3 Days in California, 3 Life Birds for Linda

I'm getting to that point in my birding "career" where I've seen a lot of species. My total life list is almost 1300 birds. That's a lot of birds. Of that total, I've seen 669 species in the ABA area. The ABA (American Birding Association) area comprises the US and Canada. Traditionally, Hawaii is excluded but recently, the ABA allowed birders to include Hawaii in their totals but I elected to keep Hawaii separate. I have a goal of seeing 700 species in the ABA by age 60. That goal is not as easy as you would think.

When planning my trip to California, I looked up my "target list" on eBird to review any species that I could see in the San Francisco area and was surprised to find such a short list:

1. Tri-colored Blackbird
2. Lawrence's Goldfinch
3. Cassin's Auklet
4. Fork-tailed Storm-petrel
5. Flesh-footed Shearwater

Other birds were on the list but had probability ratings of less than 1% which means that they are very rare.

We arrived in California around noon but had issues with the rental car and never got down to Monterey area until 4:00 or so. Despite the delay, we found our first target easily - Tri-colored Blackbird. They are easily found at the dairy farm.

Tri-colored Blackbirds

Day 1, Bird 1 - check! We had the whole day on Friday to go birding around the area. We decided to take a drive out to Pinnacles National Park where bird #2 had been reported. Pinnacles is also a known area to see the very endangered California Condor. We arrived at the park around 9 AM and stopped at the Visitor Center to pay the fee. We met another birder who had his scope trained on some roosting Condors. The birds were in a tree at the top of a ridge. We asked if he had seen any Lawrence's Goldfinches. He said, "sure, they're at the pool". Dang if they weren't. We wandered over to the pool in the campground and viola. Day 2, Bird 2!

Lawrence's Goldfinch

We found some other birds in the park but our big find was more California Condors. The park is surrounded by cattle ranches. We saw something in the field under the lone tree.

California Condors

22 Condors roosting the shade. The calf wanted shade too but didn't dare to go too close to the huge birds. This photo shows the size comparison so that you can get a sense of how huge these birds are. Condors are the largest birds in North America. A member of the vulture family, they only eat dead animals. Unfortunately for the farmer, the flock had gathered to make the most of a dead cow in the field. Zooming in to the photo, we could see that the birds are tagged. Each bird was hatched in captivity and released into the wild with the wing band. We saw #97, 92, 58, 59, 31, 16, 40 and 78.

California Condors

On Saturday, we booked a pelagic trip out of Monterey Bay. We boarded the boat at 7:00 and by 9:00, I had bird #3 - Cassin's Auklet! Now, I know it doesn't look like much but it is a really cute alcid. Day 3, Bird 3 - check. My Total Life List is now at 1299 and our ABA list is now 672.

Cassin's Auklet

I have more photos and stories from our boat trip that I'll share in another post.

To Sur with Love!

I know I spelled Sir wrong.  Or did I?  After a brief set back at the McDonald's in Monterrey where the Iced Tea dispenser broke and soaked both of us and made me bleed in 2 places, Di and I hit the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) on Friday en route to visit our uncle in Pasadena. Some of the best scenery is along Big Sur.

I got 8 life birds and Di probably got 20 or more.  The biggest life bird for both of us is coincidentally the biggest bird in North America - the California Condor.  The sighting is also a cute story . . .

The PCH is a twisty-turny-uppy-downy road with constant breathtaking views of the Pacific ocean and mountains for over a hundred miles.  It is almost too much to endure without taking a break.  So much so, that we pulled into a State Park for a rest and to look for a bandaid to help stop the bleeding from what is now know as "the iced tea incident".  As soon as we got out of the car, we were met with a flurry of bird activity including this Stellar's Jay.

 Stellar's Jay with acorn

The ranger on duty obliged with a bandaid and was happy to give us directions to good birding locations. He told us that the best birding location on the whole Big Sur coast was back north on the PCH about 5 miles - where we just came from.  Diane hesitated to go back 5 miles but then he asked us where we were from and reiterated that it was only 5 miles up the road, insinuating that we were already 3,000 miles out of our way so what was another 5?  Good point.  Off we went - back north on the PCH to Andrew Molero State Park for great birding.

The ranger at the Andrew Molera gate was a peppy young woman who just oozed happiness.  I told her that I would pay the $10 entrance fee but I wanted it back if we didn't see a Condor.  She said that she couldn't make that deal but proceeded to tell us that we could see Condors down the road about 20 miles.  That would be 15 miles south of the other guy's park.  We parked and hiked at Andrew Molera and saw great birds and great scenery:

 Diane with Big Sur Coast

Why does Di keep telling me to take another step back for this photo?

 Orange-crowned Warblers were singing and posing

So was this Wilson's Warbler - I love the little black cap

 Surfbirds were picking along the rocky shoreline

We headed south again to Julia Pfeifer State Park where our park ranger told us we may find Condors.  She said that there were 2 fledged babies along the ridges and that the parents were often seen there too.  What she failed to mention is that there was also beautiful waterfall that went right to the beach and water that is a color of blue that I can't describe:

 Waterfall and turquoise water

Linda posing

Even though we were both mesmerized by the water, we kept scanning the skies for big birds - without luck.  On our way back to the parking lot across the highway, I stopped to scan the canyon and thought that I might have spotted something.  Take a look:

 I put red arrows in the photo where I thought I saw something that looked like a big black bird (maybe a baby Condor)

That is when Diane started scanning the skies and said "I think I got the Condor", or something like that.  I looked up, way up, no farther up than that, waaaaay up there and saw a tiny dot in the sky.  It could have been anything, but just then it turned around and viola!  Condor.  You can tell this is a giant bird even at that distance. The photo below is zoomed way in and cropped. That is how high this bird was soaring when Di picked it out of the thin blue sky. Literally.

 California Condor

If it wasn't 20 miles back in the wrong direction, I was going to go give that young woman another $10!  Her tip really paid off.


More later.