Saturday, April 30, 2005

30th April - Albatross!

We’d booked an early whale-watching boat trip into Monterey Bay this morning and were quite excited by the prospect of seeing whales, dolphins and seabirds at close range from the boat. Well, it was a good trip but we didn’t see any whales apart from a couple of Gray Whales which hardly surfaced at all. There were dolphins though – a large pod of Risso’s Dolphins with a few Pacific White-sided Dolphins.

The birds were good, though not as good as I’d hoped. A pair of Harlequins in the harbour on the way out were best but there were loads of Pelagic Cormorants, Pigeon Guillemots, Sooty Shearwaters. Unfortunately 2-3 Rhinoceros Auklets dived as soon as the boat got anywhere near them preventing even half-decent views. On return, the Harlequins remained in the harbour along with several Great Northern Divers (Common Loons in American).

Vitty had wanted to visit the aquarium in Monterey so we went there next. It was quite good, but I think we both found it a little disappointing. Apart from the fish, the Sea Otters were cool as were the jellyfish, but the penguins looked very unhappy about their very unnatural habitat, a big condensation-covered fish tank.

We then drove round Monterey Peninsula stopping here and there but not generally seeing much. When we reached Bird Rock, a rock covered in about 400 Brandt’s Cormorants and 60 Brown Pelicans, I noticed a couple of other birders watching the sea. Walking up to them I asked if they’d seen much and they advised me they were watching an Albatross!

It turned out that there were 2 Black-footed Albatrosses flying past, with a Sooty Shearwater in between for size comparison – fantastic timing! This was a species I had hoped (not expected) to see from the boat so I was well pleased with this. But as if this wasn’t enough, a few minutes later one of them called a puffin. Sure enough there was a Tufted Puffin flying by – a real goodie this far south and something I certainly didn’t expect to see this holiday.

Other birds seen from here included about 100 Sooty Shearwaters, Greater Yellowlegs and Wandering Tattler.

We finished up at Carmel River Mouth, a nice spot with plenty of birds visible from beside the car park. There were 200 California and 150 Western Gulls, 60 Brown Pelicans, the only Goldeneye of the trip and a selection of waders including Spotted Sandpiper. A Violet-green Swallow was with the Tree, Barn and Northern Rough-winged Swallows flying around.


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Friday, April 29, 2005

29th April - Big Sur

Today we had a late start following breakfast at Deetjen’s. I had popped out before breakfast but hadn’t seen much apart from a Wild Turkey. Andrew Molera State Park was good with Swainson’s Thrush, Purple Finches, Pine Siskins, Pacific-slope Flycatchers, Chestnut-backed Chickadees, American Goosanders (or Common Mergansers as they call them here) and much more besides.

Looking back to the hills there were Vaux’s Swifts and a variety of raptors. Most of these were Turkey Vultures, a species which had become very common by this part of our tour. Much bigger though, and quite distinctive despite being very distant, was a California Condor – a nice surprise indeed!

From the river mouth a quick look out to see produced my first Pigeon Guillemot, 30 Pacific Divers and 40 Surf Scoters. Brandt’s and Pelagic Cormorants were breeding and 2 Glaucous-winged Gulls were among the California and Western Gulls.

Further north at Point Lobos there were even more Brandt’s Cormorants (at least 500) and Black Oystercatchers. Most of the Hummingbirds were Anna’s but one was probably Allen’s – not being a male it was impossible to eliminate Rufous though.

Mammals included loads of Sea Otters and a few Harbour Seals. California Sea Lions were very noisy here.

A California Thrasher sat out on a small tree top in full view, the first one I had seen properly. With 5 species of Thrasher possible up to now and time spent looking for all of them, I was relieved to see one well at last.

A bizarre sighting was in the Carmel area while driving along a busy suburban road: a White-tailed Kite flew slowly across the road and landed in a tree beside the road in someone’s garden. Not exactly the habitat I expected to find this in and although there was nothing else it could have been, I couldn’t quite believe it really was one – unfortunately there was no way I could stop here.

Sunset on Asiloma Beach was pleasant with the backdrop of singing White-crowned Sparrows, the likes of Wandering Tattler, Black Turnstone and Black Oystercatcher parading in front of us and Pacific and Great Northern Divers floating by. It was supposed to be romantic but how can I help looking at this lot?


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Thursday, April 28, 2005

28th April - Yellow-billed Magpies

With an ambitious schedule we decided to leave the Mount Pinos area earlier than originally planned, which was probably a wise decision. Travelling along the Cerro Norroeste Road there was a big change in scenery, but it was no less impressive. Birds here included lots of Horned Larks beside the road, as well as Lark Sparrows, Lazuli Buntings and my first definite Tricolored Blackbirds.

We stopped off at Cottonwood Canyon Road, primarily to see Yellow-billed Magpie, not found anywhere outside California and northern Mexico. As it turned out we saw several more along the journey so we needn’t have stopped, but it was a nice spot anyway. The road up Bates Canyon looked a bit difficult, if not impossible for our car so any thoughts of looking for Condors from the top were dismissed – we didn’t have time anyway (but it didn’t matter as we saw one next day).

Vitty had wanted to visit one of the historic missions, a chain of which are spread up the west coast. We went to San Antonio Mission as it was on the way to the Big Sur where we were heading. It was an interesting place (and held more Yellow-billed Magpies) set in the middle of Fort Hunter Liggett, a large military site but rich with wildlife.

We arrived at the Big Sur where the scenery was amazing. Vitty had been here before but only in the fog so was keen to see it again. Apart from the scenery the most exciting sighting was a Gray Whale, close inshore and giving great views. Other sea-mammals included California Sea Lion and Sea Otters. The birds were good too including 150 Brandt’s Cormorants and Black Oystercatchers.


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