• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Birding California (1 Viewer)

K

KEVIN BROWN

Casual Birder
I am flying to San Fransisco on 28/04/19 and spending a week travelling, possibly down the coast to Santa Barbara, east to Kern County, then north up to the edge of Yosimite before ending up at Reyes Point. It is mainly to look for Bobcat, Bear and Cayote, but also to do some birding, any suggestions of where to go, or thoughts on my route would be much appreciated. Also doing aWhale watching tripon the way to Santa Barbara.
 
Our trip a few years ago in August

KEVIN BROWN said:
I am flying to San Fransisco on 28/04/19 and spending a week travelling, possibly down the coast to Santa Barbara, east to Kern County, then north up to the edge of Yosimite before ending up at Reyes Point. It is mainly to look for Bobcat, Bear and Cayote, but also to do some birding, any suggestions of where to go, or thoughts on my route would be much appreciated. Also doing aWhale watching tripon the way to Santa Barbara.
Click to expand...

Not sure how useful this is as we were in California in August but there a few places that might be worth a look, suggest you read from Point Reyes onward.
 

Attachments

  • California.pdf
    2.6 MB · Views: 26
It should go without saying, but you'll want to check out the coast redwood and sequoia forests. For the former, check out Big Basin state park, convenient to your route as you leave San Francisco. Good choice of short or longer trails to fit your schedule.

For the latter, an eastward detour on your way to Yosemite.
 
There are potentially loads of good places you could go to. It depends really on what you want to see. Have you been birding in California before?
 
Here's a few great places in northern california along the coast. Point Reyes is really big, so you might need to choose a few spots there to focus on.

  • Point Reyes
  • Rodeo Lagoon
  • Hawk Hill (not sure how active this time of year)
  • Año Nuevo State Park
  • Pescadero State Beach & the wetlands trails just inland
  • Big Basin Redwoods State Park
  • Wilder Ranch State Park
  • Moss Landing State Wildlife Area (mostly for otters & kayaking)
  • Point Lobos State Natural Reserve & state park

Marc
 
And here are a few places in the central valley to consider:

  • San Luis National Wildlife Refuge
  • Merced National Wildlife Refuge

Also, the Eastern Sierra is very beautiful too, along highway 395 to the east of Yosemite. If the pass is open, you might consider driver out to Lee Vining then up to 89, then back out 50 to the Sacramento Area.

Many of the places I mentioned (in this and last post) have web sites that list what is going on during different times of year.

Marc
 
KEVIN BROWN said:
I am flying to San Fransisco on 28/04/19 and spending a week travelling, possibly down the coast to Santa Barbara, east to Kern County, then north up to the edge of Yosimite before ending up at Reyes Point. It is mainly to look for Bobcat, Bear and Cayote, but also to do some birding, any suggestions of where to go, or thoughts on my route would be much appreciated. Also doing aWhale watching tripon the way to Santa Barbara.
Click to expand...

Have you considered how many hours you are going to spend in a car compared to outside of it? It sounds like you are going to have a not very good ratio with what you sketch up.

Niels
 
njlarsen said:
Have you considered how many hours you are going to spend in a car compared to outside of it? It sounds like you are going to have a not very good ratio with what you sketch up.

Niels
Click to expand...

That's a great point. You might want to use Google maps to plan the driving. You can set the departure/arrival times to see what traffic typically is. Driving down highway 1 from San Francisco to Santa Barbara is very beautiful, but also very slow. Google maps also has a way to save trips and itineraries if you have a google account. It's not perfect, but helps.

Marc
 
Intended Route

This is a rough idea of the route I am thinking of taking. I have only been to California once, so looking for birds which are mainly found on the west coast.
 

Attachments

  • B33B317F-DCA7-4EC2-BA9E-8A76F99D4D9C.jpg
    B33B317F-DCA7-4EC2-BA9E-8A76F99D4D9C.jpg
    65.1 KB · Views: 39
Arboretum Santa Cruz is very good for Hummingbirds.
The prefer Metrosideros, eventhough this plant come from area where no Hummingsbirds live.
 
albatross02 said:
Arboretum Santa Cruz is very good for Hummingbirds.
The prefer Metrosideros, eventhough this plant come from area where no Hummingsbirds live.
Click to expand...

Yes, there's a lot in Santa Cruz. The arboretum (which has limited hours) is really buzzing with hummingbirds. Nearby there are also lots of raptors. Down at Natural Bridges state park there are raptors and owls and sea birds. At the Coastal Sciences campus (near natural bridges) there are lots of ducks right now, but as it dries out there will be raptors again as the rodents come back. Down by Twin Lakes beach there are some burrowing owls.

Yosemite valley is really beautiful and spending more than 1 day there would not be a mistake.

Marc
 
KEVIN BROWN said:
Hummingbirds, Burrowing Owls and Condors, now I am getting excited, is there a certain area of the Big Sur to look for Condors ?
Click to expand...

https://www.visitcalifornia.com/attraction/california-condors

'The best place in Big Sur to see California condors is near the flagpole at the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park entrance. Or look for them riding thermal updrafts along the cliffs between there and the town of Big Sur.'

All this info is very easy to find and again, I highly suggest you buy a book so that you'll have all the info at your fingertips which will allow for flexibility or change of mind, during the trip.
 
I would recommend Pinnacles National Park, accessed from the eastern side. Convenient to your itinerary, this is not only probably the easiest place to see condors (get there early, they roost on the pinnacles, then soar down the valley as it warms up), but also pretty good for Coyote and Bobcat (though Bobcat, as most places, is always a bit of hit and miss). In my experience, condors are easier here than on the Big Sur. Very good general birding at Pinnacles too.
 
That looks like a very ambitious route with a lot of driving and not much time for birds or wildlife.

We spent two weeks last May and did San Francisco, Point Reyes, Yosemite and Monterey as the main stops, ie similar to the notthern half of your trip. Point Reyes, Yosemite and Monterey all deserve at least two nights each.

We saw Bobcat in Yosemite and Coyotes at Point Reyes and also my tip for a stop in the Central Valley - Del Puerto Canyon - which is great for birding in spring. I had Prairie Falcon, Yellow-billed Magpie, Phainopepla, Lawrence's Goldfinch and lots of other goodies there. You can stay close by in Patterson and it is a good stopping off point between Yosemite and the coast.

Good luck

Graham
 
Just to emphasise the driving times - although your planned route comes up with 18 hours of driving time, some of the places you actually want to visit are a distance off your route

For example you have picked Buck Meadows which is a one hour drive from Yosemite Valley and the trailheads etc. It is another 1 hour drive to Glacier Point and 2 hours from the valley to Lee Vining, although the Tioga Pass may not be open by then. Yosemite is a huge place and these timings are before any traffic - if you go at a weekend it could take quite a bit longer.

I don't want to put you off - California is a great place to watch wildlife but personally I would want at least two weeks to do your planned route

Graham
 
When I plan a trip, I usually buy a map, pin it to a wall and start to plot sites on it for a real idea of where things are in relation to each other.

Doing it this way should allow you to decide which birds are your priority and how to fit them and a host of others, in to a time effective, circular route with the most time birding and minimum time driving, I assume you're flying home from the same place you fly in?

I really suggest that you buy a book as you seem to be going in to this a bit cold, it would be a pity not to wring out every drop of birding time in this fantastic destination.
 
Last edited:
Having taken on board comments, thinking of just going down the coast and returning back up the same route with may be different stops, not sure moving too far inland will be worth the time it will take out the trip. I only have a week available and due to the difference in cost of flying out of LA, the trip will start and finish in San Francisco. Does anyone have any suggestions on particular books that would suit my needs ?
 
Warning! This thread is more than 5 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Similar threads

SueO
Stories Behind Birds You've Photographed
Replies
18
Views
854
Joe H
Joe H
hopster
Living and birding in the Algarve - where?
Replies
11
Views
1K
jogresh
jogresh
S
Independent Colombia (Santa Marta and Central / Western Andes) July 2023
2
Replies
21
Views
3K
Pierreornitho
P
Farnboro John
Disappearing Into Finnair: Finland 2022, birds, butterflies, dragonflies and big predators
2 3 4
Replies
62
Views
6K
Tero
Tero
J
Do theories regarding the mechanisms for Vagrancy stand scrutiny, and what does vagrancy tell us about migration?
Replies
19
Views
6K
Jon.Bryant
J

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top