Moss Landing

On Friday December 30th my wife, son and I went to Moss Landing. We used our usual plan, starting at the State Wildlife Area where we were greeted by a friendly Long-billed Curlew. We saw the expected birds - Brown Pelicans, Willet, gulls etc. as well as a Harbor Seal and several Sea Otters.

Long-billed Curlew

We then drove across the busy highway to Moss Landing State Beach where an immediate find was a state mammal - a pocket gopher. The water was quite high but Marbled Godwits few in the vegetation and the White-tailed Kites were in their usual tree. A Pelagic Cormorant was a bit of a surpise.

Botta's Pocket Gopher

We then took a path through the dunes and walked along the beach where we found several Snowy Plover as well as Willets and Sanderlings along the waterline. A few Surf Scoter were in the water.

Snowy Plover

Sanderlings and Willet

We then walked back along the road. The harbor area had both Common Loon and Pacific Loon and we saw one California Sea Lion (but could hear many more). A group of Heerman's Gulls were on one rock; Brwon Pelicans on another.

Mormon Lake CBC

On Saturday December 17th I did my traditional route on the Mormon Lake CBC along with Troy, Kathryn and Jeff. There had been no snow to speak of prior to the count and we arrived at the Upper Lake Mary Dam to see open water. So we knew immediately that things would be different to recent years.

The walk across the dam yielded Ruddy Duck, Mallard and a Western Grebe on the water - the latter being seen on the count for just the second time. A flyover Bald Eagle was expected, but our first passerine was a Townsend's Solitaire and we also saw a perched Red-tailed Hawk. Our seventh and eight species of the day were, often the first two seen, Common Raven and Dark-eyed Junco.

Sadly this great start did not continue and the trek out to Vail Lake and back yielded little but the expected forest birds. A group of 43 Mountain Bluebirds being the only thing of note.

Meeting at the Lodge for lunch we found that Ashurst Lake was also open and although duck numbers were small there were several species as well as unexpected Ring-billed Gulls on the water. The Mormon Lake fire station area gave two new birds for the count - American Avocet and a Common Loon, and a group of us stopped to see the loon on the way back.

The count had 49 species of which I saw 28.

Flagstaff Golf Course

Turning into the Flagstaff Athletic Club on Tuesday December 6th I saw a white goose among a group of Canada Geese flying overhead. I looked for the bird after my swim on Thursday 8th and found Tom, Jason and Ron with their scopes looking at birds on the driving range. They were looking at a Cackling Goose and a California Gull and said that they had earlier seen 2 Snow Geese and 6 White-fronted Geese.

A week later on Thursday December 15th posts indicated that there were now 4 Snow Geese and 1 Ross's Goose on the fairway opposite the Club, and late in the day my son and I went out but could only find 2 Snow Geese! But I went out in the rain on Friday 16th and found the Ross's Goose, reaching my 500 species target for the year!

Cottonwood and Sedona

On Saturday December 10th I decided to go down to Cottonwood and Sedona to hit a couple of spots to try to reach 500 species in 2016, including 300 in North America.

I had looked on eBird for some likely spots and my son and I went to Ogden Ranch Road hoping for sparrows. Alas the only such species found were White-crowneds. However we got lucky with a Prairie Falcon harassing a raven overhead. The falcon took we one nearer to my targets.

Further stops at Chuckwalla Road and in a Sedona Neighborhood failed to deliver hoped-for White-winged Dove or Canyon Towhee.

On Wednesday December 14th Barbara and I spent 4 hours in Sedona on the CBC where we saw many expected species, but again no Canyon Towhee

Vancouver, day three

On Saturday November 26th I started the day with another visit to the Lost Lagoon, seeing many of the species from the day before but also a Pacific Wren and a River Otter! Although it was drizzling I went a little further than the previous day and made it to Second Beach where the water held Bufflehead, both Common and Barrow's Goldeneye, a solitary Surf Scoter and my target: a Harlequin Duck. This was the first one I had seen since a wintering bird in San Diego around 1990. I then returned to the hotel.

Harlequin Duck

We spent the morning driving around Stanley Park in the rain adding a number of birds to the trip list including Red-breasted and Common Mergansers, Horned Grebe and Wood Ducks.

Our last stop was to Jericho Park where a group of 8 White-winged Scoters added the eleventh and final year bird to my trip list

Vancouver, day two

I was up and about early on Friday for a visit to the Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park where I stayed for about an hour. This was a successful trip for my target birds starting with a small flock of Golden-crowned Kinglets immediately when I reached the lake. I then began walking anticlockwise around the lake and had 5 Cackling Geese and 7 Hooded Mergansers just as I started off.

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Hooded Merganser

Soon after I ran into a flock of Black-capped Chickadees, and in the same place, a Fox Sparrow. I returned to our hotel at 9:00.

After wandering around Canada Place, where there were 1500 Surf Scoter but no other sea ducks among them, and Gastown we took the ferry across to North Vancouver where 100 Barrow's Goldeneye - the most I had ever seen in one place - were just off Lonsdale Quay.

Vancouver, day one

On Thursday November 24th I flew to Vancouver, British Columbia to meet up with my wife and son. While waiting for them at the airport I saw the two expected year birds - Northwestern Crow and Glaucous-winged Gull.

Together, we drove to the nearby Iona Island and found a large flock of Snow Geese in and around a parking lot! We then walked a short way onto the south jetty where we saw few birds including a cooperative Northern Shrike. The only ducks in the water were a few Bufflehead. Three Lincoln Sparrows were in the bushes as we walked back to the car.

Northern Shrike

At a stop along the road we saw three Hooded Mergansers, but the highlight of the day was a Short-eared Owl - an ABA bird for me, and the first I had seen since I had one in Rainham in 1982! This was being harassed by a crow forcing it to fly
high in the sky.

Hooded Merganser (female)

My wife and son had seen Trumpeter Swans and Brant on their drive from Seattle to Vancouver. These were hoped-for year birds for me, but alas I did not see these on my trip.

Trumpeter Swans

Flagstaff additions

On Saturday November 19th I decided to hit a couple of spots around Flagstaff in an effort to get closer to year end targets. I started the day on Buffalo Range Road where things began badly with a herd of cows all over Babbitt Tank removing the likelihood of longspurs. I drove down the road and soon found a Sagebrush Sparrow perched up, but had no further luck with new species on my morning drive.

At the end of the day I decided to head west of town to Garland Prairie hoping to find the Rough-legged Hawk that had been posted a few days earlier. I had no luck on the drive out past the village but found the bird perched atop a distant ponderosa on my way back.

Rough-legged Hawk

Frances Short Pond

On the morning that I left for San Jose, Wednesday November 9th, I had a text from Tom telling me about a Thick-billed Kingbird at the Frances Short Pond. I only had time for a 10 minute stay en route to the airport. I monitored reports over the weekend and returned to the pond 3:30-4:00 on Monday and 11:00-11:30 on Tuesday without luck. Then on Wednesday morning, November 16th Zack reported that the bird was still there.

I stopped at the pond after work without my binoculars and ran into Brian who had the bird. I had time to go home get my things and returned to watch the bird for 20 minutes.

Thick-billed Kingbird

This was another county bird for me; a species that I had only seen previously around Patagonia in the summertime.

New Places in San Jose

On Saturday November 12th my wife and I visited some new places in Santa Clara county. The first stop was to try for a stake-out bird, a Clay-colored Sparrow, feeding on some tall grasses at the Foothill College Sunnyvale Center. We found the bird very quickly and it was quite cooperative.

Clay-colored Sparrow

Our next stop was at Ed Levin County Park in Milpitas. We had been munching on a snack while watching Acorn woodpeckers when a couple came along and delivered my target bird - Red-breasted sapsucker on a plate. The bird was on the main trunk of the tree in front of us! 

Red-breasted Sapsucker

Lincoln's Sparrow

After walking around the small lake we then drove into the hills seeing two Golden eagles en route to the Calavaras Reservoir. We found Sandy Wool Lake on the way back but there was nothing too exciting there.

After lunch we headed to Alviso Marina County Park and wandered out onto the slough trail. Things were coming in to roost and we saw at least a hundred Black-necked Stilts, at least thirty American Avocets and a dozen Dunlins, but gulls were the highlight with many Ring-billeds plus Herring Gulls, Western Gulls and Thayer's Gulls in a loose group on a sandbar.

Thayer's Gull

Coyote Valley Open Space Preserve

On Friday November 11th I paid a first visit to the Coyote Valley OSP. This spot at the end of Palm Avenue consists of a 3.75 mile loop up into the hills with scattered trees among the grassland. The highlight of the day was seeing so many Yellow-billed Magpies up close.

Yellow-billed Magpie

I also saw several Red-tailed Hawks, California Scrub Jays and Steller's Jays and four woodpecker species - Northern Flicker, Acorn Woodpecker, Nuttall's Woodpecker and my first Lewis's Woodpecker in California.

Red-tailed Hawk

Oak Titmouse

Coyote Valley

Ferruginous Hawk

On Thursday November 10th I spent 4 hours looking for year birds in the Coyote Valley, which was much greener than on my last trip following more than an inch of rain in the past three weeks.

I started on Laguna Avenue where White-tailed Kites, American Kestrels, Red-tailed Hawk, Turkey Vultures and a Northern Harrier kept me busy until Craig found a Ferruginous Hawk on the ground. Hundreds of Red-winged Blackbirds, a Loggerhead Shrike and 3 Yellow-billed Magpies were also seen.

Meteor Crater RV Park and Babbitt Tank (again)

Jason found a Rufous-backed Robin at the Meteor Crater RV park on Sunday October 30th and I went out there later that day and scoured the campground to no avail in very high winds.

The bird was still being reported on Friday and so I headed out east of town on Saturday November 5th. I left early hoping to find longspurs coming into Babbitt Tank although it had rained on Thursday and Friday. But the tank had indeed lost its attraction. I did see some meadowlarks including at least one Eastern Meadowlark, but otherwise had a single Savannah Sparrow, a Loggerhead Shrike and some flyover ravens to show for my stop.

I reached the RV park around 8:30 and entered the property with Chip. It took us about 20 minutes to find the Rufous-backed Robin in the trees at the back. The only other bird new for me at this location was a Sage Thrasher.

Rufous-backed Robin

Sage Thrasher

Betsy and Steve's

I had an email from Betsy in the morning of Tuesday October 25th telling me of a Gray Catbird in their yard. I then found out that a catbird had been at Willow Bend over the summer - mid-May to mid-August - when I was away and so this bird was not very interesting to others! I went over at about 3pm and Steve immediately found the bird feeding on a Russian Olive. This was a county bird for me.

Gray Catbird

The following Saturday, October 29th I headed up to Aspen Corner and hiked down to the Arizona Trail, up and around Aspen Loop and back down again, hoping for Clark's Nutcrackers. I had no luck at all, in fact it wasn't at all birdy. I did find a very red Arizona Gray Squirrel.

Arizona Gray Squirrel

San Jose Weekend

On Saturday October 22nd my wife and I spent 45 minutes on Laguna Avenue in Morgan Hill. I had hoped to find Cackling Geese among the Canadas, but in fact there were no geese to be found! However this part of Coyote Valley is well known for its raptors and we had a Northern Harrier, two White-tailed Kites, two Red-tailed Hawks and two Turkey Vultures. The main bird activity however was around the cattle and their water tanks. We had hundreds of Brown-headed Cowbirds and Tricolored Blackbirds with a number of Brewer's Blckbirds, Red-winged Blackbirds, Eurasian starlings and a single female Great-tailed Grackle  mixed in. At the end of the road we had 5 Yellow-billed Magpies.

On Sunday October 23rd we went for a 3 mile hike in Santa Teresa County Park. Wintering sparrows were in with many White-crowns and some Golden-crowned Sparrows in the brush. We also saw a Nuttall's Woodpecker feeding on the ground as well as expected species. Walking back through the golf course we saw two White-tailed Kites, one a young bird asking to be fed by its parent.

Meteor Crater RV Park and Babbitt Tank

Chuck found a Wood Thrush at the Meteor Crater RV Park on Thursday October 13th and I rushed out there after my classes finished on Friday 14th. I had some good but short views of the bird but failed to get a photo. This bird was my 400th species in Arizona.

Hermit Thrush

Red-naped Sapsucker

 
I went back out on Saturday morning stopping first at Babbitt Tank where I had hoped to see Chestnut-collared Longspurs but instead found Tom and Anne. They had been looking for a Bobolink, seen a few days earlier; I joined them but we had no luck finding the bird. We then moved on to the RV Park but there was no sign of the Wood Thrush - nor the Hermit Thrushes that had been with it the day before. I did find a Red-naped Sapsucker.

Round Cedar Lake

I chased an Asian vagrant, a Lesser Sand-Plover on Tuesday October 4th. The bird had been found by Jason and Chuck who did a tour of wet spots on the Rez in the Flagstaff - Leupp - Meteor Crater area on Sunday 2nd. This was a first state record of this bird - that I had seen in Australia in 2009. This was a twitch for many with birders coming in from all over - including a Big Year birder from South Dakota!

Lesser Sand-Plover

I arrived at 12:30 to find 7 people waiting for the bird to reappear. It had disappeared into the scrub shortly after 11:00. The bird returned at 1:30 having been flushed by a hunting male Northern Harrier, and the bird then foraged close by for the next 45 minutes before taking a nap just a short distance away. By then Gary, Troy, Chuck and Anita had all arrived and from the list serve it was clear that tohers came and went during the afternoon.

Happy Hollow Park and Zoo

On Saturday October 1st my wife and I decided to go to the San Jose zoo. We had not done any research ahead of time and it turned out there really weren't many animals there! But we enjoyed our stroll around the park with local birds, including my first Golden-crowned Sparrows of the season.

California Towhee

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Alviso- Chicago Marsh and Sunnyvale WPCP

On Sunday September 18th the four of us headed to two spots on the San Francisco Wildlife Refuge on the way to the airport. But we began with a detour into the Santa Teresa County Park in which we found our target bird - Wild Turkey:

  At Alviso my brother and I had the Ruff in with a number of Long-billed Dowitchers along the road into the Environmental Center but otherwise the  birds were very much as expected. There were more American White Pelicans there than I had ever seen before. The wetter area at Sunnyvale WCPC had a larger number of ducks than on previous visits but again nothing too noteworthy.

American White Pelicans

Greater Yellowlegs

Black-necked Stilt

Moss Landing

On Saturday September 17th my brother and his wife stopped by for a weekend in San Jose and we took them out to the coast. Our first destination was Moss Landing and we stopped first at the wildlife area before crossing to the State Beach. We then headed to Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey before ending the day in Carmel.

Brown Pelican

Harbour Seal

Sea Otters

American Pipit

We saw many of the usual suspects at Moss Landing which included a large group of Semi-palmated Plovers with one Sanderling on the beach, where a fly-by Surfbird was a nice surprise. Monterey yielded a large group of Heerman's Gulls on the rocks. Carmel River Beach was hosting a wedding and so that was a little disappointing but the walk along the coast yielded both Black Turnstones and a Black Oystercatcher.

Elegant Tern

Heerman's Gull

Belted Kingfisher

Labor Day Weekend around San Jose

On  Saturday September 3rd my wife and I went to the Alviso/Chicago Marsh area of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay Wildlife Refuge. The target birds were a Stilt Sandpiper and a Ruff but we had no luck with these. But we enjoyed seeing the many terns and shorebirds of the area, in particular a couple of Least Terns, a cooperative Greater Yellowlegs and a couple of Common Gallinules.

On Sunday September 4th we went to Moss Landing and made a stop at Zmudowski State Beach. This was a first, encouraged by a number of eBird sightings. It took us a while to find the lagoon but when we did we had a nice selection of gulls, terns and waders including a Semi-palmated Plover and some Sanderlings. We could not resist stopping at Moss Landing itself and saw this spot with the tide in for the first time. The curlews and godwits were present in good numbers in the vegetation and the White-tailed Kite was in its usual tree. the highlight for me was a couple of Red-necked Phalarope at the ocean edge - a new bird for me at this location.

Least Sandpiper

Sanderlings

Yellowlegs

The Week before Classes

I did a number of short birding hikes ahead of the start of Fall semester although they all proved to be pretty unexciting.

On Tuesday August 23rd I spent an hour at Elden Spring, although I had set aside more time it was not a very birdy day. I saw just 11 species with Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and Wilson's Warbler being the small highlights.

On Friday August 26th I went our to the Kachina Wetlands but the mud was covered in weeds and the reeds were very high. I saw very little in my sort stay.

On Saturday August 27th I went up to Snowbowl and hiked the Aspen Nature Loop before stopping on the way down at Aspen Corner to walk down to and go a short distance along the Arizona Trail. My best bird was a female Williamson's Sapsucker, never an easy bird for me to find.

On Sunday August 28th I spent the best part of 2 hours out at Picture Canyon seeing many of the birds seen a week previously and adding MacGillivray's Warbler for the year. But I failed to find two target birds seen the day before - White-eyed Vireo and Northern Waterthrush.

Picture Canyon

On Sunday August 21st I spent an hour at Picture Canyon doing a loop from the Wildcat WTP to the Arizona Trail bridge, along the Rio to the waterfall and then up the cliff and back. I had 22 species, although very few individuals during my walk.

Things began brightly with a Black-throated Gray Warbler among several Chipping Sparrows along the creek just after the pond but things were generally quiet from then until I reached the Rio. Coming out of the trees I flushed two Belted Kingfishers perched on the bridge and then as I neared the waterfall I had one of each of Townsend's, Yellow, Nashville and Orange-crowned Warblers, and a Cassin's Vireo. A nice flock of Lazuli Buntings perched nicely in view as I turned to climb out of the canyon.

Santa Teresa County Park

Returning from my Europe trip the nearby county park had quietened down with breeding birds no longer singing. I took three hikes around the park in early August covering most of the trails easy of Bernal Road. On August 10th I flushed a Cooper's Hawk from the trees near the trail head and then found a group of three American Kestrels working a field near the day use area. Soon after I ran into two groups of 20-30 Lesser Goldfinches, new for me at this location.

On August 16th I ran into one tom and a dozen hens while crossing Bernal Road and saw around 50 Turkey Vultures interested in a carcass. Some birds were feeding, some stop quietly waiting their turn with others on the trees and more in the sky.  I had  not seen this behaviour before - which reminded of the Eurasian Griffon Vultures I had seen in Spain. The bird of the day was a Rufous-crowned Sparrow which although in range and in the right habitat was not on the eBird list.

Rufous-crowned Sparrow

Pinnacles National Park

We had gone to Pinnacles many years ago, and since then the National Monument had been upgraded to a National Park, in part, I'm sure because of nesting California Condor. But we did not hold hopes of seeing this bird having been told that there was a young bird in the nest and the adults had not been viewable of late.

My hope was to see Lawrence's Goldfinch, a bird that I have only seen twice before but my planning went awry. We arrived at Pinnacles after noon in a temperature of 40C (104F) and the guaranteed stake out was devoid of birds! Our first attempt at a a hike - from the Old Pinnacles trail head - was soon abandoned. With no shade it was no different to hiking in Phoenix in August! Our last chance was at Bear Gulch and we took a lovely hike along a shaded creek and then for some distance through a cool cave to a reservoir. We saw 17 species en route with California and Spotted Towhees, California Scrub-Jays, Oak Titmice, Acorn Woodpeckers, Bewick's Wrens and Bushtits all being abundant and active despite the ambient temperature. Wilson's Warblers were my only FOY species.

Bewick's Wren

California Towhee

Wilson's Warbler

Oak Titmouse