Rancho San Antonio and Half Moon Bay

On Sunday September 30th, Ducky took me to the Rancho San Antonio park, just off the San Jose to San Francisco freeway, for a morning's walk. This proved to eb the perfect spot and I caught up with many of the common California birds that I had missed at Garland Ranch the previous day.

After lunch I drove to Half Moon Bay, inching along bumper-to-bumper as many Bay ares residents took advantage of 80 degree weather. Once there I did get to find many wadres (shorebirds) on the mudflats including a bunch of Sanderling.

Red-shouldered Hawk

Sanderling

Carmel

On the Monterey Bay pelagic I had told someone that I wanted to spend Saturday September 29th looking for common California Birds, and I had received a recommendation of Garland Ranch regional park down Carmel Valley. Dense fog kept me in my hotel later than planned but I headed out to the park for the morning. I hiked 5 miles around the park but found nothing new for my year's list - Stellar's Jays, Western Scrub Jays and American Robins were commonplace but I found none of the birds I was seeking. Getting back to my car, I had a Red-shouldered hawk fly over!

Song Sparrow

I did much better at my next stop, a walk around the headland at Carmel to Carmel River Beach. Here I found 17 Snowy Plover, far more in one place than I had ever seen before.

Snowy Plover

Western Gull

Returning around Carmel Point to my car a young girl brought my attention to some California Quail coming out of the scrub and crossing the road into people's yards, and soon after I found a Whimbrel on the rocks near some roosting Black Turnstones and Willets.

California Quail

Black Turnstone

Whimbrel

Monterey Bay Pelagic

I was at the Monterey Wharf at 7 a.m. on Friday September 28th for my first real pelagic birding trip (Lake Havasy doesn't really count). I was a little apprehensive about being on a boat for 8 hours and had taken my Dramamine pill as suggested on the Shearwater Journeys website. However there was no need to be; the bay waters remained calm all day and, with 9 lifers I had my best birding day since Khao Yai National Park 18 months earlier. This must have been the most ABA lifers I had seen in one day for about 20 years!

The most remarkable thing was that things were going on continuously for the whole trip, starting with Surfbirds and Black Turnstones on the breakwaters as we left the harbor, the Common Murres that we had immediately and the Sooty and Black-vented Shearwaters we had soon thereafter.

Common Murre

Sooty Shearwater

The Black-footed Albatross and Buller's Shearwaters were the loveliest of the birds we saw. Pink-footed and Flesh-footed Sheartwaters, Cassin's and Rhinoceros Auklets; South Polar Skua and Pomarine Jaeger made up the rest of my lifers. We spent some time watching Humpback Whales and found both Pacific White-sided and Risso's dolphins. However the cetacean highlight were a pod of Dall Porpoises (aka Mini Orcas) that swam in the bow wave just metres from where I was sitting.
Remarkably we ran into some passerines some 20 miles out to sea, a Red-winged Blackbird, 3 Lesser Goldfinch and a Red-breasted Nuthatch who worked its way down an antennae before eventually resting on someone's head! Removed with the hat, this bird was released once we returned to shore.

Back on land at 3pm I ventured out after tea in search of some California land birds, but Frog Pond (close to my hotel in Seaside) did not deliver the good birds I had seen posted on eBird - just one California Towhee! 

Moss Landing

I arrived at San Jose airport in the late morning of Thursday September 27th and drove my rental car down Highway 101 to the coast at Moss Landing. My only stop en route was at a dairy farm a mile or so inland where I knew Tricolored Blackbirds would be easy to find in with the Red-winged Blackbirds. They did not disappoint.

I parked at the beach  where I immediately had Marbled Godwit and Willet along the water's edge. It did not take long to find Black-bellied Plover - the Grey Plover I had seen on Mersea Island, Essex, UK in late July - and Heerman's Gulls.

Marbled Godwit

Willet

Black-bellied Plover

Heerman's Gull

Harbor Seals

California Sea Lions

I spent a little more time in the area, first crossing the main road to visit a marsh and then driving to the beach. Besides a Long-billed Curlew, the highlight of the mash was seeing a small dog harassing a sea lion.

Long-billed Curlew

American White Pelicans

Turkey Vulture

Having had a surprisingly good stop at Moss Landing, I then headed to my hotel in Seaside and, after tea, drove to Monterey Wharf to make sure I know where I had to go to catch my boat in the morning. I found a bunch of Elegant Terns on the beach, buoys and boats as I arrived at the wharf.

Elegant Tern

Glendale Recharge Ponds

On Sunday September 16th I drove down to the Glendale Recharge Ponds following some postings on Saturday. I was rewarded with my lifer Stilt Sandpiper, two new state birds - Roseate Spoonbill and Snowy Plover - and a good variety of other birds. One change form the visit two weeks earlier was an increase in the number of (eclipse plumaged) ducks.

Roseate Spoonbill

Phoenix Trip

On Saturday September 1st we headed down to Phoenix and stopped at the Glendale Recharge Ponds. The 104 degree (40C) heat and no shade meant that this was brutal birding but the recharge ponds were full of shorebirds - Wilson's Phalarope, Long-billed Dowitcher, Lesser Yellowlegs, Killdeer, Least, Baird's and Solitary Sandpipers, American Avocets, Black-necked Stilt. A Wilson's Snipe was in the area to the left heading to the ponds themselves.

Wilson's Snipe

On Sunday September 2nd we spent a couple of hours at the Gilbert Water Ranch where we saw about 30 species of birds with the highlight being a Brown Pelican.

Brown Pelican

Tappan Spring and Rimmy Jim

On Saturday August 25th I went  to Cameron with Tom and Jason. The courtyard and seep were both still and we moved onto Tappan Spring. There was little at the spring itself when we first arrived but walking along the creek we found several warbler species. Continuing further Jason found an Eastern Phoebe.

We then headed to Rimmy Jim and immediately watched a Prairie Falcon take a Mourning Dove. Although the total number of shorebirds was low, we had a good selection of species in Lesser and Baird's Sadpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, Killdeer and Wilson's Phalarope.

Lesser Yellowlegs

Back in Flagstaff

Inevitably we had Rufous Hummingbirds in the yard on our return. The surprise was a Mississippi Kite in Citizen's Cemetery. This bird has been located by Chuck while I was in the UK but hung around long enough for me to see.

Mississippi Kite