Ceeege
Birding at the speed of parenthood...
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
Highly desirable birds include...
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