A Brit abroad

Thanksgiving trip day 4 - carry on up the Central Valley

The last leg of our grand tour of southern California was the journey home through the Central Valley. The birding started before 7am in the freezing cold of the sagebrush around Maricopa, looking for Le Conte's Thrasher. Amazingly, our target bird showed within minutes of our arrival, and even perched obligingly out in the open! If only all lifers were this easy...

We also got Sage Sparrow for the CV Big Year before moving on to warmer climes.

Next stop was Lake Ming in Kern County, where we were fortunate enough to run into the finder of the Clay-colored Sparrow and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker we were looking for. In a bizarre moment of deja vu, we talked ourselves into believing we had seen 2 Clay-colored Sparrows, only to discover after checking the field guides that they were in fact Chipping! We had more luck with the Sapsucker though, which gave excellent views tapping out its tune on a telegraph pole!

Other good birds at Lake Ming included a Greater Scaup for the CV Big Year list, and a fine view of a soaring Prairie Falcon. The rest of the day was spent driving up back roads trying to avoid the holiday traffic on I5. We arrived at Cosumnes River Preserve just before sunset, unfortunately a little too late to find the wintering Swamp Sparrow. However, this was more than compensated for by wonderful views of hundreds of Sandhill Cranes flying in to roost - a fitting end to a very birdy weekend!

The facts and figures for those who are interested: we saw 172 species over the weekend, including 7 lifers and 12 state birds for me. ABA year list: 431
CA year list: 371 Central Valley Big Year list: 156.

Thanksgiving trip day 3 - soggy on Santa Cruz

The first hours of daylight today were spent tracking down plastic ticks in LA. We located a large mixed flock of parrots near Chapman University in Orange - the tickable Red-crowned Parrot, along with good numbers of Mitred Parakeet and a single Lilac-crowned Parrot.

While speeding along Highway 22, we saw about a dozen Spotted Doves. For obvious reasons I didn't stop to digiscope these birds! At Marina del Rey I managed another two US birds - Long-tailed Duck and Royal Tern. These Greater Scaup were showing reasonably well with Mallards on a nearby channel.

With no time to spare we raced over to Ventura to catch the ferry across to Santa Cruz Island, in search of the endemic Island Scrub-Jay. My housemates have both lived and worked on Santa Cruz Island, and assured me it was impossible to miss the birds, which can often be seen at picnic tables on the beach before landing! We arrived at our landing point (Scorpion) and I eagerly scanned the picnic tables - no Scrub Jays. To cut a long story short, over the next three hours of hiking up Scorpion Canyon in the cold and drizzle, we saw 2 Scrub-Jays, one of which showed for about 2 seconds as it dashed into a bush and was never seen to emerge! The second bird was a bit more obliging and I managed this shot, illustrating the darker blue head colour and longer bill than its mainland counterpart.

The moral of the story: if your only purpose in visiting the island is to see the Scrub-Jay, make sure you disembark at Prisoner's Cove, not Scorpion! Having said that, we saw many interesting birds around Scorpion: the endemic race of Allen's Hummingbird, Townsend's Warbler and Merlin in the eucalyptus grove, Rock Wren and Rufous-crowned Sparrow in the canyon and Peregrine, Osprey and Black Turnstone along the shore.

The crossing itself produced several interesting sightings, the best of which was excellent views of my life Black-vented Shearwaters right alongside the boat.

We also saw Northern Fulmar and Sooty Shearwater, Dall's Porpoise, Common Dolphin and the first Gray Whale of the season.

Thanksgiving trip day 2 - the thrasher grand slam

Much of today's birding was done close to the California-Arizona border, starting at the Black Meadow Landing resort near Lake Havasu. For the last few winters a Curve-billed Thrasher has frequented a cactus garden, thanks to the copious amount of seed put out by Ernie. Soon after arriving Ernie came out to greet us and feed the birds. The resulting feeding frenzy had to be seen to be believed - hundreds of Red-winged Blackbirds, Brown-headed Cowbirds, Great-tailed Grackles, Gambel's Quail and Mourning Dove joining the melee.

Eventually we spotted the Curve-billed Thrasher showing at point blank range. The bird was a little camera-shy, lurking in the middle of a tree, but this shot shows its velociraptor-like beady eye.

Our next stop was Blythe, where Roger Higson (another Brit abroad) kindly guided us around his local patches. The Blythe area was positively dripping with Vermilion Flycatchers, more than I had ever seen in one place (Roger estimated 28 birds in Mayflower Park that morning). He also pointed us in the direction of another hard-to-find state bird, Crissal Thrasher.

With reports of Harris's and Zone-tailed Hawks, Gilded Flicker and Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in the Blythe area this winter, this may not be my last visit to the area...

We spent perhaps a little too long in the Blythe area and spent the rest of the afternoon racing against time to reach the south end of the Salton Sea. At Obsidian Butte we failed to locate any Stilt Sandpipers amongst the dowitchers, but did get good views of 3 Soras (prior to this the only Sora I'd seen was in Britain!) and my first state Laughing Gull.

Thanksgiving trip day 1 - from mountains to desert

I'm sure it will come as no surprise that I spent the Thanksgiving long weekend birding the length and breadth of southern California, along with birding partner in crime Marcel Holyoak. A hot tip-off about a Black Rosy-Finch coming to feeders saw us heading over the Sierras on Wednesday night. We arrived in Aspendell at around 730am, and were soon joined by Matt Brady, David Vander Pluym and Daryl Coldren, who were planning a similarly manic weekend around the north of the state. In the following three hours, the Black didn't show, although we were treated to tremendous looks at a 30-strong flock of Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches, feeding on seed and drinking snow.

Other nice birds seen around town included Slate-colored Junco,...

... Mountain Chickadee...

... and several noisy Clark's Nutcrackers, which had the irritating habit of scaring off the Rosy-Finch flock!

At nearby Mill Pond Country Park, I had my first life bird of the trip, a fine immature Harris's Sparrow.

The pond itself held some interesting wildfowl, including several Ring-necked Ducks.

Much of the rest of the day was spent driving through spectacular mountain scenery.

Our last birding stop of the day was Galileo Hill, where a short climb yielded 9 Chukar (a state bird for Marcel) and a mixed bluebird flock including a bright male Mountain Bluebird. The hilltop was also an excellent place for watching the sun set over the Mojave Desert.

No Thanksgiving would be complete without turkey, and we enjoyed a fine turkey dinner at the curiously-named 'Bun Boy' diner in Barstow.

Grebes, gulls and geese

Wind, rain and fog often conspire to ruin a good day's birding in the Central Valley, so naturally I've been making the most of the dry sunny weather! Yesterday Sami and I hit the City of Davis Wetlands in the hope of relocating the weekend's Eurasian Wigeon. No such luck, but we did see three pairs of Blue-winged Teal and many thousands of flyover geese, including all 5 species seen regularly in the Central Valley. In the afternoon, Caz and I hit the Yolo Wildlife Area, where the highlights included my first Western Sandpipers of the Big Year, a hunting Peregrine and huge numbers of geese and Tundra Swans coming in to roost.

Pine Siskins continue to increase in the Davis area, with at least 10 birds around Joan Humphrey's house this morning, and 4 in Solano Park Garden yesterday.

This morning Joan and I headed to the Port of Sacramento in an attempt to find a Surf Scoter. This didn't happen, but I county-ticked this Mew Gull (233) loafing with Western Grebes.

A much more surprising find was this Horned Grebe...

... followed shortly by a second bird (the third and fourth county records for the year)!

Back in Davis, Burrowing Owl and Red-breasted Sapsucker took my CV Big Year list to a respectable 153.

Central Valley Birding Symposium

Just returned from a fun weekend at the 8th Central Valley Birding Symposium. It was great to put faces to names I read on CVBirds regularly, to catch up with old friends and to make several new ones. As a field trip leader I enjoyed some excellent birding in the vicinity of Stockton, with the added bonus of getting all my food (and there was plenty of it) for free! Good Central Valley birds spotted during the weekend included Eastern Phoebe, Vermilion Flycatcher (an adult male!) and Surf Scoter (found by those sharp-eyed young birders), while unfortunately the Common Black-Hawk eluded us all. Congratulations to David, Sue, Frances and the rest of the committee for putting together such an excellent event - hopefully see you all there next year!

Friday's field trip to Caswell State Park started cold and foggy, with a couple of Western Tanagers and a heard-only Black-throated Gray Warbler being the highlights. The birding and the weather improved at Modesto Sewer Ponds, with everyone enjoying great views of a perched Merlin, most of the regular wintering wildfowl and these 3 Pacific Golden Plovers amongst the Black-bellied.

At nearby Ceres Sewer Ponds 3 species of gull were observed, including a couple of hundred Bonaparte's.

On Saturday I ticked my lifer Salmon at Camanche Lake Fish Hatchery. The birds were showing well in the sunshine too, with many people getting scope views of Rock Wren, Hermit Thrush, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and Fox Sparrow. This drake Common Merganser was new bird for my CV Big Year list.

However, raptors stole the show. The numerous Turkey Vultures were sunning themselves, ...

... this Osprey caught a fish...

... and a rare treat was prolonged views of an adult Red-shouldered Hawk with a freshly-caught Western Gray Squirrel.

In the afternoon I couldn't resist dashing out to see this fine male Vermilion Flycatcher, returning to the Turner Road Winery for its second winter.

Sunday's chase trip missed the Vermilion and the Surf Scoter, but we did get a good look at the Eastern Phoebe at Cosumnes River Preserve ( a state bird for me).

Burping after swallowing an impressively large cricket!

An added bonus was this adult Peregrine, perched obligingly on a radio tower.

I finished the afternoon with Sami LaRocca watching the waterbirds that make the Central Valley justifiably famous. On Woodbridge road we saw a Prairie Falcon, plus many hundreds of Tundra Swans and Sandhill Cranes at close range.

At nearby Staten Island, the sight and sound of thousands of Aleutian Geese flying in to feed was evocative.

This weekend's efforts nudged my CV Big Year List up to 146, so will hopefully break the 150 barrier tomorrow!

Scouting

The Central Valley Birding Symposium is fast approaching, providing me with a great excuse to join Joan Humphrey in some county birding, under the pretext of scouting out sites for the trip she's leading. Our ulterior motive was to increase our lists for the Central Valley Big Year, which started November 1st. At out first stop in Winters, a fruiting tree was proving to be highly attractive to Cedar Waxwings.

The Common Loon appears to have moved on from Lake Solano, although duck numbers are building up here and we heard both Pine Siskin and Sora. Hopefully these displaying tom Turkeys won't end up as someone's Thanksgiving dinner!

A male Pileated Woodpecker at the Lake Solano bridge was a nice surprise. Nearby, this Red-tailed Hawk was having a hard time attempting to swallow a squirrel!

Putah Creek Canyon produced a nice selection of birds, many of which were within the Central Valley birding region. We saw at least 5 Rufous-crowned Sparrows, perhaps birds displaced by October's chaparral fires.

Anyone know what this butterfly is? Answer: It's a Common Buckeye! (thanks Jon and Andrew)

Other birds of note included Golden Eagle, Merlin, Wrentit, my first county Rock Wren (at last!), and this delightful species pair, dream finds of many a British birder...

Finally, a brief visit to the City of Davis Wetlands yielded the regular Western Gull, several Glaucous-winged and Herring Gulls and my first county Thayer's Gull. ADDENDUM: Steve Hampton rightly points out that the gull pictured below is a Glaucous-winged, not Thayers!

This brings my current lists to 423 for the ABA year list, 232 for the Yolo County year list and 133 for the Central Valley Big Year.

Georgia on my mind

I just returned from a wonderfully decadent long weekend in Georgia, to celebrate the wedding of Pej and Rebecca. I didn't manage much in the way of birding, although Pej's back yard had a nice assortment of eastern US specialities (Carolina Wren, Blue Jay, Cardinal, Tufted Titmouse, Eastern Phoebe). Walking around the Botanical Gardens and UGA campus added Red-bellied Woodpecker, Eastern Bluebird, White-throated Sparrow and Carolina Chickadee among others. No bird photos this time, but here's a photo of the happy couple cutting the wedding cake.

Sapsucker revisited

Over the last few days I've had a lot of feedback on the identity of the Davis Sapsucker. Based on the extent of red on the breast and behind the eye, it appears that the bird is a classic male hybrid Red-breasted x Red-naped Sapsucker. Note that the lack of a black breast-band is not necessarily a hybrid feature, but simply ages this bird as a first-year moulting into adult plumage. A photo of an immature male Red-naped Sapsucker exhibiting a similar breast pattern to the Davis bird can be seen on Robert Shantz's website.

Joe Morlan kindly sent me this link to the seminal Auk paper on hybrid sapsucker identification. I enlarged a photo of the Davis bird's head to compare to the hybrid index plate in this paper:

I would give the Davis bird a score of 7, based on the size of the post-ocular spot, a relatively broad white eye-stripe and a black band separating the red on the crown and the nape. Some more excellent photos of hybrid Red-naped x Red-breasted Sapsuckers can be seen here and here.

Ferry Building Gulls

Yesterday I travelled down to San Francisco for a conference on invasive Cordgrass (the stuff I work on when I'm not birding). While waiting for the ferry back to Vallejo, I was distracted by the unnervingly tame gulls, including one adult and one immature Heerman's Gull...

... and this enormous Western Gull.

No optics required!

Putative Red-naped Sapsucker

Joan Humphrey found this smart male Red-naped Sapsucker or hybrid, on her street yesterday. If this is a pure Red-naped, it will be the first record for Yolo County. The bird's face pattern is spot on for Red-naped, as are the two parallel lines of barring up the back. Counting against the bird is a relatively faint black line separating the red throat from the breast, with some red feathering spilling onto the upper breast. Our best guess is that it's either a hybrid or an immature male Red-naped moulting into adult plumage. Opinions on this bird are most welcome - click below to see lots of images.

A good haul in Davis

This morning I finally caught up with Pine Siskin - my 230th county bird! At least 6 individuals were feeding on redwood cones amongst a flock of 200+ American Goldfinches, just north of the UC Davis campus. A Western Tanager was present at this site too.

Solano Park Garden held a single Lesser Goldfinch...

... and this photogenic Lincoln's Sparrow.

My birding at Putah Picnic Ground was interrupted by a call from Joan Humphrey about a Red-naped Sapsucker (or hybrid) on her street. After a calorie-burning bike ride across town we obtained excellent views of the bird, along with a bonus Brown Creeper. See the next entry for plenty of Sapsucker pics...

Longspur-fest

Today Marcel and I visited Mount Trashmore (Alameda County) in pursuit of longspurs. We obtained outstanding views of Lapland Longspurs...

... and my life Chestnut-collared Longspurs.

This Greater White-front was one of two birds associating with the Canada Goose flock.

On Coyote Point, we tried our best to turn this bird into a Clay-colored Sparrow, but of course it turned out to be a Chipping Sparrow (note eye-stripe extending up to the bill and extensive grey rump).

County birding bonanza!

Today Joan Humphrey and I did a grand tour of county birding sites to try and take care of some gaps in our county year lists. Our first stop on Highway 128 yielded my first county Vesper Sparrows (227) amongst a flock of Lark and Savannah Sparrows. An immature Golden Eagle near Winters Wastewater Ponds was a nice day bird. After stocking up on cookies and macaroons at the Winters Bakery, we discovered our first surprise bird of the day - an immature Common Loon (228) on Lake Solano - and a family party of four River Otters.

Up in Putah Canyon, we located two Rufous-crowned Sparrows on a hillside, an Opsrey with a freshly-caught fish and this drake Hooded Merganser (surprisingly cryptic in the shaded water).

Next stop was Woodland Wastewater, rather quiet save for a few Bonaparte's Gulls picking flies from the water. The City of Davis Wetlands produced another surprise - this smart Horned Grebe (229).

In addition, 5 Sandhill Cranes (both Greater and Lesser) flew over calling, and 2 lame Snow Geese were with the hordes of ducks. A trip to Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area failed to produce any Ruff, but we did run into this obliging American Bittern and more flyover Sandhill Cranes.

After a quick stop at UCD Arboretum for the Cackling Goose (which now shows a badly drooping wing), we ended the day watching the North Davis Merlin (obliging as ever) and I was delighted to spot a White-tailed Kite roost very close to my house - all in all not a bad day!

Urban Merlin

Today I finally managed to photograph the 'Urban Merlin' wintering in North Davis. The bird is currently favouring trees at the intersection of 14th and B Streets (i.e. where the Yolo Audubon Society meetings are held). It appears about 15 minutes before sunset every day, and sits at the top of conifers until the local crows chase it off. I rarely get to see Merlins, so to see this bird bathed in the evening sunlight only a few blocks from where I live is a real treat!

Yellow-billed Magpies also gather in the same area in noisy pre-roost flocks.