A Brit abroad

Woodland shorebirding

Joan, Sami and I finally managed to get out to the Woodland wastewater ponds in search of shorebirds, which we found in abundance - Red-necked and Wilson's Phalaropes spun in the water while Semipalmated Plover, Least and Western Sandpipers foraged at the muddy edges. When seen well, adult summer Least and Western Sandpipers don't present much of an ID challenge.

Neither does this species pair!

We detected two Short-billed Dowitchers among the many Long-billed, the first by flight-call, and this second individual by its spotted breast, striped flanks and white underparts.

The first Semipalmated Sandpiper of the fall has already been detected (my county bogey bird), while a Lesser Sandplover just crossed the state border into Oregon. This is a good time to stay vigilant!

Monterey getaway

Davis is now officially TOO HOT - after a lunchtime stroll into town on Friday almost killed me, I rapidly decided that my top priority for the weekend was to get out of the Central Valley. At very short notice I persuaded Andrew, Roberta and Mariah to join me in a trip to Monterey for an aquarium visit and whale-watching excursion. In spite of having zero birding expectations, I was delighted to spot my first CA Harlequin just west of Fisherman's Wharf (state bird no 396 - 400 here we come!).

It was pleasantly warm and sunny when we left the Wharf...

... but the temperature plummeted once we hit the fog bank!

Birds seen included a single Pink-footed Shearwater amongst masses of Sooties - we saw hundreds of these today!

A fly-by Black-footed Albatross was nice, as were some close-range Red-necked Phalaropes. I realise I'm in danger of turning my birding blog into a cetacean-watching blog, but couldn't resist posting a few more pictures of the eye-popping views we had of Risso's Dolphins and Humpback Whales. These pictures were digibinned, and interestingly enough turned out about as good as last week's efforts with a much more expensive SLR-type camera.

Other entertaining mammals seen included a group of California Sealions competing for haulout space...

... and a Sea Otter feeding at close enough range that we could hear it cracking open its prey before noisily chewing it up.

Birds and whales of the Farallons

Saturday was a dull day's birding. Marcel and I drove for three hours up to Shasta where we heard a Yellow Rail, decided there was zero chance of seeing it, and drove the three hours back to Davis. Whoop-dee-do. A far more pleasing lifer was this Shasta Alligator Lizard at the entrance to its burrow.

On Sunday we joined the Sacramento Audubon boat trip to the Farallons in the hope of seeing Tufted Puffins. The fog didn't seem so bad as we left Sausalito...

... but when we turned the corner to go under the Golden Gate Bridge it was a different story!

Marcel had kindly lent me his spare SLR camera with 300mm zoom for the day, somewhat easier to use then attempting to digibin from a lurching boat! About an hour away from the shore the fog lifted to reveal two Tufted Puffins which gave glorious views to all on board.

The next highlight was not a bird, but a pod of Risso's Dolphins. This is a deep-water species usually found further south, and judging by the excitement of our guide we were lucky to see them!

The pod came extremely close to the boat, allowing us to see the scarring on their flanks.

The density of birds on the water increased as we approached the Farallons.

The islands themselves were covered by thousands of seabirds, including huge numbers of Common Murres....

... and many Brown Pelicans.

Interestingly, we saw no young birds - breeding has been suspended (perhaps for the entire year) by the unusually warm water temperature this year, which has effectively resulted in no upwelling (and therefore no food). Let's hope this is just a temporary blip!

Around the island we had great views of the other summering alcids (Pigeon Guillemot, Cassin's and Rhinoceros Auklets).

We saw Dall's and Harbor Porpoises, and had great, close-up views of this Gray Whale.

We then headed out to the edge of the deep water canyon in the hope of seeing more pelagic species. After an initially promising start (a few Sooty Shearwaters, Black-footed Albatross (below), Red Phalaropes and an unidentified Storm-Petrel), things got very quiet.

After a couple of hours with nothing more exciting than a lone Northern Fur Seal, we started heading for the shore. We were then fortunate enough to run into a group of maybe 7 very active Humpback Whales, and spent the next hour observing them spy-hopping, lunge-feeding and diving, often within spitting (or spouting?) distance of the boat. Needless to say I took a bunch of pictures - here's a selection of some of the better ones. Hope I can find time to get back out there later this year!

Asian oddity

The summer doldrums were somewhat lightened when Betty Berteaux sent me pictures of a 'funny bird' that had shown up in someone's yard north of Davis. The bird had coloration similar to the European Red-backed Shrike, though from what I'd heard of the bird's behaviour, that didn't quite match up. The next day Betty, Joan and I returned to find it. We were first alerted to its presence by its loud, raucous calls. Definitely not a shrike! The bird seemed shy, usually remaining in the thick canopy of a mulberry tree, but twice hopping down onto the lawn where it foraged like a Scrub-Jay. I managed just a couple of shots of the bird in the tree - Joan did her homework and identified it as a White-crested Laughing Thrush, a sedentary species of China and India. No chance of it being wild, but a genus tick for all of us!

SW California birding

Having birded the NE and NW corners of the state over the previous two weekends, I decided to head down to SW California with Marcel in search of the local specialities and a selection of rarities. Our first stop in the early afternoon was the Salton Sea, where the temperature reached a sweltering 113F - not pleasant! Along with San Francisco birder Calvin Lou (always nice to put a face to a name), we listened to a Black Rail giving its 'Kikidoo' call at Fig Lagoon. Back at the Salton Sea, we failed to find any of the reported Wood Storks, but enjoyed catching up with some of the speciality birds including a soaring Zone-tailed Hawk (a hard bird to find in CA), several Black Skimmers...

Brown Pelicans...

... and Yellow-footed Gulls.

Look at the size of its bill!

At the Obsidian Butte we flushed a Lesser Nighthawk, which flapped a short distance with its tail drooping before landing with its wings outstretched. I assume this bird was doing a Killdeer-style distraction display to lure us away from its nest.

I seem to do pretty well for getting outstanding views of this species!

In the late afternoon we drove east to try some owling on Mount Palomar. It was generally very quiet (we heard one unidentified call which may have been a Spotted Owl), but we were treated to a great view of a meteor burning up in the atmosphere.

After very little sleep (finding a hotel room in San Diego on Independence Day weekend is not easy!), we headed up to the Laguna Mountains and quickly connected with the singing Greater Pewee. This bird was much more vocal than the pewees we saw in AZ last month, presumably because he hadn't found a mate.

Even though it's not quite in focus, I was pleased to get this shot of a feeding Allen's Hummingbird.

The nearby creek was very birdy, the best birds being a single Lawrence's Goldfinch and some unusually obliging Band-tailed Pigeons.

After a quick stop on Kitchen Creek Road (where I finally got 'tickable views' of Black-chinned Sparrow), we proceeded to the Tijuana River Estuary, about as far south and west as it's possible to get in the US. Here we ran into one of the two Yellow-crowned Night Herons. The bird wasn't shy - in fact, most of the time it was too close to digiscope!

I guess this is the subadult bird given the streaking (rather than solid black) below the white cheek patch.

This rather worn-looking Black Phoebe was also quite the poser.

A quick check of the south end of the bay produced two breeding-plumaged Little Blue Herons (San Diego is the only place in CA where this species occurs with any regularity).

South of the Tijuana River we ran into a family of the endemic California Gnatcatchers. Note the diagnostic undertail pattern on this baby.

We drove back to Mount Palomar and were extremely fortunate to see and hear the oversummering Ovenbird. Here's another contender for the worst bird photo I've ever taken - if you look really hard, you can just make out some orange on the crown and the white eye-ring!

This Tiger Lily was somewhat easier to photograph!

We decided to make a crazy dash to the San Bernadino Mountains to try and get Hepatic Tanager before dark. We failed in this, but had nice views of Common Nighthawk and several Poorwills on the way back. Whip-poor-will was much less cooperative - Marcel heard a single call, and I missed it completely!

Yesterday morning at the Greater Pewee site we bumped into Scott and Linda Terrill, who had seen 10 Wood Storks at the Salton Sea the day that we missed them. Having caught up with most of our other targets, we decided to return for another shot. Sure enough, Marcel spotted one flying north towards the mountains. Always good to see!

Burrowing Owls were everywhere - I counted at least 25 along the length of McDonald Road.

Good numbers of shorebirds included hundreds of Avocets...

... and a few Snowy Plovers.

There was interesting selection of gulls too, including a single Heerman's.

It looked to be coping with the heat about as well as I was!

Our day total of Laughing Gull sightings was 38 - at least 29 of these were sitting on the same lagoon. We'd kill for just one in Yolo County!

We returned to the San Bernadinos for another attempt at Hepatic Tanager. This was again frustrating - in 2 hours of searching Marcel had a 3-second glimpse of a probable immature bird and that was it! Consolation prizes included brief looks at a Calliope Hummingbird and several nice singing male Lazuli Buntings. Somewhat miraculously, we managed to drive across LA without running into any traffic, and I was home in time to catch the Independence Day firework display in Davis - a fitting end to a great weekend!