[LEFT]I have been to the states before. We went in September to coincide with the pelagic boat trips out of Monterey. It had been a brilliant trip and as soon as we got back we started planning to go again, this time we chose spring to see which time of year was best. It would have been better to go a few weeks earlier but I couldn’t get away. I still hoped to see the last of the wild flowers and to go to Salton Sea and Kern which we had missed last time. The birding there is just staggering and not to be missed. Among the nesting birds at Kern are 11 Hawks, 9 Owls, 11 Woodpeckers,14 Flycatchers,7 Wren and 15 Sparrow species! Over 300 birds have been recorded during their Bird Fair weekend. Any time is good to go to California but spring migration in the desert Oases is meant to be especially noticeable and the density of birds higher than along the coast. So I took Sibley’s book of Western Birds and found a DVD of North American Birds for my lap top. I had again left it too late to study as much as I would have liked on likely birds, their songs, habitat and behaviour. So many birds went unticked last time as they whizzed by. Thinking of Hummers here, and how, exactly do the local birders separate Flycatchers? - I could probably manage to recognise Vermillion Flycatcher… if it was sitting perfectly still! I read one report which had 10 flycatchers at Big Morongo, I definitely planned to stop there! - Only after I had posted my trip report last time did I realise that we had heard Mountain Quail and the soft Scops like plopping sound of Western Screech Owl - I just didn’t know it at the time! So with tapes of what Flycatchers sound like (Pacific Slope sounded easy) and my “Where to Watch” book scrawled with notes we set off. Oh and by the way, the Tiogo Road in Yosemite, our first stop, was closed due to snow. Last time in September it was closed because of fire. So that’s Great Grey Owl off my list. Its no biggie but I wanted to go through to Lake Mono and the White Mountains, so no Sage Grouse or Juniper Titmouse either, (My list was getting shorter before I had even begun!). And if that wasn’t enough the coastal route 101 had been washed away. A chunk several meters long just south of Big Sur, the whole thing washed down into the sea – so making it even harder to get to Carmel to see Condor. Still from Yosemite we could go direct to Kern, the main destination of the trip where we planned to camp for three days. Except now I read on the web it has been flooded and was underwater. The South Fork area and the HQ had been the victim of a late thaw from the mountains-even the campsite was in the inundation zone. Should make things interesting and I hadn’t even left yet. Still this is our report when we did eventually go.
The flight took a bum numbing 11 hours. It had been delayed by two hours so now we were going to hit the feared rush hour. Tired but eager to be off we went to collect our bags. Virgin then told us that one of our three bags, the one with the scope in it, would definitely arrive the next day no problem which was nice of them. Why couldn’t they lose the one with the underpants in it? Waiting for the shuttle train I was cheered up by my first American bird – a Starling! Anyway we headed off into the rush hour traffic, which I must admit was pretty free flowing, which swept us north over the Golden Gate bridge and up into the Point Reyes National park, a really beautiful area. I was doubtful about coming here initially but in the end we saw more birds here than most places – 67. Kemper’s guide to Northern California mentions a number of places to visit here. We decided to start off at Chimney Rock at the far end of the peninsular and work our way back, arriving at first light. It took much longer than it looks on the map. Red Tail Hawks, Turkey Vultures and Ospreys seemed to be everywhere. From here you can make your way back to Inverness town working the dozen or so areas mentioned in the book - but I would stay away from White House Pool where we saw absolutely nothing. Parking up Savannah Sparrow sang in the short grass and American Goldfinch were everywhere. The Fish Docks were closed so we walked past the private residence where we saw Great Horned Owl slowly revealing itself, majestic in the early gloom. Scoter and summer plumaged Great Northern Diver were near the jetty. Driving back it was too misty to visit one of the ranches so we stopped off at Drakes beach to brew up a cuppa, (we had brought tea bags with us!). We were unable to find the Barn Owls roosting at the monument, maybe they were all still out hunting. We decided to miss out Abbotts Lagoon, hoping to pick up Snowy Plover later on and dropped off at Hearts Desire beach instead, a lucky decision as it turned out. There was no ranger at the entrance so I couldn’t find out about the location of the Spotted Owl that nests here so we drove on down to the beach where we tried to photo a stunning Spotted Towhee. Red Flanked, it has a Dartford Warbler like red eye in a black head. Sitting enjoying the solitude an Osprey suddenly flew wildly over being chased by an adult Bald Eagle all right in front of us, a real treat and totally unexpected. I had always wanted to see Bald Eagle and now we had front row seats. Later we had Pine Siskin – a first for us until a Goldfinch came and fed it! We also saw Bushtit and an amazing looking Chestnut Backed Chickadee. At Olema Marsh we could hear Marsh Wren everywhere and sat transfixed by very close views of Black Chinned Hummingbird. Finally back at the hotel we crashed out exhausted after our first days full birding. We were dog tired having seen a respectable 67 species. You could do with two or three days to do this place justice. More good news was our bag did arrive, bad news was it arrived at 4.30 in the morning, UK time! All in all a brilliant place. We really wanted to stay one more day but tomorrow we had a five hour slog to Yosemite.[/LEFT]
Do you mean California Condor or Turkey vulture...just wondering?
Very interested to hear how you got on as I had 10 days as a first-time visitor to California in May.
What were your dates?
Cheers
Mike