Condors, Jays, and Plastics (1 Viewer)

[Mysticete]

Hey Folks,

I am writing this from sunny and beautiful San Diego, a much needed escape from the brutal Wisconsin winter and a complete trashfire of a semester. Sometime last year, while fantasizing about travel in a mostly pandemic world, I came across the Wildside Birding tours website, and was browsing through a selection of short tours when one specific one caught my eye: the California Condor, Island Scrub-Jay, and LA Exotics short tour. As so happens, the tour with laser-sharp precision targeted the three major wholes in ABA checklist for the region. As someone who did his Masters in San Diego, I managed to nab the majority of Socal specialities, birds like California Gnatcatcher, Yellow-footed Gull, and more widespread birds, such as Wrentit or California Scrub-Jay. However, despite a few attempts, I dipped on California Condor. I could also never quite pull off the logistics to go after the Island Scrub-Jay. Finally, the L.A. Basin has a whole host of exotic species, but I loath L.A. traffic, and my neurotic self never went and tried for these species. Seriously, L.A. Drivers are some of the worst I have ever come across, and California just really isn't designed well for non self-driven vehicle travel. Not to mention that since I left, several exotics have become established in the region that weren't considered so when I lived there.

Paired with the fact that this tour was set during our January interim, AND it seemed like a safer option with pandemic uncertainty, as it required no international travel, I decided to go for it. It also would allow me to knock off a large set of exotics. As I near the magic 700 number, I really would prefer that bird to not be a non-native, so best to get them now. In fact, this year I have informally christened the year of plastics, given that I have several other trips planned that coincidentally will also feature a lot of exotic birds (Hawaii and a Florida conference). So let the year of Plastics commence!

 

[Mysticete]

General Travel/Trip Considerations

While the tour hasn't officially commenced (It starts tomorrow), I have been in San Diego since Tuesday, doing some very light birding while visiting with some friends from my University days who still live here.

First off, as I mentioned, you really do need a vehicle to do any birding in Southern California. While there are plenty of cities that have public transit that will allow you to easily access sites, many of the good birding spots are fairly far apart and poorly serviced by buses or trains.

As far as Covid and the Omicron variant go, it's exploding here just like everything else. While it might be easy to assume that a liberal bastion like California would have a fairly good vaccination rate, there are still considerable numbers of folks who refuse to do so. That said, people are generally good about masking up, and local ordinances I believe require businesses to mask up there employees (Wisconsin...not so much). Also, it being San Diego and the weather being generally great, outdoor eating is widely available, and even if you are not a birder or you have non-birding folks around you, there are plenty of outside things to do. Food is amazing also here, and you can find not only some really good Mexican food (Again...Wisconsin...not so much), but pretty much any cuisine imaginable somewhere.

Weather wise I have been told it's been warmer than normal, and so far most days it's been in the 65-75 range, and either sunny or cloudy. Very little precipitation. The temperature does drop at night into the 50's, so its worth bringing a light jacket with you.

I got my birding start here in San Diego county, and it ranks as one of the birdiest US counties in the country. There is an active birding community and well over 500 species have been recorded in the county. That high bird list is due to several factors. First, there is a huge diversity of habitats available within a few hours drive. You can start your morning in the desert, spend lunch in a mountain coniferous forest, spend some time in oak woodland and chapparal, and end the day on the beach. The geographic position of San Diego and the presence of several good (although less accessible sadly) migrant traps means that the county has gotten vagrants from East Asia, Mexico, Arizona, and the Eastern States. Also, in recent years (sadly post my time living here), pelagics have become more readily offered, offering up the chance for some really awesome seabirds. Plus, almost all of the California specialities (Other than Yellow-billed Magpie are here, or a short distance away. And an amazing diversity of herps and mammals are present, although the mammals tend towards the rodent end of the scale, so not a whole lot of megafauna compared to say...Wyoming.

Anyway, I am about to head out, but will post more.

 

[MKinHK]

Nice context ... Looking forward to hearing more

Cheers
Mike

 

[Mysticete]

It's been a bit of a whirlwind trip, but I couldn't sleep and I got about a half an hour until breakfast, soooo....

My first 4 days in Southern California, and were not bird-focused, as I was hanging out with a good friend from my grad school days. The day of the arrival we mostly walked around Hillcrest and Old Town, admiring the diversity of food options (not a strength in the Fox Valley) and generally enjoying the nice weather. Did pick up some incidental common Socal urban birds, such as Western Gull, Anna's Hummingbird, etc. Best was probably an Orange-crowned Warbler of the Pacific race, which was particularly cooperative.

Day 2 was spent at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Both San Diego Zoo locations are amazing, and this is no exception, having truly enormous paddocks for animals to roam in and many species that can't be seen in other zoos in the country (Platypus! Babirusa!). I am a huge fan of zoos, and although I had visited this zoo a few times in the past, it's been over a decade or more.

From a birding perspective however, the Safari Park is also a pretty great spot. There are lots of trees and water features, which attract birds, especially given the inland and dryer location. Back when I lived in San Diego the Safari Park was well known for housing a overwintering Wood Stork for over 20 winters, and it's the most reliable place in county for Zone-tailed Hawk, something which I was keen to see. Spoiler alert: I didn't. I also managed to pull out a Eurasian Widgeon out of the tame duck flocks that spend every winter here, way back when I lived here.

While I didn't see anything particularly rare, I did get about 34 species for the day list, of which Canada Goose was probably the best (They have a patchy winter distribution in county, and are not that common on the coast). Other wild waterfowl included Mallard, Northern Pintail, Ring-necked Duck, American Widgeon, Northern Shoveler, Gadwall, Ruddy Duck, and Ring-necked Duck. Also surprising were Eurasian Collared Dove, a bird that was only known from the far eastern desert reaches of the county when I lived here, but has clearly spread inland.
Good mix of wading birds were present in the different water features, particularly Black-crowned Night Heron, which breed on the zoo grounds. Snowy and Great Egrets, as well as Green Heron and White-faced Ibis were also present, as well as some American White Pelicans and Spotted Sandpiper. Songbirds consisted of the usual Socal species, with my first Bushtits for the trip.

 

[Mysticete]

Incidentally, as we get to the birdier parts of the trip, Species in bold will be lifers, and species in Blue will be exotics that I haven't seen before but are not yet on the ABA/California list.

 

[Maffong]

Sounds like a nice trip. Will you try for the Little Stint in San Diego? How about White-winged Parakeet? Will you be going on a pelagic?

 

[etudiant]

It's been a bit of a whirlwind trip, but I couldn't sleep and I got about a half an hour until breakfast, soooo....

My first 4 days in Southern California, and were not bird-focused, as I was hanging out with a good friend from my grad school days. The day of the arrival we mostly walked around Hillcrest and Old Town, admiring the diversity of food options (not a strength in the Fox Valley) and generally enjoying the nice weather. Did pick up some incidental common Socal urban birds, such as Western Gull, Anna's Hummingbird, etc. Best was probably an Orange-crowned Warbler of the Pacific race, which was particularly cooperative.

Day 2 was spent at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Both San Diego Zoo locations are amazing, and this is no exception, having truly enormous paddocks for animals to roam in and many species that can't be seen in other zoos in the country (Platypus! Babirusa!). I am a huge fan of zoos, and although I had visited this zoo a few times in the past, it's been over a decade or more.

From a birding perspective however, the Safari Park is also a pretty great spot. There are lots of trees and water features, which attract birds, especially given the inland and dryer location. Back when I lived in San Diego the Safari Park was well known for housing a overwintering Wood Stork for over 20 winters, and it's the most reliable place in county for Zone-tailed Hawk, something which I was keen to see. Spoiler alert: I didn't. I also managed to pull out a Eurasian Widgeon out of the tame duck flocks that spend every winter here, way back when I lived here.

While I didn't see anything particularly rare, I did get about 34 species for the day list, of which Canada Goose was probably the best (They have a patchy winter distribution in county, and are not that common on the coast). Other wild waterfowl included Mallard, Northern Pintail, Ring-necked Duck, American Widgeon, Northern Shoveler, Gadwall, Ruddy Duck, and Ring-necked Duck. Also surprising were Eurasian Collared Dove, a bird that was only known from the far eastern desert reaches of the county when I lived here, but has clearly spread inland.
Good mix of wading birds were present in the different water features, particularly Black-crowned Night Heron, which breed on the zoo grounds. Snowy and Great Egrets, as well as Green Heron and White-faced Ibis were also present, as well as some American White Pelicans and Spotted Sandpiper. Songbirds consisted of the usual Socal species, with my first Bushtits for the trip.

San Diego Zoo Safari Park is just wonderful, don't know if you were able to wangle a visit with the staff service truck, they plunk us tourists/contributors into the back with bags of carrots and drive out to meet the assaults of the rhinos, giraffes etc, all of whom love carrots. A wonderful experience, seeing these animals up close, no bars or barriers,

 

[Mysticete]

Sounds like a nice trip. Will you try for the Little Stint in San Diego? How about White-winged Parakeet? Will you be going on a pelagic?

tune in and find out!

 

[Mysticete]

San Diego Zoo Safari Park is just wonderful, don't know if you were able to wangle a visit with the staff service truck, they plunk us tourists/contributors into the back with bags of carrots and drive out to meet the assaults of the rhinos, giraffes etc, all of whom love carrots. A wonderful experience, seeing these animals up close, no bars or barriers,

Sadly those cost extra and we were going cheap (My friend has a annual pass that allows free entry for himself and a guest).

 

[Mysticete]

On my second full day in San Diego I decided to get some somewhat half-assed birding in. I am thankfully blessed to have a good friend, who while not a birder, generally likes the outdoors and critters, given his background in organismal biology. So we decided to make a day of it hitting up a few spots for some recent rarities.

The first target was Lewis's Woodpecker, a species I had seen once before (in San Diego County even!), but which I had only seen poorly and distantly. Enough to ID the bird but not really good views of a really cool Woodpecker. For some weeks, a bird had been seen between the visitor center at Mission Trails Regional Park and the Old Dam area. Generally in the past where I have birded the park, I have focused on the Old Dam area, as there is a good diversity of habitats and in spring it can be a migrant hotspot. Here however we focused on that road, which turned to be a bit longer than expected, and we ended up engaging in about a 4 mile round-trip walk through Chaparral and oak woodland.

While birdy, the actual diversity was pretty limited. Audubon's Warblers were by far the most common bird, and practically every bit of movement revealed itself to be one of these birds. The next most common birds seen were California Towhee and California Scrub-Jay. A section of woodlands had a good-sized group of Acorn Woodpecker, a species I don't typically see here (again, I seldom birded this part of the Park). Scarcer songbirds also included a single Ruby-crowned Kinglet, a pair of Hermit Thrushes, which might be my first this year (The Texas blizzard hammered Midwestern populations), and a lone American Robin. There was also Black Phoebe at the dam, as well as some Mallards, ubiquitous American Coots, and a beautiful male Hooded Merganser. Frequently soaring overhead were American Crows, Common Raven, Red-tailed Hawk, and a Cooper's Hawk that couldn't have helped on the songbird front. Did get a brief flyby California Quail which crossed the road, the only one for the trip it looks like.

We of course dipped on the Lewis's Woodpecker, a theme for the day as you will soon see. We also dipped on California Gnatcatcher, which is supposed to be present in this section of the park. At least in the former's case, the last sighting was over two weeks ago, so it's possible the birds had moved on.

After a quick lunch at the California mainstay of In-and-Out Burger, we next headed south to try for Little Stint on the Otay River. This notorious bird is a returning winterer that has periodically been encountered off and on this estuarine river. (really a stream). Unfortunately, access is limited to the bike path along the marsh, meaning views are distant at best, and the general sense is that the people who do see it have special access privileges to the refuge grounds that us mere mortals do not have. Combined with not bringing a scope this visit, you can guess how this turned out! That said, I did get a good diversity of birds, with 39 species observed including 10 species of duck and 8 species of shorebird, along with some random gulls and a few common songbirds. Also managed good views of Northern Harrier and Red-shouldered Hawk, the former spooking what close shorebirds we found before I could properly ID them.

Given the travel and the amount of hiking around, we were quickly running out of sunlight, so decided to make one final stop, hitting up Bayfront Park where a Eurasian Common Teal had been seen. There were extensive mudflats here which allowed pretty good views of 10 species of duck (including the first Brant of the trip) and 8 species of shorebird, including Semipalmated Plover and Least and Western Sandpiper. There were also 4 species of heron, the best being Reddish Egret. Unfortunately, three strikes and your out, as no Common Teal could be found, only normal Green-winged Teal. There were some far mudflats that we just didn't have a good view of; Had we the time left in daylight to drive around I think we could have managed the bird, but oh well.

 

[Mysticete]

The third full day in San Diego was not a birding day, and was spent at the San Diego Zoo in Balboa park. I didn't really see much of note other than the first Allen's Hummingbird of the trip, which would be seen daily from here forward. Like the Safari Park however, I strongly recommend it to anyone who likes zoos, as it truly has some amazing critters and excellent exhibits, including a newly designed Reptile section that makes use of the nice weather to have a lot of outside enclosures, and a pretty innovative section which provides information on Pleistocene local wildlife, by comparing and contrasting them to living analogues (Guanacos standing in for extinct llamas, Dromedary Camels for extinct camels, etc).

The next entry will begin the actual "tour" portion of the trip.

 

[Mysticete]

The first day of the formal tour saw the trip leader, with a few folks continuing from a prior San Diego-based tour, pick me up at my hotel in Oceanside. Wishing me well on my wishes were a pair of White-tailed Kites, which regularly hunted the adjacent hillside (and which was a species the group had only gotten poor views of so far).

The first bit of business was the assemble the rest of the group in Los Angeles, with one member flying in from Seattle and another pair leaving there car at the airport, having driven up from San Diego. The first order of business was then to start targeting LA area exotics and what rarities that could be found. LA is the main center of distribution for a host of exotic bird species, some of which are present in limited numbers while others are rapidly expanding. The tour was focused on the major exotic species, which I will be bringing up in this post.

The first targets were Scaly-breasted Munia and Pin-tailed Whydah. The former is a species that has been considered established in California and the ABA for some time, and which in the last two decades has managed to spread over most of coastal Southern California. I had seen the species once in San Diego, some 5 or so years ago. The second species is not considered established, although is going through a major range expansion and is likely to be added soon, probably helped by the success of munias, which they use as hosts for their nest parasitism. Which is kind of awesome, since it means they leave the native species alone, at least so far. This is one I still wanted to bank for my ABA, although I have seen it in South Africa.

The first stop was the Henrietta Water Basin, a great spot for both. Which, despite what the website info promised, had the gate locked with no clear other way to access it. Poop.

We then hit up Entredero Park. The Park itself was rather birdy, consisting of a large pond with some shoreline vegetation, mowed fields for sports, and the shrubby areas. With a little bit of effort, we were able to get pretty good views of a large flock of them, about 25, mostly male. The Whydahs were a no show however; They are generally harder in winter, in part because the males lose there characteristics plumage making them harder to spot and ID. Other interesting birds in the park included a fairly tame Aleutian Cackling goose which allowed excellent comparative views with the Canadas it was chilling with, the first (and only?) Golden-crowned Sparrow of the trip, and a few Lincolns Sparrows and Western Bluebirds.

After grabbing some burritos for lunch, we then made a very quick stop at Belvedere Park. This was mostly for exotic waterfowl which can be found in the large lake, although there was a chance for Whydah here. In particular, the park could be good Egyptian Geese and Mandarin Duck. The former were here, but the latter were absent. Mandarin Duck is sort of a weird bird, in that populations seem to become temporarily "established" only to disappear. No great loss as it seemed to be a species that, at least in Socal, has low odds of ever being added to the ABA. A very tame Greater White-fronted Goose, chilling with some domestic geese, was also present.

Next up, we headed to Pasadena, where we stopped at the Huntington Botanical Garden. This is THE place in Southern California for Red-whiskered Bulbul, and is a good spot for Yellow-chevroned Parakeet. Bulbul was first added to the ABA checklist based on the Florida population, which is now much trickier to see and lower in number than the California population, which seems to be showing some degree of range expansion. Sadly we couldn't dig up the Bulbul, but we had numerous great looks at flyover Yellow-chevroned Parakeets, and even had some land at a decent range, allowing perusal of their ID features (Really, parrots and parakeets in the USA are underappreciated in how hard they can be to ID). We were also interested in Warblers, as a good variety of vagrant warblers had been reported wintering in the park, the best of which was Lucy's, which would have been a state bird. None of the really rare warblers were present, but we still had a good diversity, with 5 species present. Also good were a small group of Purple Finch, a more montane species which, like the Band-tailed Pigeons which were common in Pasadena, ranged into the area.

Missing one exotic and some vagrant warblers, we headed back to one final stop, with plans to visit tomorrow. Suddenly, shortly after we left, our driver slammed on the brakes: Two Red-whiskered bulbuls were on the telephone wire! We rushed out of the van and got great looks at the birds. In fact, the spot was unusually birdy, also giving us great looks at Hutton's Vireo and our only Mountain Chickadee of the trip.

Our last spot for the night was Temple City, which was the most recent roost site for much of the regions parrots. The exact location of the roost varies, due to human and predator disturbance, as well as shifts in availability of food sources. But a L.A. Parrot roost really is an experience. As dusk approaches, 100's (up to a thousand!) of parrots and parakeets start assembling in a few blocks of neighborhood, filling tree tops and lining powerlines, and creating an amazing cacophony. Great to witness, perhaps not so great to live with if you happen to live on one of these blocks. The two most common species were Red-crowned Parrot and Mitred Parakeet, the latter just recently added to the California checklist. Our count this evening was about 450 of the former, and 80 of the latter. However when we left parrots were still coming in.

One of our major focuses was shifting through the Parrots for less common species. The next most common Parrot, and one recently added to the California Checklist (and hopefully soon to the ABA), is Lilac-crowned Parrot, which we had 5 of. This was the most difficult of the parrots to ID, as its features didn't pop out as much as the other species, and it really depended on the light being right to distinguish the deeper burgundy on the forehead of this species. Next up, and not really considered established but good to bank were Red-lored and Yellow-headed Parrots, which are easier IDs. We had two of each, plus a Red-crowned-Red-lored hybrid. More unexpected, a pair of Red-masked Parakeets were also found with the parakeet flock, but I never was able to get on them before they flew.

With day one over and 3 lifers and 2 ABA birds (3 really since Lilac-crowned is almost certainly going to be added this year), it was off to the hotel and sleep

 

[Mysticete]

Day 2 of the tour, and the first full day, would see us spend a few hours this morning trying for some local exotics, returning to Huntington Botanical Garden for another try for the Lucy's Warbler, and then a long epic quest for California Condor.

We started off at Sunnyslope, Vina Vieja, and Gwinn Parks, a cluster of adjacent small city parks not far from our hotel. Our main target here was again Pin-tailed Whydah, as a flock of 12 had been seen recently associated with a good size flock of Lark Sparrows. While we did find the Lark Sparrows, there was no sign of the whydahs. We did however find a Mountain Bluebird and had good looks at a active Botta's Pocket Gopher. A note that really a lot of LA area birding is more of the nature of visiting really tiny parks which by all appearances seem to be subpar habitat at best. Despite that, these little parks can be suprisingly birdy, and frequently attract rarities and good numbers of more regular wintering birds. And of course the exotics!

After that we drove back to the Huntington Botanical Gardens. I should probably note that both today and yesterday we didn't actually enter the Gardens, but rather birded the parking lot area, which is fairly well-planted and larger than most city parks. So if you want to see the local specialties but are also cheap, don't worry about entry fees. Do worry about the parking patrol staff, which are overzealous in their approach and numerous, and will frequently yell at you to stay on the sidewalk, not to go certain places, and to get out of road. All things birders sometimes have trouble doing.

This morning was a repeat of last evening, only with much poorer looks at the parakeets and much much better looks at the bulbuls (we recorded 10 of them). We were able to dig up one of the overwintering rarities, the scruffiest looking Nashville Warbler I had ever seen. Many warblers feed in the Eucalyptus and so it's not common for them to get doused with black Eucalyptus gum or pollen. I also managed to finally see the Black-throated Gray Warbler that other folks saw yesterday, but which I couldn't connect with. So that was nice.

After that it was off to Bittercreek NWR, which I will cover in the next post.

 

[Mysticete]

Bittercreek National Wildlife Refuge is located practically on the other side of the mountains from L.A., about a 2.5 hour drive from Los Angeles. This region of California has one of the highest populations of Condor, and was also their last stronghold before most were brought into captivity to preserve the remaining birds.

This was a day filled with substantial amounts of driving, as we had to get to Ventura Harbor in the evening. Still it was a pleasant drive, with snow on the nearby mountains (we even ran across a spanish speaking couple who were trying to find said snow). The actual terrain of Bittercreek NWR is one of rolling montane plains, more similar to the countryside of Wyoming than coastal San Diego, a mixture of Chaparral, grasslands, and pine forests. Our specific destination was the Los Padres National Forest sign at the edge of Bittercreek. this sign features a good-sized parking area with a wide overlook allowing birders to scan a considerable area for birds. Our guide had never missed seeing Condors from this point, with his longest wait about an hour and a half. We ate lunch and began our vigil, and watched the HOURS tick away, everyone become more and more anxious. And me silently cursing the person who assumed we would see said birds with complete certainty the day before. It wasn't the most exciting bit of birding, as diversity up here was rather limited. We excitedly put our bins up to examine distant flying birds, only to get Golden Eagle, Red-tailed Hawk, and Raven over and over again. Although we did pull one Ferruginous Hawk out of the mix. Songbirds around the overlook were limited. Good views were had of both Western and Mountain Bluebird, Phainopepla on the drive up, and a cute Oak Titmouse. There were also a few White-crowned Sparrows, and a brief view of California Thrasher.

At nearly 3 hours into our vigil, a curious bird was seen flying behind a distant hilltop, and the call went out...CONDOR. We had a minute or two of indecision. Do we head up the road, to see if the bird had landed or would otherwise viewable? Or do we stay put, and hope the bird continued to travel in the same direction, putting in our view again.

We quickly decided to head up, with two people remaining behind to signal if they had it. Just a short distance down the road we encountered the California Condor again. Had we been a little slower or a little faster we would have almost certainly missed it. We got brief views and then hightailed it back to the overlook, where it was now giving closer and more extended views. A huge sigh or relief was had, and although it was the only condor of the trip, we got great views of the adult bird, a truly magnificent creature.

We drove a little more back down the road to chase it, but the bird was traveling and soon was out of view. After that, we began our drive down to Ventura harbor, logging a nice Prairie Falcon on the way, but otherwise having an uneventful trip.

 

[MKinHK]

Glad to hear you connected with the condor. I missed it on the Big Sur Highway a few years ago and will need to come back ...

 

[etudiant]

Bittercreek National Wildlife Refuge is located practically on the other side of the mountains from L.A., about a 2.5 hour drive from Los Angeles. This region of California has one of the highest populations of Condor, and was also their last stronghold before most were brought into captivity to preserve the remaining birds.

This was a day filled with substantial amounts of driving, as we had to get to Ventura Harbor in the evening. Still it was a pleasant drive, with snow on the nearby mountains (we even ran across a spanish speaking couple who were trying to find said snow). The actual terrain of Bittercreek NWR is one of rolling montane plains, more similar to the countryside of Wyoming than coastal San Diego, a mixture of Chaparral, grasslands, and pine forests. Our specific destination was the Los Padres National Forest sign at the edge of Bittercreek. this sign features a good-sized parking area with a wide overlook allowing birders to scan a considerable area for birds. Our guide had never missed seeing Condors from this point, with his longest wait about an hour and a half. We ate lunch and began our vigil, and watched the HOURS tick away, everyone become more and more anxious. And me silently cursing the person who assumed we would see said birds with complete certainty the day before. It wasn't the most exciting bit of birding, as diversity up here was rather limited. We excitedly put our bins up to examine distant flying birds, only to get Golden Eagle, Red-tailed Hawk, and Raven over and over again. Although we did pull one Ferruginous Hawk out of the mix. Songbirds around the overlook were limited. Good views were had of both Western and Mountain Bluebird, Phainopepla on the drive up, and a cute Oak Titmouse. There were also a few White-crowned Sparrows, and a brief view of California Thrasher.

At nearly 3 hours into our vigil, a curious bird was seen flying behind a distant hilltop, and the call went out...CONDOR. We had a minute or two of indecision. Do we head up the road, to see if the bird had landed or would otherwise viewable? Or do we stay put, and hope the bird continued to travel in the same direction, putting in our view again.

We quickly decided to head up, with two people remaining behind to signal if they had it. Just a short distance down the road we encountered the California Condor again. Had we been a little slower or a little faster we would have almost certainly missed it. We got brief views and then hightailed it back to the overlook, where it was now giving closer and more extended views. A huge sigh or relief was had, and although it was the only condor of the trip, we got great views of the adult bird, a truly magnificent creature.

We drove a little more back down the road to chase it, but the bird was traveling and soon was out of view. After that, we began our drive down to Ventura harbor, logging a nice Prairie Falcon on the way, but otherwise having an uneventful trip.

Good on you for getting the California Condor, truly a magnificent bird.
I believe there is now a self sustaining wild population (complicated by the discovery that the females are parthenogenic if required).
I've only seen the released specimens unfortunately, it just jars seeing this huge, quasi prehistoric bird with number tags on its wings...

 

[Mysticete]

Good on you for getting the California Condor, truly a magnificent bird.
I believe there is now a self sustaining wild population (complicated by the discovery that the females are parthenogenic if required).
I've only seen the released specimens unfortunately, it just jars seeing this huge, quasi prehistoric bird with number tags on its wings...

Wild born birds also get tagged, although apparently a couple of birds have eluded attempts to do so.

The tags are interesting, as you can look up the birds info. Our bird was wild born and about 6 years old, IIRC

 

[etudiant]

Wild born birds also get tagged, although apparently a couple of birds have eluded attempts to do so.

The tags are interesting, as you can look up the birds info. Our bird was wild born and about 6 years old, IIRC

Thank you for that info, had not known that. Seems a nice way to connect to the California Condor ecosystem.
My only recollection, as a long term entomologist, is that the conservationists captured all the wild condors when their numbers were at a nadir, under 30 iirc.
Like good Americans, they deloused all the birds, thus extinguishing a Condor specific louse species. Conservation is really hard...

 

[Mysticete]

Day 3 saw us wake up early, although perhaps not as early as past days, snagging the hotel free breakfast (which somehow still exists in the age of COVID?), and get ready for our boat trip. Today would be the last full day of the tour, and in particular it was the day we would head to the Channel Islands, Santa Cruz to be specific, to try for Island Scrub-Jay and Island Fox. The Island Packers ferry, the main way of reaching the island, didn't depart until 9:30, allowing some time to bird the nearby harbor and marina. The jetty had good numbers of Black Oystercatcher and Surfbird, and smaller numbers of Ruddy and Black Turnstones. Otherwise we saw your typical California Harbor birds, with Glaucous-winged Gull being probably the most interesting of the non shorebird species. Wandering Tattlers were strangely absent, although I did try to turn some willets into this species. Both California Sea Lion and Harbor Seal were present in the harbor, the first marine mammals of the trip. After a quick visit to the gift shop we eventually boarded the boat.

The company follows strict COVID policies, including the use of masks at all times on the boat, even if you were on the outside. Which was kind of annoying, as I think the odds of catching it at the bow would have been pretty low. It was somewhat sunny if cloudy at times when we headed out, and really quite cold. We hung out at the bow, bracing ourselves as we began the search for seabirds. The crossing can be decent for seabirds; It's an hour long and cuts across a channel that frequently attracts both alcids and shearwaters. However, given that the boat ISN'T a birding pelagic boat, any encounter with birdlife is quick and fleeting, and you have to be fast and good at ID to really log any species.

The first seabirds we noted were Brandt's and Pelagic Cormorants, which were present just as we left the harbor into open water. The most abundant species, so abundant that you are practically guaranteed at least a few good looks, was Black-vented Shearwater. This Socal speciality is the dominant shearwater in coastal waters locally and the one you are likely to see when seawatching. No other shearwaters were observed, although Pink-footed is usually seen as well in the area. We did get one other procellarid however, a Northern Fulmar, a first for my California and Lower 48 list. That said, even though we practically ran it over, I didn't get the greatest look. The most common alcids were Rhinoceros auklet, with a few Common Murres mixed in. Our guide had a Cassin's Auklet, another normally more common species, But it was basically just a black dot for me. Probably the most interesting of the seabirds seen however was a fairly nice Pomarine Jaegar, my first Jaegar in what feels like FOREVER.

Marine Mammals are also visible. Obviously there is a scattering of California Sea Lions, which can be found in the Harbor, but cetaceans are present as well. Common Dolphin is the most common species seen in the Channel, and our Boat came across multiple schools of this species, including a large nursery school full of babies that probably numbered a 100 animals at least. Now, unlike seabirds, the boat will stop for marine mammals, so we all got excellent looks at this animal. Apparently Common Bottlenose Dolphin are also occasionally seen, and Killer Whales of the transient form have been noted as well. We saw neither, on the voyage over and the return.

At this time of year, Gray Whales are often encountered as they head south. We happened upon at least three separate animals which we got good views of. I had distantly and barely seen this species in the past, but really just the spray. This was my first sighting that really felt like a "proper" lifer encounter.

This feels like enough for now, so I will talk about the island itself in my next post.

 

[rkj]

My experience with Wandering Tattlers on the California coast has been that one very rarely sees more than one at a time, and in the rocky habitat they favor they are easy to miss entirely even when present. With a name like "tattler" you would expect them to be noisy, but that has not been my experience either. I am not surprised you did not find any. Thanks for an interesting report.