. This one can be identified as a juvenile by the scaly back and brownish smudging on the face.

This smart American Golden Plover would often duck into the long grass to feed...

... as did this Ruff. Bright upperparts and greenish legs age it as a juvenile - anyone know how to sex this bird?

This Pectoral Sandpiper was very elusive, only coming out onto the open mud when the other shorebirds were flushed by marauding Peregrine and Prairie Falcons.

Other unusual birds for this location included a Blue-winged Teal, a couple of White-faced Ibis, a skulking American Bittern and an early Vesper Sparrow. We saw so many birds here today that I'm tempted to start keeping a Marin County list!

Skuafest!

Last Friday I embarked on my second pelagic of the fall, this time into Bodega Canyon. This pelagic was somewhat different from my Monterey trip - we did not find large flocks of seabirds, but instead encountered small numbers of a variety of species throughout the day. We had really fantastic looks at many of the species over the boat, but the rougher seas meant I had no luck with digibinning (some ropey shots to follow).

My highlight of the trip was several close encounters with South Polar Skuas (a life bird) - believe it or not, the bird in the top left of this picture is one storming away from the boat.

The three jaegers also put in an appearance, and I was particularly glad to see adult Long-tailed Jaegers (a plumage tick). Both Common and Arctic Terns obligingly flew overhead, allowing easy identification (Arctic pictured here).

We encountered relatively few Storm-Petrels, but we got really good views of Ashy Storm-Petrel in the wake. I also ticked a distant Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel on the basis of it being gray and not a Red Phalarope (of which we saw plenty)!

I fulfilled a lifelong ambition of seeing a couple of Blue Whales (I didn't cry, Darry!), and Risso's Dolphin was also new. Two Humpbacks also put on a great show - I even got to see the face of this one before it dove.

Ocean Sunfish also showed well right next to the boat, often with a Western Gull in attendance.

Other highlights included many Buller's Shearwaters (such a smart bird!), a few Black-footed Albatross, Cassin's and Rhino Auklets, and not throwing up!

Marcel just gave me copies of his pelagic photos. I couldn't resist sharing this gorgeous Buller's Shearwater...

... and I love this shot of a South Polar Skua in action!

Local birding

What with moving, work and travel, I haven't managed to fit in as much local birding as I would like, especially since now is the prime time to find a local rarity. In North Davis, my Empid jynx continues as I missed a second Least Flycatcher. While waiting around for this bird, I managed to photograph this Monarch (they rarely sit still for long enough for me to get my camera out),

Great and Snowy Egrets,

a rather drab Lazuli Bunting,

and this aberrant male House Finch (bottom left) with some wacky tail feathers.

A morning visit to Willowbank Ditch happily coincided with the sprinklers being switched on, and I was treated to another fine show of bathing warblers (Yellow and Orange-crowned) and Warbling Vireo. This albino Cockatiel would surely have made my county list if I hadn't spotted the bands on its leg!

This Mockingbird posed obligingly in an olive tree.

Yellow Warblers continue to enjoy the elderberry crop...

... while this celata race Orange-crowned Warbler preferred grapes!

My first of fall Hermit Thrush was also present at this site.

Along Putah Creek, the Eucalyptus trees east of Pedrick Road are proving attractive to migrants, today's highlights being Black-throated Gray Warbler and two Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. A vocal Bewick's Wren has returned to this area, possibly last year's wintering bird.

North Pond is still holding good numbers of Greater (and a few Lesser) Yellowlegs, and Long-billed Dowitchers. This morning I saw my first juvenile of the fall - contrast the plain tertials of this bird with the 'tiger-striped' tertials of juv Short-billed Dowitcher (pictured here).

As I write this, a Red-breasted Nuthatch is in the conifer outside my office window!

Marcel's pelagic pics

Marcel Holyoak kindly sent me copies of his photographs from the Monterey Bay pelagic we went on a few weeks ago. He used an SLR-type digital camera with image stabilisation and got some pretty stunning results. Here is a selection of his photos for you to enjoy!

Ashy Storm-Petrel

Black-footed Albatross

Buller's Shearwater

Rhinoceros Auklet

Pomarine Jaeger

Sabine's Gull

New York, New York!

One day San Francisco, next day New York - am turning into quite the jet-setter! The excuse for this trip was a reunion with 3 other Brits: Lisa (currently based in NY), Vicky (Essex girl extraordinaire) and Andrew (Toronto). A jolly time was had by all, and I was even allowed time off to bird Central Park! Below follows an account of my morning's birding; non-birders, skip to the bottom of this article for the rest of my holiday snaps.

A night on the town prevented me from getting to Central Park as early as I would have liked, and I arrived at the Ramble at around 8am. The first birds to draw my attention were east coast specialities including Cardinal

and Gray Catbird (a lot easier here than on Anglesey, Nick!).

I soon spotted the first of many American Redstarts and my first life bird of the day, Magnolia Warbler. At 9am I joined local guide Bob DeCandido on one of his regular bird walks. I actually met Bob and some of the locals in my first ever visit to the US 2 years ago: I was most grateful to him for pointing out my life Green Herons (in the nest!), and to Art LeMoine for taking me to the Botanical Gardens to see nesting Cooper's Hawks. Little was I to know that two years later I would be watching them from my office window!

Bob's pishing soon drew up a crowd of eastern goodies that would have most Brits (and Californians) watering at the mouth: Black-and-White Warblers, more Redstarts and Magnolia Warblers, Northern Parula, Hooded Warbler (US tick), Carolina Wren and Red-eyed Vireo in addition to some familiar faces (Wilson's and Yellow Warblers, and an Olive-sided Flycatcher). My spell of bad luck with Empids continued as two birds (probably lifers) gave only the briefest of looks and eluded identification. A flyover Osprey was nice, and a single Mute Swan was noteworthy.

Just before I left the group to reconvene with friends, this Wood Thrush showed itself (apologies for grainy photo - these birds like to skulk!)

En route to Belvedere Castle I spotted a small bird with two prominent wingbars and a bright yellow head and breast - my first Blue-winged Warbler! And I was told this was a slow migration day!

Next day the four of us went to Coney Island for paddling, sandcastles, fairground rides and greasy food - made me homesick for Southend on Sea! Laughing Gulls were abundant...

... but dwarfed by the monstrous Great Black-backed Gulls.

I ended up being delayed in JFK airport for several hours, and made the fatal mistake of checking the bird news online. The day after I was in Central Park, Tom Fiore recorded 11 birds which would have been lifers for me - ouch! Guess I'll just have to come back!

Here are some holiday snaps. The scenery from the plane ride was pretty spectacular.

Brooklyn Bridge

Downtown Manhattan from the Staten Island Ferry

Jeckyll and Hyde's - the scariest pub in the world?

Clouds couldn't spoil the view from the top of the Empire State Building.

The Chrysler Building digibinned!

The girls have a 'Sex and the City' moment....

... while the boys enjoy living the high life.

Life's a beach at Coney Island.

Andrew fails to beat the men's hot dog eating record (53.5 hot dogs in 12 minutes!)...

... but Lisa looks set to smash the women's record (a mere 32)!

Possibly the scariest big wheel in the world.

'Bladdy 'ell, the water ain't this cold in Saarfend!'

All those scary rides were too much for Andrew.

Lisa embraces the all-American diet.

Liberty Island

Alameda Island

Today I returned to south San Francisco Bay to help Christina Sloop set up a pollination experiment in the hybrid Spartina (cordgrass) swarm. I first visited Alameda Island back in January, when the cordgrass was little more than knee-high. As you can see, things have changed!

The aim of this experiment is to test whether the hybrid plants are able to self-fertilise. If they have, this is bad news: it means that isolated plants growing out in the mudflats (which would normally have little chance of receiving pollen from other plants) are able to reproduce, thus speeding up the invasion. In order to test for self-compatibility, take one inflorescence....

.... and exclude pollen from other plants by creating, for want of a better word, a plant condom!

The condoms are placed over each inflorescence, and if any seeds are produced, the plant must have self-fertilised.

In the mean time, the hybrid swarm continues its inexorable march towards San Francisco...

Birding, as always, was very pleasant here. Clapper Rails called from the cordgrass, while many shorebirds, Brown Pelicans, Elegant and Forster's Terns sat out on the mud.

An unexpected bonus was this confiding Garter Snake.

Tomorrow sees me jetting off to The Big Apple, ostensibly to catch up with old friends. Needless to say, I shall be attempting to wangle a morning in Central Park and hopefully add a few more eastern warblers to my life list... check back next week!

Elusive empids

Today I dipped two empids in Yolo co. - the first, a Dusky Flycatcher, I missed by 5 mins in North Davis (an escaped blue Budgie was little compensation). The second was the county's first confirmed record of Least Flycatcher, found by the same guy responsible for the first Eastern Wood-Pewee a couple of months ago.

Davis North Pond was unexciting wader-wise, but the corvids were going crazy at a fly-by Red-shouldered Hawk and this Great Horned Owl (roosting in a surprisingly exposed location).

Several thousand White-faced Ibis were observed flying west towards flooded alfalfa fields - an overdue addition to the bike list!