USA Grand Tour (7 Viewers)

[Gretchen]

Wow, it does sound like a great trip, even with these relatively brief descriptions! I love the waterfall and cove picture :t:

Nice to see as well as hear about your mammal encounters. I particularly like the otter clip. It sort of clarifies that there is a very big difference in behavior of river otters and sea otters - someone commented recently on how river otters were non-stop motion and I was a little surprised, but obviously that is because I'd seen more documentaries on the sea otters - a very relaxed group as you say. Very nice seeing two whales and quite a few other sea mammals.

200 waxwings - also not bad! I guess you saw some sort of ground squirrel... maybe someone knows what kind is likely.

 

[MKinHK]

Thanks Gretchen

It's always a balance between too writing much and becoming boring, and writing too little so the sense of place and the birds is not captured.

One thing I do have to add is that on the Blue Whale trip I also saw a couple of very wierd-looking white phase Fulmars with a dark narrow bar on the joint of the wing (I've seen nothing like that in Eurasia, and I somehow forgot to mention the four Black-footed Albatrosses that we also saw during the pelagic, a couple of them pretty close to the boat.

How on earth did I contrive to forget an albatross? My excuse is that the whales were so mind-blowing that it' s taken a while for normal service to be resumed. However, I've also seen them before a few times in Japan, so however majestic they are there was not quite the same impact.

I should probably also do a list of the mammals, but having realised how many squirrels you have and having not really paid proper attention it would be a pretty incomplete list.
Then again a list that includes 2 whales is always going to be pretty cool . . .

Cheers
Mike

 

[MKinHK]

And so to the final leg - Chicago.

We were here to attend Carrie's graduation at Olivet Nazarene University, located some 40 mile south of Chicago, but before going there our hosts took the whole group of 9 graduating students and 20 associated family & friends for a tour of the city. I saw no more than bits and pieces, but a Lincoln's Sparrow revealed just enough of itself in the patch of garden next to the Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago, couple of Grey-cheeked Thrushes were in the garden by the big fountain and the zoo gave brief views of a Common Yellowthroat and a briefly seen and unidentified empidonax flycatcher.

The University offered little opportunity for birding, but while being shown the campus I did pick up my last new bird -a female Summer Tanager rooting about in a flowerbed before perching more decorously in a tree. For reasons I can't explain it reminded me of an Oriental Reed Warbler.

There was also an obviously plastic Mute Swan in a pond on the outskirts of Chicago as we headed to the airport, but much more entertaining was a billboard reading: "Your wife is hot . . . time to fix the air-conditioner"

 

[Jos Stratford]

How on earth did I contrive to forget an albatross?

Forgiven on grounds of an otherwise excelent write-up of a multi-state tour. Good one.

 

[MKinHK]

Thank you for your most gracious understanding Jos!

A final tick on the journey home was seeing pack ice in Churchill Bay (just starting to break up along the coast) from the plane. As a spectacle it joined a long list of terrific natural phenomena.

So this long and wonderful trip is finally done. The final reckoning was:

Birds:

• 256 native species
• 6 plastics,
• 206 new species for me

My personal highlights :

• Bald Eagle and Pileated Woodpecker in Washington DC
• Great-tailed Grackle, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Wild Turkey and Franklin's Gull in Corpus Christi
• Mountain Bluebird, Townsend's Solitaire & Evening Grosbeak in & near Yellowstone
• Trumpeter Swan & Great Horned Owl in Jackson
• Hooded & Worm-eating Warblers and Wood Thrush in St Louis
• Hermit Warbler, Lewis' Woodpecker, White phase Fulmar, hundreds of migrating Pacific Divers & Anna's Hummingbird in California
• Summer Tanager in Kankakee (nr Chicago)

Best sites: Blucher Park & the pool opposite the visitor centre, N Padre Island in Corpus Christi, Tower Grove Park in St Louis, the Trumpeter Swan pond in Jackson, and the Monterey shoreline.
Worst dips: Eastern Meadowlark, American Black Duck and Roadrunner
Best dip: the tornado at St Louis Airport

Others:

• 4 Blue Whales & 3 Grey Whales on successive days in Monterey/Big Sur, the outstanding highlight of the trip.
• 30 Sea Otters chilling out at Moss Landing
• Bison in Yellowstone & Moose & Coyote in the snowin Grand Teton National Parks
• Alligator in Aransas NWR

I had an amazing time and certainly hope to be back.

A huge thank you to everyone who followed this thread offering encouragement, advice on where to go and on ID. It has made writing it so much more fun.

Cheers
Mike

PS I'd be happy to share info on sites and logistics with anyone who is interested

 

[Larry Lade]

Mike, I am glad you had such a fantastic trip! Your report has been an interesting read!