Wednesday, October 28, 2015

The Return To SoCal--The Quest For #400!

    This fall I have been really busy! With me having more school, going camping every other weekend, chores, and a bucket-full of other things I just haven't had much time to blog. In the midst of my fall craziness I found out that my family and I were going to Los Angeles, California to visit my Grandparents! I was shocked that we were going to make a second trip to SoCal in the last few months! Once I surpassed the shock I immediately started thinking of potential lifers, but a problem arose, I had seen almost all of the Southern California specialties! However, the was one that I hadn't seen, and that was the California Gnatcatcher. On top of this being one of the last SoCal specialties that I have not seen, the CAGN was also the only gnatcatcher in the North America that I hadn't seen (North American gnatcatchers include: Black-tailed, Blue-gray, Black-capped, and California).

After the seemingly speedy six hour drive from Buckeye, AZ to Pasadena, CA, we arrived at my grandparents house to find that it was hotter there then it was in Phoenix! Maybe we brought the heat with us? But 90+ degree heat isn't the most pleasing weather to be welcomed by! After keeping an eye out on the local RBA (rare bird alert) I saw that a Canada Warbler was spotted near Long Beach, at West San Gabrial Park along a nice nature trail. However, the park wasn't too far from another crazy-good birding hotspot called Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. So after running the plan of hitting both of these places by my parents and getting the okay, I found myself at West San Gabrial Park before the sun had even risen! I thought that the Canada Warbler was just hanging out in a few trees in a small area and that it would take me maybe a half hour to locate this bird but I was wrong! It turns out that The CANW was known to cover about a quarter mile stretch of a LONG tree line! A bit overwhelmed at the fact that this bird was gonna take longer to find then I thought, I started birding hard!!! While I was scanning the long stretch of trees a group of birders appeared and we all started scanning the trees. Finally, while I was talking with one of the local birders I noticed a warbler fly into a magnolia tree and once I lifted my binocs to the bird I was pleased to see that it was my lifer Canada Warbler! I then directed the other birders to the bird and for the first fifteen minutes of watching the warbler we had okay but fairly distant views.

Canada Warbler--Life Bird #396

After losing the bird for a few minutes I relocated it down lower in a nearby sycamore tree.

Canada Warbler



Getting to show the group of birders this awesome vagrant was awesome, and I even pointed out where the warbler was to Kimball Garret (one of California's best birders). After San Gabrial we drove over to Bolsa Chica where we birded for a few hours. As soon as we drove up to the parking lot I could see that this birding hotspot was crawling with birds! One of the first birds I saw was my lifer Parasitic Jaeger!

Parasitic Jaeger--Life Bird #397



Forster's Terns were one of the most abundant species of birds I saw at Bolsa Chica.

Forster's Terns

While we continued hiking between the many ponds I spied my third lifer of the day, one of two Reddish Egrets that have been spending the last couple years at this amazing spot.

Reddish Egret--Life Bird #398

As you can see in the photo, this bird was very far! But fortunately REEGs are distinctive at all distances. Even though we weren't at Bolsa Chica at the most bird-active time of day, this place was crawling with birds! Once we reached the area where California Gnatcatchers have been seen before I waited and waited and nothing but a flock of Bushtits came out. On our way back to the car I kept an eye out for the endangered Light-footed Ridgway's Rail, and thanks to awesome directions from fellow bird-hard-blogger, Walker Noe, I got amazing looks at these seemingly trashy birds!

Ridgway's Rail



The Ridgway's Rail is one of my favorite species of bird and to have seen both the Light-footed and Yuma subspecies is awesome! After a very productive day at Bolsa Chica we were on our way to get lunch when I spotted a Reddish Egret fairly close to the highway, so I asked my my to pull over so I could photograph it. Once I walked towards the egret I noticed that there was my fourth lifer of the day, a Red Knot!

Red Knot--Life Bird #399



Life bird #399! One more! After observing my last life bird in the 300s I went on to scanning along the shore and photographed the fallowing species.

Black-bellied Plover (top left) and Ruddy Turnstone (bottom right)

Surf Scoter

Snowy Egret

Reddish Egret



After getting a bite I found a location called the Montobello Hills where people seem to have seen California Gnatcatchers at before. However, once we drove up to where the GPS took us I noticed that the whole area was fenced off and surrounded by houses! I had to think fast, and thinking fast is what I'm good at! I decided that we could hit all of the Cul de sacs that backed up to the hills and I could listen and wait. On about the fourth and last cul de sac that we tried I could see that there was a gap between two houses and I decided that this would be a good place to listen and wait. The pressure was on! Not only was this now the only gnatcatcher of which I hadn't seen in North America but this would probably be my only chance to get life bird #400 during this trip! I started pishing and owl-whistling and I got a Bewick's Wren to start calling but no gnatcatcher. Finally after waiting for about ten minutes I was starting to walk back to the car and call it quits but then a gnatcatcher popped out of a hedge and into the scrub! I then ran back to the car which was only about 40 feet away and grabbed my binocs and camera. Sure enough the bird had a nearly all black under tail with a few white edges on some of the feathers and it had quite a bit of brown in its back!

California Gnatcatcher--Life Bird #400!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After observing life bird #400 on the fence for a while it started giving its very unique mewing call which I'd say is hands down the most awesome call of the North American gnatcatchers! Eventually the CAGN flew back into the hedge and gave me one more look before disappearing into the rolling hills.

California Gnatcatcher

 This California trip was a huge success especially with the fact that nearly all of my birding was done in half a day! I look forward to my next trip to SoCal, but in the mean time, birding in AZ has been really good so far!

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Southern California Birding (Part 2)

     The second half of my CA trip wasn't exactly as birdy as my first half but I racked up what I could wherever I could. The morning after my pelagic excursion, I went to the beach with my family and we walked along the shore. While I was near some chaparral habitat I heard the distinctive song of the Wrentit (lifer)! The bird was calling from across a lagoon so I didn't see it but I sure knew what it was! While we continued walking along the shore a Whimbrel posed to be photographed.

Whimbrel

Once we reached the end of our walk we headed back in the same direction.While we walked by the spot where I heard the Wrentit I kept an eye out and after a little waiting one came out for amazing views!

Wrentit



Once we were done with the beach we drove over to my mom's cousin's house. Luckily her house is right next to a hill full of great oak habitat, yeah, you know where I'm going with that! So with great habitat comes great birds and great birds are what I saw!  For example, this California Thrasher and Oak Titmouse.

California Thrasher

Oak Titmouse


Both the CATH and the OATI were photo lifers for me, so I was excited to finally photograph these bush-dwelling birds. While I was birding on the hill I heard some weird flight calls which I had never heard before, and after trying to get a look at the birds that were calling I finally got a good enough glimpse to see that they were Scaly-breasted Munias! The SBMU is an exotic finch that has built a population in California. I was not expecting to get this bird on this trip but lifers are usually unexpected.

Scaly-breasted Munia



The next day was my last day of spotting any "cool" birds. We started off with hiking a boardwalk and before we even reached the ocean I spotted my 17th lifer of the trip, a Surf Scoter!

Surf Scoter

The SUSC was my last lifer of the trip ending my CA trip with 17 lifers was awesome, especially since I was hoping to get 10! Before I end the trip let me show you some more of Southern California's birds!

Pelagic Cormorant


Western Gull


Heerman's Gull

Yes, my California trip is done, but wait what is that?! Another trip to So Cal coming up???

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Southern California Birding (Part 1)

     The summer of 2015 has been an awesome season for me birding-wise. As a matter of fact I've been traveling back and forth from Flagstaff to Phoenix all summer, and I even went to California once. When I found out that I was going to visit my parents family in Santa Barbara, CA, I was pumped! Before this trip I had only been to the beach as a birder once, and on that trip I racked up a lot of lifers. Whenever my family has a road-trip like this they usually allow me to have half a day and sometimes even a whole day to bird. That might not sound like all that much but I always make the most of those precious hours of birding on new ground. So, once I found out which day I was going birding I figured that my mom and I could go on a boat out to Santa Cruz Island while my brother and dad went fishing on another boat. But anyways, long story short my day of birding was spent looking for shorebirds, pelagic birds, and the sought after Island Scrub-Jay, which is endemic to Santa Cruz Island. When we arrived at my Aunt and Uncle's house I was greeted by a family of California Towhees, how fitting.

California Towhee

California Towhee--juvenile

The next day came around fast and I couldn't believe that I was going pelagic-birding! My Mom, her cousin, and I all arrived at Ventura Harbor at about 7:30 A.M. and we had a few minutes before our boat was ready to leave, so I literally ran to the shore to see what I could find and was greeted by this beautiful view.


I quickly started scanning along the shore and spotted my lifer Black Turnstone!


After taking the picture above, I put my binocs back on the bird and noticed that this time I wasn't looking at the BLTU but a Ruddy Turnstone (which you can see a little to the right of the BLTU in the above photo)! Two lifers within ten seconds! After watching the turnstones from afar for a while I approached them and had great looks.

Black Turnstone



Ruddy Turnstone

Ruddy (left) Black (right)

After observing the turnstones I set my binocs on some terns that were flying in and noticed they were my third lifer of the morning, my overdue Elegant Terns!

Elegant Tern



I then took my attention off the terns and started scanning through the many Willets and Whimbrels and found my fourth lifer in only seven minutes, three Wandering Tattlers!

Wandering Tattler


I was shocked at how many lifers I had gotten in such a short time, and the lifering didn't stop! While I was walking back to where the boat was, a couple of Black Oystercatchers (lifer!) and an American X Black Oystercatcher hybrid flew by!

Black Oystercatcher (left) American X Black Oystercatcher (right)

 I met back up with my mom and her cousin as the boat was just about ready to depart, and before long we were pitching and tossing (if you've been on a boat or seen the "Big Year" movie you know what I mean).

Before we got out into the ocean I found another lifer, Pelagic Cormorant, which was mixed in with these Brandt's. Can you find it (hint: it's smaller and skinnier than the surrounding Brandt's)?



Taking a birding-boat and a regular boat are **TOTALLY DIFFERENT**!!! Birding-boats will slow down so you can get GOOD, STEADY views of the birds while regular boats only slow down for whales, dolphins, and other MAMMALS. Even though it was very hard to get good views of the birds we were riding by I made the most of it and had a good time! Before  we get into the ocean, let me show you a third of the Elegant Terns I saw that day.

Elegant Terns and other awesome birds!

Finally, the time was coming for the pelagic birds! I kept my eyes peeled on the seemingly never-ending ocean waiting for my first pelagic bird to fly by. Before I get to the pelagic birds I have to apologize because you are about to see some terrible photography! The further and further we rode into the ocean the more and more I was on the lookout, and then bam, my first pelagic bird, Pink-footed Shearwater!!!!!!

Pink-footed Shearwater


After the Pink-footed Shearwater flew by I spied another lifer, a Black-vented Shearwater!

Black-vented Shearwater

My next lifer after the BVSH was a flyby Sooty Shearwater!

Sooty Shearwater


While I continued scanning the waters I spied a crazy South Polar Skua (lifer!) chasing a tern way out in the distance!

South Polar Skua chasing a tern

Then a Common Murre flew by!

Common Murre

Soon enough we were approaching the island. The fog was starting to lift, and what seemed like a small rock in the distance turned into a huge island! Before we reached the island though an awesome Pomarine Jaeger flew over the boat!

Pomarine Jaeger



We then reached the island and dropped off over half of the people at the first stop. On our way to the second spot I got my lifer Cassin's Auklet and Pigeon Guillemot but they were just too far or too fast to photograph. After lifering it hard on my way to the island I was finally there! The only target I had for the island itself was the Island Scrub-Jay so I didn't really have to bird too hard here until I found one. We decided to do a five mile hike to a spot where the boat would pick us up, so I did a little searching for the jay before the hike. After searching for a little over five minutes I located one of the jays, which happened to be our first of over a dozen we saw that day!

Island Scrub-Jay


After watching the ISJA we began the hike. During the hike I didn't have much time to go off and bird but I heard quite a few birds. After the hike, while we were waiting for the boat to arrive, I had some awesome birds to watch while we were waiting.

Black Oystercatcher

Pigeon Guillemot



Once the boat picked us up we made our way to pick up the other half of the group before heading back to the mainland. After picking the people up three Cassin's Auklets flew by our boat, as well as a close fly-by from an Elegant Tern.

Cassin's Auklet


Elegant Tern

My first "pelagic trip" was a huge success! I racked up 14 lifers on my second day of the trip and I still had a few more "non-birding" days (for you who know me, know that I am never not birding!). Stay tuned to see how the rest of my trip goes!