CALIFORNIA 2016: Los Angeles to Monterey (12-13 January)

This blog is the first of several to report on a very enjoyable and successful short-notice trip to California with Matt Eade.  Matt did all the driving and most of the bird finding, I did the navigating and more of the strategy - a division of labour that worked well for me!  Matt's blog will have more detail on what we saw and better pictures, so if you haven't already done so check out: http://seafordbirding.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/california-day-1-12116.html

Introduction.  Various plans for a trip in the early part of the year failed to materialise so I was very interested when Matt told me he was planning on visiting California for a couple of weeks in late January and would be pleased to have some company.  A number of tempting species were possible, not least the chance of an orange Varied Thrush!  Virgin flights from Heathrow were reasonably priced and after a bit of uncertainty as to how long I could be away I booked flights just over a week before we were due to leave.  I would have 12 days, Matt would stay on for another three. Matt secured a good deal on an SUV with Alamo and we booked a couple of motels at the start and end of the trip around a whale watch trip from Monterey and a visit to Santa Cruz Island from Ventura.  I obtained some useful information from Nick Gardner, who was recently back from San Franciso with Russell and Frank Lambert provided contact details for Guy McCaskie who Matt contacted about Salton Sea and agreed to meet us there for a day. I checked ebird for recent sightings and we both worked on an outline itinerary. Top birds for the area on a Rare Bird site were not encouraging - Tufted Duck, European Wigeon and European Green-winged Teal - but it was to prove useful for others.

12 January.  Matt picked me up at 05:00 and drove to Heathrow. The M23 and M25 were quite busy but caused no delays. We checked in and the flight departed on time, Matt securing an upgrade thanks to a friend who worked for the airline. A good flight with plenty of films to choose from but I was so engrossed in The Martian that I forgot to look out for Greenland.  We arrived on time but I had to queue for 45 minutes to clear immigration and declare a half eaten Marmite sandwich (it was also let in).  Matt being nearer the front of the plane was through quicker but it didn't seem a good idea for me to attempt to queue jump and join him.  An Alamo courtesy bus arrived within a minute and we were soon in a Jeep Compass and driving NW out of LA.  It was 15:30 and we had just over 90 minutes of daylight.  We had hoped to stop on the coast near Santa Barbara, our destination, but were clearly not going to make it in time.  I consulted the Southern California site guide and it seemed Surfer's Knoll in Ventura would be a more realistic option.  We arrived at 16:40 and set off down the beach towards the river mouth.  We saw Willets, Pied-billed and Western Grebes and California and Western Gulls before walking back in the dark at 17:10.  Nice to have seen some birds but another half an hour of light would have been welcome.  We drove to Santa Barbara and checked into the pre-booked Sunset Motel.  We were both pretty tired and fell asleep by 21:00 after having a slice of pizza from a 7/11 store.  It wasn't likely to be a healthy eating trip despite Matt's best intentions!

13 January. We planned to bird all the way up the coast to Monterey, returning the same way two days later when we could concentrate on what we had missed.  It was reckoned to be a five hour driving and with only 10 hours of daylight we would have to be selective or risk rushing things.  Jet lag meant we were wide awake before 04:30 and we decided to drive up to Oso Flaco for dawn, leaving Santa Barbara at 05:00.  We arrived at 06:40, 20 minutes before dawn, and parked by some other vehicles.  They were fishermen and agricultural workers and a passing car stopped and asked Matt if there was any work. We had just got out of the car when it started drizzling heavily. We walked down the main track to the boardwalk which we followed across the edge of a large pool, through some chaparral, by which time the weather had improved, and eventually to the beach. Birding was excellent and we spent 4 hours in the area seeing a wide range of species including Bufflehead, American Bittern, Virginia Rail, Snowy Plover, Heerman's and Glacuous-winged Gulls, Anna's Hummingbird, Hermit Thrush, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, California Thrasher, Wrentit and Sooty Fox Sparrow.  

American Bittern at Oso Flaco, my first photo in California and the light was dreadful

the second wasn't much better

Oso Flaco lagoon

Great White Egret

Lesser Scaup

Black-necked Grebe

Song Sparrow

California Thrasher

Hermit Thrush, the day's roundest bird?

Northern Flicker showing the red-shafts of the western race

Snowy Plover on the beach at Oso Flaco

California Gulls on the beach at Oso Flaco with three Westerns amongst them 

a brave Sanderling too

one California gull was colour-ringed, just like being on the Adur!

Matt was quick to spot when a Heerman's Gull joined the flock

as did a first-winter Glaucous-winged

it was quite a heavy-weight ...

Matt drove on to an area of rocky coast and we stopped for half an hour at Shell Beach seeing Black Turnstones (one of my main targets), Black Oystercatcher and Pelagic Cormorant.  

rocky coast at Shell Beach

Western Gull

Brandt's Cormorant

Shell Beach, note the fence chains

Audubon's Warbler

quite a performer

Spotted Sandpiper on the cliff top at Shell Beach

Next stop was the Elfin Forest overlooking Morro Bay.  A good boardwalk led to a viewpoint over the estuary which was teeming with ducks and waders on a rising tide.  It also provided good views of California Quail, California Scrub Jay and Spotted and California Towhees. 

Turkey Vulture

view over Morro Bay with the tide rapidly coming in

unlike Anna's Hummingbird at the Elfin Forest, this male's throat was brilliant crimson when it caught the light (unfortunately not on film)

California Quail

Sooty Fox Sparrow digging in the dirt at the entrance to the Elfin Forest when we returned to the car

after a while a California Towhee took over and had a scratch around

We continued to nearby Morro Rock spending an hour there.  A walk along the eastern side produced two Townsend's Warblers feeding with some Audubon's.  Very smart, as were some Heerman's Gulls in the car park.  At 16:15 we felt time was running out and we were only half way to Monterey.  We decided to take the much quicker inland route which could be reached by a road, highway 41, over the mountains. This, we hoped, might produce some final birding if we could access any decent habitat. We set off and half way along the highway took the first track into forest, to a campsite at Cerro Alto, parking by the entrance road. We walked a short way up the road, the habitat looked good but it was rather birdless, something we put down to the late hour.  Acorn Woodpecker and Oak Titmouse on our return made the stop worthwhile and we continued on our way, oblivious to the fact that we would be returning to this site in the near future.  The freeway to Monterey was quiet and we arrived at 19:45 and checked into the very pleasant Inn by the Bay.  A Denny's was just down the road and we had a good meal there and wrote up our notes before turning in.  It had been an excellent first full day and adding up later I had seen 99 species of which seven were new - my highest totals of the trip.

one of several Western Gulls in the car park at Morro Rock

a younger bird, I couldn't decide if a second or third-winter

Ring-billed Gull at Morro Rock

Heerman's Gull at Morro Rock

this one was particularly inquisitive, or expectant of being fed

female Townsend's Warbler at Morro Rock, I didn't manage a shot of the much brighter male with it

Black Turnstones on the beach

Marbled Godwits

the Morro Bay harbour entrance

Sea Otter in the harbour

Surf Scoter

White-crowned Sparrow

by far the commonest sparrow we saw

Goosander saves the day (2-10 January 2016)

Sunday 10th.  A morning around Shoreham visiting Widewater three times, Shoreham Fort twice, Truleigh Hill and Southwick Canal.  The drake Goosander on Widewater was the obvious highlight, not seen on my first visit, seen well but in poor light on my second and still there but further away on my third when the light had improved marginally.  One Purple Sandpiper and 8 Greenfinches on my first visit to the Fort, five Purples and a Rock Pipit on my second at high tide.

Goosander at Widewater

another welcome but perhaps erratic appearance at this site 

my ambition to see Scaly-sided Merganser is put on hold for at least another winter so this is the next best thing

flooded Beeding Brooks from Truleigh Hill

Rock Pipit at Shoreham Fort

Saturday 9th.  Little at Cissbury with Megan and only an unread North Thames Herring Gull on the Adur at dusk - not helped by the river still being quite full at low tide.  I was then kicking myself I had not tried Widewater as the Goosander seen by Richard Ives on Wednesday had reappeared.

Megan by Cissbury trig-point

Thursday 7th.  A pleasant walk around Rackham and Parham Park with Megan seeing 2 distant Bewick's Swans from the viewpoint on the eastern edge of Amberley and a selection of common woodland birds of which Treecreeper was the nicest.  North Thames Herring Gull UU7T was on the Adur at dusk.

Tuesday 5th.  2500+ Starlings headed west from the Palace Pier as I was cycling to work.

Sunday 3rd.   A morning around Shoreham with the pair of Red-breasted Mergansers on Widewater with another and 3 Brent Geese the only birds seen offshore in half an hour.  I should have stuck it longer to see Alan Kitson's Little Gulls and Great Skua although there were four adult and a first-winter Little Gull feeding with other gulls including a juvenile Kittiwake in the breakers off Shoreham Fort. Superb.  Later a Dunlin and 3 Redshank was all i saw on the Adur.

HAPPY NEW YEAR at Dungeness

January 1st 2016.  A new year and better weather (temporarily), good birding and encounters with friends. John King and I headed east arriving at Pett Level at 08:00.  The Glossy Ibis soon flew in and we also saw 7 White-fronted Geese, 2 distant Barn Owls, 6 Ruff and Barry and John from Kent - Barry and I still enthused by how good Brazil had been. We continued to Scotney where we saw Bean Goose (asleep), Great White Egret (distant) and 2 Marsh Harriers, all in Sussex.  At Dungeness we met Roger and Liz in the reserve car park and Bob and Roger on our travels.  We accompanied Martin around his local patch seeing the roosting Long-eared Owl, 3 Smew (one a drake), adult Yellow-legged Gull, 2-3 Marsh Harriers and 4 Tree Sparrows on the reserve, the stunning first-winter Caspian Gull by the fishing boats and a very distant Great Skua, adult Little Gull and two adult Eider on the seawatch.  With the wind having picked up considerable and the weather worsening we said goodbye to Martin and headed home.  A couple of stops at either end of Scotney finally produced a black-necked Grebe which had been found there earlier but we couldn't relocate the Bean Goose - it was probably still asleep.  A very enjoyable day, we even found the Hastings Link Road after a couple of false starts!.

Glossy Ibis at Pett Level

White-fronted Goose on Pett Levels, one of seven present

Jury's Gap trig-point

sleeping Bean Goose, front left, at Scotney.  We watched it for 20 minutes but it never woke up

note small size, orange legs (although a couple of Grey Lags had them too), white flank stripe and browner plumage, especially the head

Long-eared Owl at Dungeness

a very popular bird and the first I've seen for several years

gulls on the beach at Dungeness, how many of the Herrings are argentatus?

the left hand bird looks a good candidate

Caspian Gull by the fishing boats at Dungeness

I started off digiscoping it

but it was very approachable

I switched to my bridge camera and advanced, hoping it would stand up but wary of flushing it

it stretched showing a superb white underwing

stood up

Add caption

walked a few paces further away

had a good stretch

see how long my legs are!

and sat back down

a brilliant bird

December 31st.  Megan, Nessa and I took Ruth and Isabel, over from New Zealand, to Petworth House.  Two Mistle Thrushes were the only birds of note seen in the rather soggy grounds.

December 30th.  Three colour-ringed Great Black-backs on the Adur, two from Normandy and one from Norway, all new for me.  Also a new and a repeat North Thames Herring Gull. 

ringed Common Gull on the Adur, sadly no colour-ring to read

Norwegian Great Black-back Gull JX35

ringed as a chick at Lindesness, Vest-Agder, Norway in June 2007 it has been recorded 16 times since, all within 14 km of there, until today ...

North Thames Herring Gull UU7T, my third sighting since June of a bird ringed at Rainham as a first-winter in December 2011.  Also present was KT4T, my 10th sighting of it since 2011. 

Stonechat by the Adur

December 29th.  A Turnstone flew west towards us very low along the landward side of the A259 as we were approaching Kingston Lane after a few last minute purchases for a family get together that Megan was putting on.  My parents, their three children, the two of the three spouses and the five of their 8 grandchildren who were in the country.  Very enjoyable.

December 28th.  A decent day for a change.  I visited Pagham North Wall and lagoon seeing a colour-ringed Great Black-back from South Wales in the harbour before it was pushed off by the rising tide.  It flew just before I could digiscope it, typically the first of the flock to do so.  A Marsh Harrier was hunting over the reeds behind the North Wall, a Spotted Redshank was in Whyte's Creek and 4 or 5 Goldeneye on Pagham Lagoon.  Alan Kitson did not seem out of place in shorts given the exceptionally mild weather!  I continued to West Dean Woods seeing a Little Owl in the regular tree near Stapleash Farm and Paul and Bridget James on the walk up to Monkton Farm.  Once there I saw 3 Hawfinches (1 perched and 2 reasonable flight views) and 11 Brambling with 2 Red Kites on my return.

dreadful image of a Stapleash Farm Little Owl, I saw it, it saw me and dived into thick cover before I could scope it

December 27th.  Megan and I walked up to Southwick Hill.  It was very muddy and almost birdless, two singing Song Thrushes the only birds of note.

Megan at Southwick Hill trig-point, not a great viewpoint with the surrounding scrub having grown up

very distant view of Truleigh Hill trig-point, not easy to see from footpaths.