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.
Sunday, August 28, 2016
Sunday, August 21, 2016
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.
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.
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
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.
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.
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| Rufous-crowned Sparrow |
Monday, August 15, 2016
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.
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.
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| Bewick's Wren |
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| California Towhee |
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| Wilson's Warbler |
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| Oak Titmouse |
Farallones
On Sunday August 14th my wife and I took a Shearwater Journeys pelagic trip out of Sausalito. The news when we got to the boat at 7:20 was not good with the ocean swell meaning we would stay close to the coast before making the journey to the Farralone Islands. This meant a longer journey and we would not have time later in the day to look for birds along the continental shelf.
My target bird for the trip was the much-wanted Tufted Puffin and these were guaranteed at the islands. We also saw thousands of Common Murres, many Pigeon Guillemots and a few Cassin's Auklets in the waters.
In addition a single Blue-footed Booby and a single Brown Booby on the island known as Sugarloaf provided life birds for many of those on the boat. And the rocks also held some west coast shorebirds.
Returning home in calmer seas we were lucky to get close views of a single Fork-tailed Storm Petrel and a fly by Pomarine Jaeger.
The trip ended with a wonderful non-birdy moment, a return to the bay seeing San Francisco framed beneath the Golden Gate Bridge under blue skies.
My target bird for the trip was the much-wanted Tufted Puffin and these were guaranteed at the islands. We also saw thousands of Common Murres, many Pigeon Guillemots and a few Cassin's Auklets in the waters.
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| Tufted Puffin |
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| Common Murre |
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| Pigeon Guillemots |
In addition a single Blue-footed Booby and a single Brown Booby on the island known as Sugarloaf provided life birds for many of those on the boat. And the rocks also held some west coast shorebirds.
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| Black Oystercatcher |
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| Blue-footed Booby |
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| Brown Booby |
Returning home in calmer seas we were lucky to get close views of a single Fork-tailed Storm Petrel and a fly by Pomarine Jaeger.
The trip ended with a wonderful non-birdy moment, a return to the bay seeing San Francisco framed beneath the Golden Gate Bridge under blue skies.
Sunnyvale WPCP
While I had been in Europe my wife had gone to a new place on San
Francisco Bay and had run into an introduced but countable species -
Northern Red Bishop. We went to the place - the Sunnyvale Water Pollution Control Plant on Monday
August 1st but had no luck with this bird in the ditch than runs from
the car park to the salt pans on the bay. I will need to return to look
for this potential lifer. Instead we had lots of gulls (California and
Ring-billed), Forster's Terns as well as post-breeding Black-necked
Stilts and American Avocets and a hundred American White Pelicans. But
the day was memorable for maybe 1000 phalaropes, mostly Wilson's but
including at least 40 Red-necked Phalaropes.
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| Red-necked Phalarope |
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| Wilson's Phalaropes |
RSPB Rainham Marshes and Sevenoaks
On Tuesday July 26th my brother took me out as I sought three more species to take me to 450 for the year and six species to reach 100 in the UK for 2016.
Our first stop was the RSPB Rainham Marshes reserve and we soon had Common Shelduck and Reed Bunting for my UK list, and after much work added Sedge Warbler for the year. This would have been easier earlier in the summer but singing had stopped and we heard just one Reed Warbler on the visit - a big change from the cacophony of the reed beds by the Black Sea. On our short walk along the sea (Thames) wall we flushed another elusive year bird - Meadow Pipit and found a Dunlin along the shoreline.
This left just one bird to make both numbers and we went to the reserve in Sevenoaks for the 'guaranteed' Egyptian Goose.
Our first stop was the RSPB Rainham Marshes reserve and we soon had Common Shelduck and Reed Bunting for my UK list, and after much work added Sedge Warbler for the year. This would have been easier earlier in the summer but singing had stopped and we heard just one Reed Warbler on the visit - a big change from the cacophony of the reed beds by the Black Sea. On our short walk along the sea (Thames) wall we flushed another elusive year bird - Meadow Pipit and found a Dunlin along the shoreline.
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| Linnet |
This left just one bird to make both numbers and we went to the reserve in Sevenoaks for the 'guaranteed' Egyptian Goose.
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| Egyptian Goose |
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| Common Pochard |
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| Tufted Duck |
South through Lincolnshire
On Tuesday July 19th David and I we left Beverley en route home. We decided we had a little time to spare
and first drove north out of Beverley to Tophill Low Nature Reserve. We had no
great expectations of the place but it turned out to be something of a
little gem.
The reserve has a number of hides overlooking ponds and scrapes on which a couple of Green Sandpipers were the highlight. A woodland area gave me my FOY Eurasian Treecreeper and a Eurasian Sparrowhawk flew over as we walked around the reservoir.
The next part of the day wasn't fun with temperatures reaching 33C, 91F as we drove south over the Humber Bridge and down to Boston to visit two RSPB reserves. The first Freiston Shore did not have a visitor centre and was underwhelming in part to due to bad luck with the tide. Good birds listed on websites were nowhere to be seen! We drove on to the nearby Frampton Marsh reserve which was much better and from one of the hides had Ringed Plover, Black-tailed Godwit, Ruff and Red Knot.
We then headed to the station in Peterborough for my train home, spending a little time nearby hoping in vain for Red Kite.
The reserve has a number of hides overlooking ponds and scrapes on which a couple of Green Sandpipers were the highlight. A woodland area gave me my FOY Eurasian Treecreeper and a Eurasian Sparrowhawk flew over as we walked around the reservoir.
The next part of the day wasn't fun with temperatures reaching 33C, 91F as we drove south over the Humber Bridge and down to Boston to visit two RSPB reserves. The first Freiston Shore did not have a visitor centre and was underwhelming in part to due to bad luck with the tide. Good birds listed on websites were nowhere to be seen! We drove on to the nearby Frampton Marsh reserve which was much better and from one of the hides had Ringed Plover, Black-tailed Godwit, Ruff and Red Knot.
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| Red Knot |
We then headed to the station in Peterborough for my train home, spending a little time nearby hoping in vain for Red Kite.
North to Yorkshire
I went to ManorCon, a board games convention, held in Leicester on
Friday July 15th. My only good bird while there was a Peregrine Falcon
with young at Leicester Cathedral.
On Sunday 17th I took the train to Peterborough where David met me and he spent a little time showing me around his place of work, the RSPB reserve at Nene Marshes. After some tea we then drove to Scunthorpe in northern Lincolnshire for the night via a stop at the RSPB reserve at Blacktoft Sands which was a little disappointing except for a Common Snipe and a Spotted Redshank.
On Monday July 18th David and I headed to Hornsea Mere which sounded interesting but did not have a lot to offer. A large group of birds sat to the side of the parking area - Greylag and Canada Geese, Carrion Crows, Jackdaws, Eurasian Coot and Herring Gull - but the mere itself held few birds. Only a Common Tern was of much interest.
Our next stop, the main purpose of the trip, were the breeding seabird colonies at Flamborough Head and Bempton. We parked in Bridlington and walked around the harbour running into a Barnacle Goose of dubious origin and my first Ruddy Turnstones of the year.
As we boarded the Yorkshire Belle we saw Black-legged Kittiwakes on the harbour wall and heard three Sandwich Terns flying overhead. The boat trip was excellent and we had good views of the alcids on the rocks.
Our next stop was the RSPB Bempton Cliffs reserve and we got to see the colonies from above. This viewpoint was further along than the boat had gone and we got to see Northern Fulmars, Northern Gannets and Eurasian Shags as well.
This was the hottest day of the year - over 30C (86F) and to end the day we headed to a cooler spot - The North York Moors National Park - and we spent time in the cool woods around a stream where I added Willow Tit for the year. Taking a route back across the moors we saw several Yellowhammer.
We ended the day with a visit to the famous Beverley Minster located just a few metres form our hostel.
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| Peregrine Falcon |
On Sunday 17th I took the train to Peterborough where David met me and he spent a little time showing me around his place of work, the RSPB reserve at Nene Marshes. After some tea we then drove to Scunthorpe in northern Lincolnshire for the night via a stop at the RSPB reserve at Blacktoft Sands which was a little disappointing except for a Common Snipe and a Spotted Redshank.
On Monday July 18th David and I headed to Hornsea Mere which sounded interesting but did not have a lot to offer. A large group of birds sat to the side of the parking area - Greylag and Canada Geese, Carrion Crows, Jackdaws, Eurasian Coot and Herring Gull - but the mere itself held few birds. Only a Common Tern was of much interest.
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| Greylag x Canada Goose |
Our next stop, the main purpose of the trip, were the breeding seabird colonies at Flamborough Head and Bempton. We parked in Bridlington and walked around the harbour running into a Barnacle Goose of dubious origin and my first Ruddy Turnstones of the year.
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| Barnacle Goose |
As we boarded the Yorkshire Belle we saw Black-legged Kittiwakes on the harbour wall and heard three Sandwich Terns flying overhead. The boat trip was excellent and we had good views of the alcids on the rocks.
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| Black-legged Kittiwakes |
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| Common Guillemot (Murre) |
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| Atlantic Puffin |
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| Razorbill |
Our next stop was the RSPB Bempton Cliffs reserve and we got to see the colonies from above. This viewpoint was further along than the boat had gone and we got to see Northern Fulmars, Northern Gannets and Eurasian Shags as well.
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| Eurasian Shags |
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| Northern Fulmars |
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| Northern Gannet |
This was the hottest day of the year - over 30C (86F) and to end the day we headed to a cooler spot - The North York Moors National Park - and we spent time in the cool woods around a stream where I added Willow Tit for the year. Taking a route back across the moors we saw several Yellowhammer.
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| Yellowhammer |
We ended the day with a visit to the famous Beverley Minster located just a few metres form our hostel.
Return to the UK
I got back from Bulgaria on June 18th but felt exhausted after long days spent with no time to recover from jet lag, and with rainy weather throughout June in the UK I did not really venture outside for ten days or so. When I did, on Thursday June 30th, it was for a walk through the Langdon Hills woods and I had targeted two species that I had not seen in Bulgaria - Tufted Duck and Long-tailed Tits - both of which I found easily.
David came over on Sunday July 3rd and after making some plans for later we went out for a nice walk around a very busy Wat Tyler Country Park where I added Eurasian Curlew for the year. (Daniel had glimpsed one at the Pomorie salt pans but could not relocate the bird.) The following weekend my brother came over and I chose Hanningfield Reservoir for our short trip out. The target bird, (countable) Red-crested Pochards, were in their usual spot but I was surprised to find another year bird, Stock Doves, at the feeders near the visitor center. A Muntjac also came close while we were watching these birds.
David came over on Sunday July 3rd and after making some plans for later we went out for a nice walk around a very busy Wat Tyler Country Park where I added Eurasian Curlew for the year. (Daniel had glimpsed one at the Pomorie salt pans but could not relocate the bird.) The following weekend my brother came over and I chose Hanningfield Reservoir for our short trip out. The target bird, (countable) Red-crested Pochards, were in their usual spot but I was surprised to find another year bird, Stock Doves, at the feeders near the visitor center. A Muntjac also came close while we were watching these birds.
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| Stock Dove |
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| Muntjac |
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