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