California Birding (& Arizona) in August - RFI (1 Viewer)

Hi folks and thanks for reading

My father and I are coming over from the U.K. to California and Arizona in August for 3 weeks of full on birding. Following on from a wonderful trip to Ohio (Magee Marsh) in 2011 & South Texas in 2012, I've become addicted to US birds & birding and been fortunate enough to see and photograph 307 species on those two trips. To hopefully push the total well into the 400's, we're coming over to see some Eastern flyway birds and as such I'm trying to prepare as much as possible before we depart.

Obviously we'd really like to catch up with the special birds of the area. I've listed a rough route below which I've researched as having good birding but what I'd really love to tie down is specific sites within those areas to find the California and Arizona speciality species.

If you can spare some time, could you scan through the route & "most wanted" species below and suggest any sites that provide good birding and hopefully photo opportunities for the species mentioned? Species I've already photographed are listed on my website (see my signature below for a link)

Many thanks,

Chris


Route summary

• Flying into San Francisco and doing a pelagic the following day.
  
• Across into Yosemite and through to Lake Mono.
  
• Down south to Kern, then heading back to Monterrey for another pelagic.
  
• Bird our way down to Ventura to pick up the boat to Santa Cruz.
  
• Head East to Big Morongo / Joshua Tree
  
• Salton Sea
  
• Into Arizona
  
• First stop Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
  
• Madera Canyon
  
• Patagonia & surrounds
  
• Sierra Vista / Beatty's for Hummers
  
• If we have time head to Chiricahuas
  
• Drive West (Yuma?) towards San Diego mountains (looking for good spots here)
  
• Bird our way back over 2 days to LAX to fly back

Highly desirable birds include...

• Mountain & Montezuma Quail
  
• Any Grouse
  
• California Condor
  
• Band-tailed Pigeon
  
• Any Owls
  
• Black & Vaux's Swift (where to photograph if possible)
  
• Elegant Trogon
  
• Any Sapsuckers, White-headed & Pileated Woodpecker, Gilded Flicker
  
• Yellow-billed Magpie
  
• California Gnatcatcher
  
• American Dipper
  
• Mountain Bluebird
  
• Sage, Le Conte's, Crissal & California Thrashers
  
• Olive, Virginia, Lucy's, Black-throated Gray, Townsend's, Hermit, Grace's, MacGillivray's, Red-faced Warbler & Painted Redstart
  
• Spotted, Canyon, California & Abert's Towhees
  
• Rufous-winged, Botteri's, Brewer's, Black-chinned, Sage, Fox, Five-striped Sparrow
  
• Yellow-eyed Junco
  
• Tricolored Blackbird
  
• Cassin's Finch & Lawrence's Goldfinch

First thing-- be aware that Joshua Tree, Salton Sea, and the entire state of Arizona will be very hot in August. Expect daytime highs in J Tree to be 38 degrees or higher. I assume you are prepared for this. We have already had temps over 42 deg C. in California this summer, and we didn't have to travel to the desert to see them!

Just a couple remarks on a few of your target species:
Dipper should be pretty straightforward-- just saw some at Lime Kiln State Campground on Big Sur coast. Go up the trail and take the righthand fork, Hare Creek or something like that. Also saw Brown Creeper and Winter Wren up the same little trail.

Condors are do-able, and I just posted an image in the gallery, taken in early June, right on HWY 1, North of Andrew Molera St. Park:
http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=463492

California Thrasher-- same general area, different trail.

Hi Chris,

We just did a trip around southern Utah and Vegas-SF via Yosemite. Going through your list, here's the ones I saw with locations. In general you should do well on your trip - I didn't put a lot of effort in and still saw loads.

California Condor: easy to see at Vermillion Cliffs NM north of Grand Canyon, but unfortunately that may be a bit off-route for you.
Band-tailed Pigeon: seen several times around Yosemite Valley (albeit poorly) and along the [120] in the Sierra Nevada foothills.
Williamson's Sapsucker: one at Tuolumne Meadows on the lovely walk to Dog Lake; also quite a few Cassin's Finch.
Red-breasted Sapsucker: seen several times in the eastern Sierra Nevada foothills. One nesting at Big Bend campground just west of Lee Vining, where I also saw American Dipper and Fox Sparrow.
Pileated Woodpecker: heard only at Tuolumne Grove of giant sequoia's.
Yellow-billed Magpie: surprisingly wasy to see along the road to/from Yosemite (we took the [120]).
Mountain Bluebird: not seen along your route but common in higher elevation forests in southern Utah/northern Arizona.
Lucy's Warbler: common at Ash Meadows NWR, but that's again off-route and you may not want to cross Death Valley in August...
Hermit Warbler and MacGillivray's Warbler: several at the Dimond O campground, which is a short detour on the way to Yosemite (take the road to Hetch Hetchy for about 5 miles).
Abert's Towhee: again off-route but Henderson BVP near Vegas is an excellent site where I had great views of this limited range species.

Hope this helps a bit, if you need more details please let me know. Have a great trip!

N

If you are going to the Arizona Sonora museum, I suggests checking their evening programs. It will be pretty hot during the day.

Jos Staffords just done the California leg of his epic west coast trip and there's quite a bit of info here, including a good site for Dusky Grouse in Yosemite - and what not to do with Black Bears. http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=260702 Good luck with your trip.

Chris