A Brit abroad

President's day weekend - birds

While I didn't have my birding hat on this weekend, I did of course manage to pick up some goodies en route! First up was this tree full of storage holes bored by Acorn Woodpeckers, plus one of the culprits!

I spotted a preening Merlin in Pacific Grove - hopefully not doing too much damage to the wintering Monarch Butterfly population!

This first-winter Glaucous Gull was a nice surprise on the Monterey Peninsula.

In Santa Cruz I was treated to fabulous views of Surfbirds and Black Turnstones...

... amongst which was my first CA record of Rock Sandpiper.

Finally, these Brown Pelicans were putting on a fine show at Natural Bridges state beach.

President's day weekend - Harbour Seals

The area around Monterey Bay Aquarium plays host to a large number of photogenic Harbour Seals.

I couldn't help but be won over by this particularly cute individual.

President's day weekend - Sea Otters

Throughout Monterey Bay we were treated to close-up views of Sea Otters feeding, sleeping and at play. Here are a few digiscoped shots...

President's day weekend - Elephant Seals

The beaches between San Simeon and Piedras Blancas play host to a large colony of Elephant Seals. We were treated to amazing views of mothers with pups, plus alpha males fending off sneaker males. One of the most spectacular sites I've seen in California!

President's day weekend - scenery

This weekend birding took a back seat to scenery and marine mammals, as Andrew and I explored the central California coastline. Our first stop was the amazing Pinnacles National Monument - no Condors today, but a good look at a Bobcat plus some spectacular scenery.

On Saturday we drove from Cambria to Monterey along the Big Sur coastline. Unfortunately the weather was horrendous for much of the day, so we took refuge in Hearst Castle - here's a picture of the glitzy indoor swimming pool.

Between rain showers I managed a few shots of the impressive coastal scenery.

Sunday's main event was a visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

The highlight of the visit was this Great White Shark - Andrew managed these two atmospheric shots of the beast.

The sun finally made an appearance in the afternoon, giving us a good view across Monterey Bay...

... and allowing us to visit the Monarch Butterfly winter roost in Pacific Grove.

On Monday we made our way from Santa Cruz along scenic Highway 9...

... taking in the huge Redwoods in Henry Cowell State Park.

Our last port of call was the Marin Headlands, where we had a dramatic view of a storm breaking over San Francisco.

Fortunately it remained dry on our side of the Bay!

Another Brit abroad

Through the colleague of a friend of a friend of mine, I was put in touch with Owen, a fellow Brit visiting California for the first time, and keen to see as many birds as possible in his short stay. Naturally, Joan and I were happy to have any excuse to get out birding, and along with Katharina, the four of us got off to a good start with a local pair of Burrowing Owls. A whistle-stop tour of the UCD Arboretum yielded good looks at a Green Heron, several Anna's Hummingbirds, a fine male Nuttall's Woodpecker and my first House Wren of the year, while White-throated Swifts trilled overhead. After a brief (and successful) look for a Prairie Falcon, we headed to the City of Davis Wetlands where we connected with two rare grebes, the long-staying Red-necked...

... and this newly-arrived Horned.

Driving the loop around the Yolo Wildlife Area yielded great views of American Bittern, a flock of Cackling Geese (year tick), and the chance for a close-up study of the local race of Horned Lark - I'd never noticed how reddish-toned our local birds were!

A brief spot of rain on the way out stopped this Cooper's Hawk from flying around.

This White-tailed Kite was digibinned from the back of the car as it made short work of an unlucky vole.

We ended the day in style with Wilson's Snipe, a lone Cedar Waxwing and prolonged views of two of the urban Merlins, sitting across the street from each other!

Owling California style

For weeks I've been enviously reading reports of the incredible invasion of owls in Minnesota - literally hundreds of Great Gray Owls, tens of Hawk Owls and a smattering of Boreal Owls for good measure! Eager to get my own owl fix closer to home, I joined Alison, Allan and Sami on a trip to Mercey Hot Springs, where the owners have generously allowed birders access to the on-site Long-eared Owl roost. This site is incredible - we counted up to 15 individuals, including 7 roosting together in the tamarisks. I don't know anywhere on earth that allows such wonderful views of this secretive species!

Alison and Allan produced some great sketches of the bird (visible here), and I uncharacteristically put down the camera and had a go at sketching one myself. I found the whole experience rather relaxing, especially after the craziness of last weekend!

We spent the rest of the day enjoying the gorgeous scenery...

... and the special birds of the Panoche Valley, most notably 8 Mountain Plovers and a flock of Mountain Bluebirds. Perhaps our rarest sighting was this leucistic Ground Squirrel!

Davis White-throated Sparrow and other miscellany

I took a bike ride over to West Davis to look for a White-throated Sparrow found by Stella Taylor. Roger Adamson located it shortly after 8am and I managed to get these shots of the bird, a bright adult.

Joan and I successfully twitched California Thrasher for the CV Big Year in the extreme north of the county (no 178). Two Purple Finches were also about, as was this perched Golden Eagle.

An evening bike ride around north Davis produced at least 20 Wilson's Snipe on North Pond...

... while three Merlins continue to roost in the redwoods here. I managed to photograph two of them. The first bird is a male by his pale grey back, while the brown back of bird 2 suggests a female or immature. It's difficult to assign them to a specific race as the strong evening sunlight tends to obscure their 'true' colours. Such a treat to see them so well!

Texas madness! Day 2

Still basking in yesterday's glories, we started our day at San Ygnacio in the hope of seeing the Roadside Hawk. Unfortunately the bird, which had been seen for the past three mornings in the first hour of daylight, chose not to show. We decided to spend the next few hours at the Seedeater Reserve in the hope that the bird would fly through again. In the mean time, there was plenty of activity at the feeders, including my lifer Audubon's Orioles.

Also enjoying the oranges was this stunning Altamira Oriole...

... and this Golden-fronted Woodpecker.

The seed was attracting a mixed sparrow flock (including Olive and Swamp), the black-backed form of Lesser Goldfinch, and some larger birds such as Green Jay (what a bird!)

and Long-billed Thrasher.

This Kiskadee adopted a comical pose - was there no room for a second foot on this post?

News came that the Roadside Hawk had been spotted heading back towards San Ignacio. Alison and Marcel headed back uphill to get a better vantage point while I decided to remain in wait of the White-collared Seedeater (that and the hawk would both be US ticks). Bad call on my part, as they saw the hawk, and I didn't! Time was pushing on, and we had a plane to catch, so we decided to head north. This stretch of road held a fine selection of raptors, primarily White-tailed Hawk (a lifer for me), Harris's Hawk, Black and Turkey Vultures, and a good number of Crested Caracaras.

Our last stop before dashing to the airport was a viewpoint over the Rio Grande. Marcel turned up trumps again by spotting a (this time tickable) Muscovy Duck from miles away, while I came across my lifer Mottled Ducks.

All in all, an amazingly productive 36 hours' birding! The Muscovy Duck was Marcel's 700th ABA area bird (his Lower 48 list stands at a tantalising 699). I managed 32 new ABA area birds, including 17 lifers, taking my ABA list to 496. 500 here we come!

Texas madness! Day 1

Thursday craziness strikes again... On returning from a lecture I ran into Marcel, who told me that in a moment of boredom he'd looked at the extraordinary selection of Mexican birds currently in Texas, and promptly booked flights to Austin leaving the nest day! I thought about it for about 5 minutes, and soon found myself booked on the very same flights. I felt rather guilty, as I had to cancel a promised outing to look for Long-eared Owls with Alison, but this guilt was quickly alleviated when she decided to come along too!

We all worked like crazy on Friday morning, packed in about 5 minutes, flew to Austin, drove south for four hours, crashed at 2am, and got up again at 4:30am to reach Frontera Audubon for dawn! The first birds we saw in the parking lot were Great Kiskadee and Golden-fronted Woodpecker, both US ticks for me. Shortly after this it was announced over the radio that a male Crimson-collared Grosbeak was being seen at a feeder. In the race to get to this bird, I had to make the painful decision to walk past my life Long-billed Thrasher (a good move, it turns out, as we saw plenty of these later in the morning). The male Crimson-collared Grosbeak was still showing beautifully, eating leaves and cranberries. The combination of its bold colours, distinctive behaviour and the added spice of extreme rarity make this a real knockout bird.

The mind-blowing birds continued to come thick and fast as my life Elegant Trogon landed only feet away. Unfortunately the bird was too close to get its whole body in the frame!

Another radio message and we were soon peering through the understory to catch a glimpse of my first US Clay-colored and White-throated Robins feeding in the same binocular view alongside an American Robin. Leaving the crowds behind, I just had time to find my life Tropical Parula before we headed for our next target - four world ticks before 9am can't be bad!

Our amazing luck continued in Brownsville, as Marcel very quickly spotted my life Golden-crowned Warbler. I only managed this terrible digibinned shot of the back of the bird - look closely and you can even see its golden crown!

But the warbler was not my only lifer here - the ponds held my first Ringed Kingfisher...

... Fulvous Whistling-Duck...

... plus my first US Anhinga...

and a wild-looking Muscovy Duck (apparently not countable here).

Still in shock, we headed to nearby Sabal Palms Audubon, about as far south as you can get in the US. The madness continued, as a report of a Gray-crowned Yellowthroat came over the radio. I got to distracted en route by my life Swamp Sparrow (at last!), but got to the Yellowthroat just in time to get brief views of it when another radio message had us racing back for a split-second glimpse of an elusive Blue Bunting.

With the key birds in the bag, I was able to relax slightly. Alison and I were able to successfully track down our life Least Grebes. These tiny, hyperactive birds were dwarfed by the nearby Pied-billed Grebes!

We returned to the Gray-crowned Yellowthroat site to find it devoid of birders, and a little pishing resulted in much better views of the bird. Soon afterwards Alison spotted her first (and my first US) Groove-billed Ani, obligingly sitting by the side of the path.

We met up with Marcel at the 'Swamp Sparrow pool' to enjoy the flurry of warbler activity - between us we recorded 14 species at this spot including both Parulas, Northern Waterthrush, American Redstart, Pine, Tennessee and Black-throated Green Warblers. We stopped by the visitor centre for a much-needed cold drink, and to watch the feeders. We had close-up views of my lifer Black-crested Titmice and White-tipped Doves...

... and my first US Green Jays, Olive Sparrow and Plain Chachalacas. In yet another stroke of amazing good fortune, I spotted a beautiful female Rose-throated Becard here, meaning that we had made a clean sweep of all the rare birds at this site!

After eating the worst beef tacos of my life, we headed for Bentsen State Park to see out the rest of the day. As well as enjoying my first US Green Kingfisher and Cave Swallows over the Rio Grande, we had fine looks at a Gray Hawk, adult Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Vermilion Flycatcher and Tricolored Heron. On chasing up some rustling from the undergrowth I was thrilled to see my first ever Armadillo at close range. As dusk approached we struck birding gold again with a close fly-by of my lifer Hook-billed Kite. Days don't come much better than this!

Backyard birding

One of the great things about living in California is that the first signs of Spring appear in February! We've now had 5 days of unbroken sunshine, and on Monday I spotted my first butterfly of the year - a Mourning Cloak (aka Camberwell Beauty). I decided to prepare tomorrow's lecture sitting out in the garden. During this time, I recorded three new species for the yard list (Pine Siskin, Hermit Thrush and flyover White-fronted Geese), as well as enjoying the regulars (Anna's Hummingbird, Audubon's and Myrtle Warblers, and Juncos). This Northern Mockingbird seemed completely unperturbed by my presence, allowing me to take these eyeball-to eyeball shots.