We started birding almost immediately upon arriving at the Point Reyes Seashore Lodge. Their grounds are just outside the national seashore area and were full of birds in the late afternoon. WESTERN SCRUB JAY was the first lifer we found there, just sitting in a tree over the parking lot. Parking lots were good birding areas that day--eating dinner on the deck of the restaurant next door we saw Brewer's Blackbird and Great-tailed Grackle picking up whatever food they could glean there and from the diners. Birds were constantly flying overhead, Turkey Vultures, swallows, a Red-shouldered Hawk, and best of all, high up, I was able to pick out at least one VAUX'S SWIFT.
The next day we got started on our serious birding. We had arranged for Daniel Edelstein to act as our guide for a day and we were specifically looking for BLACK OYSTERCATCHER. Daniel didn't think that would be much of a challenge.
First, to get us started before a long drive, he took us to the Bear Valley Visitor's Center, only a few minutes from our lodge. We weren't there five minutes when we spotted a CHESTNUT-BACKED CHICKADEE. We walked the short Earthquake Trail, so named because part of it follows the San Andreas Fault, and somewhere along there we were able to pick up CALIFORNIA TOWHEE.
Then it was off to Bodega Bay. Highway 1 runs up the shore of Tomales Bay and we made one stop just to see what was in the water. While scoping the water a WESTERN GULL flew overhead and a WRENTIT sang.
We stopped in Bodega Bay and scoped it out finding among the Western Grebes our first CLARK'S GREBE. Then it was up a long twisting road (there are a lot of those around Point Reyes) to Bodega Head. Lifers were coming fast and furious. Daniel pointed down to some rocks far below the cliffs we were standing on and there they were--Black Oystercatchers--our first big nose birds in California.
We counted 9, some of them courting. Meanwhile, swimming in the bay were PIGEON GUILLEMOTS, sitting on the rocks were dozens of BRANDT'S CORMORANTS, and flying below us, allowing us good looks at their diagnostic white patches, were PELAGIC CORMORANTS. At some point a CALIFORNIA GULL flew past us and then a flock of pterodactyls (more probably Brown Pelicans) slowly beat their way north.
It was a good thing we got the oystercatchers out of the way early, because we didn't see any more the rest of the trip. Pays to have a guide.
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| Our guide, Daniel Edelstein |
Let's stipulate from hereon in, that the scenery is spectacular.
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| Me, in a typical pose, shouldering the scope |
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| LZ & SZ at Bodega Head Photo: Daniel Edelstein |
The next day we drove to Limantour Beach, part of the national seashore. It was a windy day (though not nearly as windy as it got later in the vacation) and there we encountered a very friendly White-crowned Sparrow.
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| "I don't think I can reach the pedals on this model." |
Daniel had told us that the white-crowns we'd find on the point were a sub-species (Nutall's) that were resident year-round, not migrating like other sparrows. What I came to realize is that virtually all the familiar birds we saw on the trip were actually sub-species of the ones we knew from the east--the Song Sparrow is darker and has a different song, the House Finch is redder, the flicker is red-shafted, the junco is the Oregon sub-species, the House Wren is so different that it may be split off into a separate species, and so on. The robins seemed to be the same, but I don't really know.
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| White-crowned Sparrow in more typical habitat |
Since no vacation is complete without a trip to a waste-water treatment facility, the next day we drove north to Petaluma in Sonoma County and visited Shollenberger Park and the Ellis Creek Water Recycling Facility
The notable birds there were the first Cinnamon Teal we'd seen in years, a Marsh Wren we could actually see instead of just hearing, and 2 species I had forgotten we might see--Black-necked Stilt and American Avocet. Usually, to get these beauties we have to go down to Delaware in mid-summer and deal with the heat and bugs. Shari was happy to see them in a more pleasant (albeit windy) climate.
On Sunday we drove down to San Francisco to visit some old friends of Shari's, but left some time for birding before we met them. I had done some research on eBird and determined that the best place to find RED-MASKED PARAKEETS was Corona Heights Park, in a section of the city that I'd never been to. It turned out that heights was the operative word, with some glorious views of the city. As soon as we parked the car a bird screamed over our heads and was gone--parakeet. Then four more zipped by so fast that to call them green blurs would be an exaggeration. We really wanted to see these birds, so we hung around the park, picking up the usual birds (plus a Cooper's Hawk) until after about an hour we heard the birds again, this time a big flock and saw them flying around on the streets below the park, going from tree to tree. We were both very happy when we could clearly see their red masks. I counted about 20 birds in the flock, though there could easily have been more. They seemed just as clownish as our Monk Parakeets, but not as exotic in San Francisco as the monks seem here. 
Monday we finally went to see the famous Point Reyes Lighthouse. The wind was ferocious. I had been there 30 or so years ago, but only shards of memory remained. There are 302 steps down to the lighthouse. I would think you'd want the lighthouse on the highest promontory, so I'm not clear on the advantages of building a lighthouse in just about the most inaccessible point you can find, but that's what they did. Walking down to (and up from) the light is the equivalent of walking the stairs in a 30 story building. Shari got 2/3 of the way down. I did a 100 steps and only because I wanted to get a better look at the thousand or so Common Murres roosting on a rock far below.
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| Murres |
May 10 we drove to Sacramento to visit another friend of Shari's. She and her husband took us to the Heritage Oak Winery near Lodi (as in, "O Lord, stuck in old Lodi, again"), where we met a guide they know who took us around the property. The owner of the winery is very bird friendly. He has hummingbird feeders and thistle feeders on the patio, an owl box on a tree, and bluebird and swallow boxes at the ends of the rows of grape vines. It was here that we were able to finally get our NUTTAL'S WOODPECKER, along with a number of flycatchers. Also, at the feeders, we had Hooded and Bullock's Oriole, and Rufous and Black-chinned Hummingbirds. A special treat was the Great Horned Owl using an old red-tail's nest that David showed us.
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| Black-chinned Hummingbird |
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| Bob, Larry, and David (our guide) setting out to find birds at Hertiage Oak |
The days kept getting windier, but we were determined to get to the beach and bird more there. In the mornings, it seems, the weather is relatively calm, so we visited Abbots Lagoon one day and there we found some late shorebirds--Dunlins, Western Sandpipers, and Sanderlings, along with grackles and the very beautiful bi-colored Red-winged Blackbirds--another sub-species we don't have in the east. Their epaulets were fluorescent red and were happy to show them.
The last lifer we had was at Bolinas Lagoon in south Marin. There, as we birded the lagoon from turnouts on Highway 1, we distinctly heard the call of the OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER in 2 locations.
Our last day we went back to Limantour Beach in the morning before the winds picked up and there we found a couple of Bank Swallows on the beach, lots of Sandlerlings, 45 Whimbrels in flight, and our 2nd Pacific Loon.
On our last morning at the lodge I heard a call and followed it down to the creek, but I didn't have my binoculars. On a branch I saw what looked like a flycatcher and ran up the hill to dig out a pair of already packed binoculars. Fortunately the bird stayed around and Shari & I both got to see a Pacific-slope Flycatcher instead of just hearing them in the woods. That was a fine and satisfying way to end the trip.
Other photos:
CALIFORNIA QUAIL. Sometimes a life bird, if it is common, like the scrub jay, can go to a "junk" bird very quickly. California Quail weren't hard to find--a pair liked to feed under a tree a few feet from our deck--but I never got tired of seeing them. I rarely use this word, but I found them adorable.
Yet more pictures of me carrying the scope. Cows are supposedly docile. But some of these animals were bulls. We asked a runner on this trail if the cattle were safe and he replied, "More or less."
And finally...
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| Point Reyes Station, CA |
All photos by Shari Zirlin except where noted.
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