North-central California
7th - 14th August 2001
7th August
The plane arrived from Phoenix at lunchtime, and once we'd met up with Tom Brouillette (co-owner of California Campers) and done the paperwork on van no. 2 (this one was white and (drat) had automatic transmission), we were off and birding. We wanted to get close to Monterey by the evening, so we headed straight for the coast at Half Moon Bay, and headed south on Highway 1.
There was quite bad coastal fog, and our only real stop for birds was at Pescadero, where we had quick looks at the littoral zone and the freshmarsh. Not bad for a first stop! Plenty of Brown Pelicans, Western and Heermann's Gulls (as there were everywhere along the coast), a Western Grebe offshore, a few Brandt's Cormorants, 2 Red-shouldered Hawks, California Quail, many Brewer's Blackbirds, both Great White and Snowy Egrets, Caspian Tern, a redhead Common Merganser (=Goosander), and many American Crows. First prize, however, went to the almost complete line-up of much-wanted Pacific waders on the rocky shore : Surfbird, Willet, Black and Ruddy Turnstones and (my personal top target for California) a sole Wandering Tattler.
Closer to Monterey, we had Pied-billed Grebe and a Ruddy Duck, and then headed up to Laguna Seca raceway to camp - very quiet, so long as it isn't a race weekend!
8th August
There had been no time-zone change between Arizona and California, but being so much further west, the sun got up a good bit earlier, so we had the luxury of another hour or so in bed - especially as there was dense fog until an hour after dawn! It soon started burning off, however, and after nailing Western Bluebird, Oak Titmouse and California Towhee at the campground, and seeing another covey of California Quail, we got ourselves down to Monterey Bay Harbour for our first of our two planned pelagics.
This trip was pre-booked with Monterey Bay Whale Watch, and was not specifically aimed at birders, but the plan was to see the commoner inshore birds before Sunday's 'proper' pelagic, and to concentrate on mammals. On both counts, the trip succeeded. The boat pulled out at 8.30am, and at once we were seeing California Sealions, Harbour Seals, Sea Otters, Pigeon Guillemots, Pelagic and Brandt's Cormorants in among the canopy of the offshore kelp forest. Slightly further out, we saw masses of Common Murres (=Guillemots), Elegant Terns, several hundred Sooty Shearwaters, 3+ Pink-footed Shearwaters, 2 Northern Fulmars, (weirdly) 2 Great White Egrets heading west, and (best bird) about 15 Black-footed Albatrosses, some close to the boat. A Leatherback Turtle showed very briefly off the stern of the boat.
But, inevitably and wonderfully, the cetaceans stole the show. Even a group of 6 Risso's Dolphins was vastly outperformed by two species of great whale. We started off with a very brief Humpback, to be followed by prolonged views of at least 6 magnificent Blue Whales, shallow diving and sounding within 50 feet of the boat. Soon afterwards, we located some more co-operative Humpbacks, and soon had excellent views. We even had both Blues and Humpbacks blowing together at one point! But what we wanted, of course, was 'friendly' Humpbacks - and we found some! A group of 10 or so very active animals started investigating the boat to within just a few feet, spy-hopping, fluke-waving, head-slapping and (at last) breaching almost clear of the water. Absolutely astonishing stuff. Final estimates were of about 14 Blue Whales and at least 20 Humpback Whales.
It was going to be pretty hard to beat that, though back on shore, en route to the Big Sur coast, we had further goodies, such as Surfbird, Wandering Tattler, Hudsonian Whimbrel and Belted Kingfisher.
The campsite on the Big Sur was a bit crowded, but still had Steller's Jay and our first Dark-eyed Juncos of the trip.
9th August
The fog had rolled in again, and visibility was not good. We started out at Andrew Molera State Park - not very exciting habitat, and too many campers (and weird old hippies playing guitar (badly) in the car park). Watching the surfers at the beach was fun, though. We picked up new landbirds like Wrentit, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Downy Woodpecker and Vaux's Swift (which can be hard to find, we were told), plus White-tailed Kite, Bushtit, several Wilson's Warblers, Black Phoebe and Warbling Vireo. Offshore, we had 3 Western Grebes, Double-crested Cormorant and (best of all) a small flock of Surf Scoters.
We were keen to have a go for the reintroduced California Condors, and our best tip was Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, a few miles to the south. Unfortunately, the fog remained low, and we had no real chance. The compensations weren't huge - the Park has little access beyond a heavily-used path to the coast and back - only a female Anna's Hummingbird, American Robin, Purple Finch, Brown Creeper and Song Sparrow. A pity.
It was time to head back north, and we stopped off at the beautiful Carmel beach and river mouth. Two much wanted birds turned up - California Gull and a Pacific Loon (=Diver) offshore. Back up was well provided by an amazing 12 White-tailed Kites (of which only one was an adult - presumably a post-breeding gathering of several broods?), a very smart juvenile Northern (=Hen) Harrier, Lesser Yellowlegs, a juvenile Short-billed Dowitcher, Semipalmated Plover, Pied-billed Grebe, Belted Kingfisher and a small flock of 'Bicolored' Blackbirds (the taxonomically interesting local form of Red-winged Blackbird).
We spent the rest of the afternoon in Monterey, doing the 'ordinary tourist' bit, and watching Sea Otters, Belted Kingfishers and Pelagic Cormorants along Cannery Row. Then it was back to Laguna Seca for the night - only Killdeer was new here.
10th August
Today we were due to meet up with Todd Newberry, a Santa Cruz birder I had contacted via the internet. He had very kindly agreed to accompany us for the day, and help us out with a few local specialities, and any birds we'd missed.
We started out at Moss Landing, scoring immediately with Long-billed Curlew, Marbled Godwit, White-crowned Sparrow, Common Loon (=Great Northern Diver), Elegant and Caspian Terns, Night Heron, and our first American White Pelicans and Ring-billed Gulls. We also had 2 Sea Otters, one of them hauled out - Sea Otters are supposedly 'never' seen on land. Over the road and into Elkhorn Slough, we saw Snowy Plovers (really 'just' a race of Kentish Plover?), numerous other waders, including Wilson's and Red-necked Phalaropes and Greater Yellowlegs, a few Forster's Terns, Cinnamon Teal, Savannah Sparrow and Oak Titmouse. We had only brief views of American Goldfinch, unfortunately, but did see Downy Woodpecker and an excellent flock of Tricolored Blackbirds at the famous Moonglow Dairy site, which we could not actually enter because of foot & mouth panic.
Up the road and low on fuel, we reached Santa Cruz and the University Arboretum. Immediately, and as Todd promised, we were seeing plenty of excellent Allen's Hummingbirds, including displaying males, as well several Anna's too. While there were plenty of Spotted and California Towhees, and Brown Creeper, we could not locate any California Thrashers - it was near midday, in mid-August, after all!
Down at the sea front, we failed once again on that missing rockshore wader, although we had more Hudsonian Whimbrels, Black Turnstones, Pigeon Guillemots and Sea Otters. Next, it was on to Todd's place of work, Long Marine Labs at the north end of town. Just before we'd left the UK, a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher had turned up there - I'd seen it on the local rare bird alert internet transcript, and asked Todd to glue it to a twig for three weeks! Little did I expect it still to be there - but it was, at least until the day before. We prepared for a lengthy search, but within seconds, there it was - only the 2nd Scissor-tailed Flycatcher for the county, but more importantly, a fantastic, unexpected and crippling bird.
Neary Lagoons are right in the middle of Santa Cruz, a part of a local sewage works, in fact. We tried here for Marsh Wren, but only heard one call briefly, although we did see our only Wood Ducks and Sharp-shinned Hawk, plus Common Yellowthroat, American Kestrel and another Belted Kingfisher. It was by now time to say goodbye to Todd, and head north along the coast en route to Dublin, near Livermore. Back at Pescadero, we had more Surfbirds, Whimbrels and (at last! the set is complete!) American Black Oystercatchers, plus Ravens, of the likely soon-to-be-split Californian form.
The traffic around the bay was absolutely appalling, but we finally got to Dublin and the relative luxury of our motel.
11th August
It was a toss up this morning - Mines Road, in search of Yellow-billed Magpie, Lawrence's Goldfinch and Lewis's Woodpecker, or the more direct route via Mitchell Canyon? We were pretty fed up of driving and birding from the van, so when we saw a superb flock of Yellow-billed Magpies within feet of the Mines Road turnoff, we decided to head for Mitchell Canyon instead of doing the 60-odd mile round trip down the Road and back. Mitchell Canyon was much more fun - a good walk through good habitat. OK, so the only new birds were Pacific-slope Flycatcher and Hairy Woodpecker, but we also had several Red-shouldered Hawks, Hutton's Vireos, Wrentits and Acorn Woodpeckers, plus another Wilson's Warbler and many Spotted Towhees.
We had to negotiate the Bay traffic again to get north towards Bodega, but eventually shook off the cars. One advantage of travelling slowly through the Bay area was that we could pick up a few birds from the road - good numbers of American White Pelicans, American Avocets, Black-necked Stilts and Caspian Terns, plus Forster's Terns and Great White Egrets.
Once we reached Bodega Bay (via a brief Peregrine Falcon) and (just about) found a camping spot, we spent a while out on the headland. Amazingly, there were 3 Gray Whales just a few yards offshore - they weren't supposed to be here until November! Apparently, occasional animals summer off the Californian coast - we just got lucky. Also unseasonal, but less unexpected, was a single adult Glaucous-winged Gull by the car park. 2 subadult male Northern (=Hen) Harriers were working the headland, and we saw 2 Ospreys, Savannah and White-crowned Sparrows, yet another Wandering Tattler, and another American Black Oystercatcher. Bodega Bay itself held plenty of waders, including good numbers of Western Sandpipers, Short-billed Dowitchers and Marbled Godwits.
12th August
We were due to check in at the boat yard at 6.00am, so this was not the morning for the van to get damp and refuse to start. The van got damp and refused to start. Panic at 5.40am, until I managed to catch a lift from the campsite with a similarly insomniac fisherman. A close shave. We got to the dock on time, and checked in with Debi Shearwater, boarding our boat, the Tracer, just before 6.30am. This was the 'proper' birding pelagic, and we were relieved that the weather forecast was OK, given that about 50% of the Shearwater Journeys trips from Bodega get cancelled on account of the sea state. In fact, we were remarkably blessed - the sea was pretty much flat all day, with only the slightest of swells and no chop at all. Add in bright but overcast lighting, and you had pretty much perfect seabirding conditions. On the boat were numerous highly experienced American birders, who certainly had 1000s of pelagic birding-hours between them, and the general consensus was that they'd never seen better weather! So, we were incredibly fortunate, and well set up for success - but would the birds live up to expectations?
Yes! Although we had no 'megas' (in US terms), and we were just about the only people out of the 20 or so on board having life ticks (always good to have plenty of experience on hand when dealing with distant seabirds), we scored fantastically well. The consensus was that this was a truly excellent pelagic. We ended up staying out until after 7.00pm - planned return time was 4.00pm! Even Debi herself was ecstatic - here's why (in systematic order) :
Laysan Albatross 1-2 Very early - normally doesn't occur off this coast until considerably later in the season
Black-footed Albatross 100+ Many following the boat and eating popcorn - at one point we stopped, and had over 50 around the boat, squeaking like ducklings!
Northern Fulmar 8 Of various colour phases, quite unlike Atlantic birds
Buller's Shearwater 500+ Just arrived (none here last week), and really beautiful birds - right up there with Great Shearwater
Pink-footed Shearwater c.50 More like a Cory's than anything else - wholly different flight action from commoner Sooties
Sooty Shearwater 100+ The only seabird scarcer here than in Monterey Bay
Ashy Storm-petrel c.200 But only a pretty rough estimate!
Fork-tailed Storm-petrel 1 A lovely pearly grey colour
Pelagic Cormorant 20
Brandt's Cormorant c.10
Marbled Godwit 10
Red (=Grey) Phalarope c.1000
Red-necked Phalarope c. 500 Several huge, whirling mixed flocks of phalaropes, giving superb views by the boat
Long-tailed Jaeger (=Skua) 151+ Excludes perhaps 50 distant jaegers, most of which were probably of this species. This is perhaps the most extraordinary feature of the day, smashing as it did all previous northern California pelagic day count records. Many were fully tailed adults.
Parasitic Jaeger (=Arctic Skua) 3+ And probably rather few overlooked
Pomarine Jaeger (=Skua) c.30 Including many 'full-spooned' adults
South Polar Skua 2 One of which gave crippling views as it circled the boat
California Gull 1 juv.
Western Gull many
Heermann's Gull many
Sabine's Gull 200+ Mainly adults, a few 2nd years, and no juveniles at all
Common Tern c.5
Arctic Tern c.2
Common Murre (=Guillemot) 100s
Pigeon Guillemot c.30
Xantus's Murrelet 12 All in pairs, often very close to the boat
Cassin's Auklet 100+ Many so laden with krill that they were unable to fly! Aptly described as '[American] footballs with wings'
Rhinoceros Auklet c.100
Tufted Puffin 2 The first of these caused some on-board controversy, since it showed anomalously pale underparts. But we were happy in the (majority) Tufted camp
Brown-headed Cowbird 2 Bizarre!
The most productive areas were along steep thermo-gradients, especially at the edges of Bodega submarine canyon, the continental shelf proper, and around the submarine seamounts at the Cordell Banks. Cassin's Auklets, and to some extent other alcids, were commoner around 50 fathoms, and birds became noticeably scarcer in the really deep water over the abyssal plain (maximum depth reached = 1500 fathoms, or 9000ft!). We checked this area for megas such as Pterodroma petrels or outrageously rare Albatrosses and Storm-petrels, but to no avail. Like we were disappointed!
And as for other marine life - plenty! We had distant views of at least 1 Blue Whale, and excellent close views of c.30 Humpbacks, plus Pacific White-sided Dolphin (some bow-wave riding right under the boat), Northern Right Whale Dolphin, Dall's Porpoise, many California Sealions, Northern Fur Seal, an unexpected Northern Elephant Seal, Blue Shark, Albacore and Ocean Sunfish.
In all, a truly fantastic trip - it puts the Scillonian and Bay of Biscay pelagics in perspective, really!
13th August
We had rather a late start today, but headed mid-morning for Point Reyes, via Nicasio Reservoir, where we had Osprey, 13 American White Pelicans and 2 Lark Sparrows.
Tomales Point is the northernmost part of Point Reyes - it's largely windswept moorland and pasture, but the beaches and valleys look just like Porthgwarra! It feels like a rarity trap (as of course it is) - but perhaps not in mid August.
We scored with 3 juvenile Baird's Sandpipers on a beach pool, plus Peregrine Falcon, American Goldfinch and White-crowned Sparrows. We also saw some of the resident Tule Elk herd.
Kehoe Beach valley was another similarly promising site, and it turned up what turned out to be last lifer of the trip - 2 juvenile Marsh Wrens - plus Common Yellowthroat, 2 Ospreys, more American Goldfinches, White-crowned Sparrows, Elegant and Caspian Terns.
We enjoyed a brief walk at Bear Valley visitor centre in the evening, with no startling birds - 'just' another White-tailed Kite and good views of Hairy Woodpecker. A Barn Owl flew out from roost at the camp site. Also a good tick in the form of camping right on the San Andreas Fault!
14th August
Our final day. Fog bound once more, we visited Point Reyes Bird Observatory first thing, more for a site tick than in the expectation of good birds. Just as well, really, as the net round we followed produced a grand total of no birds! We did see Cooper's Hawk, Northern (=Hen) Harrier, Northern Flickers, Spotted Towhees and Purple Finches, but it was clear that there was rather little migration going on.
Bolinas Lagoon was much better - a pair of Greater Scaups, and numerous waders, including Willet, Greater Yellowlegs, Long-billed Curlew and Marbled Godwit.
We wended our way gently back south to San Francisco, stopping only at the Marin headlands north of the Golden Gate Bridge to clear out the van and have a quick look around. We added our final bird of the trip - Bank Swallow (=Sand Martin) - to make it 146 for the Californian leg, and an excellent 267 species for the whole trip. Other species included Common Yellowthroat, American Black Oystercatcher, Pied-billed Grebe and lots of Brown Pelicans, Common Murres (=Guillemots), Pigeon Guillemots and Brandt's and Pelagic Cormorants to see us on our way.
So, we drove back through downtown San Francisco, saw a couple of Forster's Terns by the Bay, and returned our van to the office in Redwood City.
Significant dips? It was a pity not to see Clark's Grebe, and we might have had a scarce Shearwater such as Flesh-footed offshore, or perhaps a Leach's or other Storm-petrel. We were surprised not see a few more passage duck species, and we didn't really try hard enough in the right places for rails or Sora Crake. Spotted Sandpiper was a bit of an omission, and we saw no owls apart from Barn. Olive-sided Flycatcher eluded us throughout, and we were perhaps a bit early for the migrant Empidonax flycatchers. Hirundines were thin on the ground in California, and we saw neither American Dipper nor Golden-crowned Kinglet, though they are both long shots along the coast. Lawrence's Goldfinch and Lewis's Woodpeckers were, as mentioned, possibilities, but I guess we just started to run out of steam a bit - it was a holiday, after all!
And that was that - 3 weeks, masses of dirty washing, much exhaustion, brilliant birds, mammals and butterflies, largely excellent weather, and great memories. Well worth doing!
end of report