Nuttall’s Woodpecker – largely confined to west California. An America tick for me

Before we started this trip our research suggested that Point Reyes would be a high point. Situated on the Pacific coast, 30 miles north-west of San Fransisco, the Point Reyes Peninsula is bounded by Tomales Bay to the north-east and by Bolinas Lagoon on the south-east side. This strategic location, combined with a variety of habitats, means that the species count for the region is approaching an incredible 500. We’d originally planned to spend a couple of days birding the area but by lunch today, admittedly not helped by the weather which was a steady light drizzle and mist, it was apparent that the birds just weren’t around.  Things did improve in the afternoon when first we managed to find a lone Oldsquaw (Long-tailed Duck) at Abbott’s Lagoon and then, at Bolinas, a young Bald Eagle and a Nuttall’s Woodpecker – the latter an American tick.

A young Bald Eagle – only the second of the entire trip. Record shot

Another good bird for the day was Band-tailed Pigeon, which we’ve only just started seeing

The beach below the light-house on Point Reyes is a traditional breeding location for Elephant Seal. Here, looking down the ‘business-end’ of a female

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco – shrouded in mist. Inset, Alcatraz, iconic prison – 1934 to 1963 

We spent the morning visiting three coastal reserves between Monterey and San Francisco – Salinas River National Wildlife Refuge, Moss Landing and Año Nuevo State Park. In the afternoon, after checking in to our rather up-market hotel in Petaluma, we visited the local town wetland – Shollenberger Park. Although the weather was cool and overcast, we avoided actually getting wet. Surprisingly, we racked-up probably our biggest day list of the trip, including several America ticks. The National Route 1 / State Route 101, fortuitously, takes you right over the Golden Gate Bridge. We stopped-off and did the tourist thing, though it would be nice to see it again in that famous California sunshine! The iconic Alcatraz Island –  home to the abandoned prison, the site of the oldest operating lighthouse on the west coast of America, early military fortifications, and a colony of nesting seabirds (mostly Western Gull and cormorants ), was barely visible in the mist.

Snowy Plover –  there are thought to be around two thousand breeding pairs along the  California coast

Adding a little colour to an otherwise drab day – American Goldfinch. A GABRAT tick

The most amazing spectacle of the day was the Southern Sea Otter in the harbour. These amazing creatures keep their new-born infants safe and dry – they aren’t fully waterproof at this age, by nursing them on their bellies, whilst doing the back-stroke to get around!

Our itinerary brought us to Monterey for one specific purpose, to look for sea-birds. We had originally hoped to be able to connect with a pelagic (a dedicated boat-trip to deep off-shore waters) but were told that, because of the unpredictability of the weather in Spring, the boats don’t run. We were advised that the next best option was to take a whale-watching cruise into Monterey Bay. There’s plenty of choice – for $200 we could have got any number of boat trips, but recent sightings only involved Hump-backed Whale, Dolphin, Seals and Sea Otter – with no specific information on bird species. Instead, we decided to spend the day looking for birds in the harbour, on the adjacent beaches and sea-watching from Point Pinos. What a good decision! We saw some excellent birds and marine wildlife and some interesting historic places into the bargain. Altogether, a fabulous day, packed full of interesting stuff and virtually no driving!

Also in the harbour, Common Loon and Pigeon Guillemot (very like our Black Guillemot)

In the gull roost at the local boating lake we found this 2cy(?) Glaucous-winged Gull

Historic Fisherman’s Wharfe – home to some amazing marine wildlife

Harbour Seal and Brandt’s Cormorant

Highlights of the afternoons sea-watch (aided by the arrival of local sea-watching expert Mark Kudrav – thanks Mark for your invaluable assistance) – Heermann’s Gull (record shot)

Black-footed Albatross – a ‘life tick’. Seen here with some of the thousands of Sooty Shearwaters streaming past

Oh, and this guy – a relatively close in-shore Hump-backed Whale. Who needs a whale-watching trip when you can see all of this from the shore

We arrived this evening in Monterey, on the Pacific coast, a month after we left Boca Chica and the Gulf of Mexico –  a mere 1629 miles, as the American Crow flies. It’s great to see the ocean again but, after the desert, it does feel decidedly chilly. Last night we stayed  in Merced, with a plan to spend this morning visiting San Luis National Wildlife Refuge. This premier reserve is mainly a winter site for wildfowl and Cranes so we weren’t expecting much. As it happens we saw fifty species, including a good number of State ticks, with the top birds being American Bittern and another Great Horned Owl! Given that we had failed to see California Condor at the Grand Canyon, we decided to execute Plan B and make a slight detour to the Pinnacles National Park, in the Gabilan Mountains. When we arrived, the park ranger told us we had a reasonable chance of seeing one if we were prepared to hike five miles, over very demanding terrain. We had little choice, so set off with decidedly mixed feelings about the whole venture. Less than half a mile out of the carpark we had our first brief view of a lone Condor hurtling across the ridge! Before long we spotted another, then a further two – all eventually roosting on a relatively close rock out-crop. On our way back down the trail I saw six together at on point, with a possible total of ten individuals – amazing! Add to all this the Yellow-billed Magpie, which we saw on several occasions after leaving Merced, made for a truly excellent days birding.

Bird of the day – unquestionably California Condor. Close to the point of extinction by 1987, all 27 remaining wild birds were taken into captivity. A successful breeding programme led to their reintroduction back into the wild from 1991. By December 2016 there were a total of 446 California Condor in the wild or in captivity. A very good news conservation story

Coming a close second, American Bittern – seen at San Luis NWR

El Capitan, Yosemite National Park (photo courtesy of Jane)

As a Police Cadet, back in the mid-70’s, our education programme included occasional motivational talks. Most had little lasting impact but one in particular did stick with me – an illustrated talk by a couple of guys who had recently climbed El Capitan – a 3,000 foot sheer rock wall, in Yosemite National Park. Using an established route called The Nose, it took them several days, requiring them to bivouac overnight – using hammocks suspended from pitons hammered into the rock face. The tale of this heroic / crazy enterprise has popped into my head from time to time ever since. Today, I got the chance to see El Capitan for real. It is truly immense and the thought of anyone climbing it at all, in any circumstances, is quite beyond belief. El Capitan aside, the whole of the Yosemite NP is pretty breath-taking. We’d begun our day with breakfast at Glacier Point, a popular view-point, elevation 7,214 feet, from which you can see many of  Yosemite’s iconic landmarks. We birded our way down to the valley bottom, taking in several impressive waterfalls, before eventually exiting via the El Portal gate. This was not a day for birds, although we did manage to catch-up with a hand-full of State ticks, and an all important trip tick – American Dipper, which we found on the River Merced, late in the afternoon, on our descent out of the National Park.

The four of us after Breakfast at Glacier Point* – which Jane says would make a good title for a novel – after Picnic at Hanging Rock

Birds were few and far between, but we did get good views of Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon race)

Mountain Chickadee, at it’s nest

and American Dipper – finally ‘ticked’ on the Merced River. Record shot only

Taking a look at ‘Wiki’, I now read of numerous incredible ascents, by different routes, of El Capitan. This one in particular caught my attention:  In 1993, Lynn Hill came close to freeing The Nose, making it past the Great Roof and up to Camp VI without falling, stopped only on Changing Corners by a piton jammed in a critical finger hold. After removing the piton she re-climbed the route from the ground. After 4 days of climbing, Hill reached the summit, making her the first person to free climb The Nose. A year later, she returned to free climb The Nose in a day, this time reaching the summit in just 23 hours and setting a new standard for free climbing on “El Cap.” 

On the way to Kern River this morning, Sue spotted this nesting Raven with young

When we initially planned our GABRAT route we had hoped that we’d be able to travel from Death Valley, north west, to enter The Yosemite National Park via the Tioga Pass. This 9,000 feet pass is usually blocked with snow until well into May, sometimes not opening until June. This has been a pretty bad winter for much of the northern States and it was no surprise to discover that the pass remains closed. Fortunately we’d built in sufficient slack into the itinerary to allow us to take the much longer route around the southern end of the Sierra Nevada mountains, up Highway 99 from Bakersfield, to enter the park from the south west. A minor tweak to our plans – we drove further than originally planned yesterday, allowed us to bird the lovely Audubon riparian valley reserve of Kern River this morning. Lots of additions to our California List, with several GABRAT ticks and a couple of America List ticks as well.

Oak Titmouse – a new bird for me in America

Not a new bird for the trip, just new for California – the stunning Anna’s Hummingbird

Record shot of Red-breasted Sapsucker, Sierra Nevada mountains. 

We stopped off at the little pond by the golf course at Furnace Creek this morning before crossing Death Valley and heading for the Sierra Nevada mountains, via Owen’s Lake. The pond provided a couple of new State ticks, including White-faced Ibis and White-throated Swift. Lunch was taken at the picnic site at Whitney Portal – the start of the trail to the summit of Mount Whitney – at 14,505 feet, the highest peak in the USA, outside of Alaska. The bird-life was rather sparse and of the handful of species we did see there, only Red-breasted Sapsucker was new for the trip. An hour spent in an unsuccessful search for American Dipper was followed by a much more productive visit to Lake Diaz, where we added several State ticks and Barn Owl (a great find by Bob) to our GABRAT list. Our journey took us south, around the tip of the Sierra Nevada mountains, before finally arriving at our lodgings for the night, on the shores of Lake Isabella.

View of the Sierra Nevada mountains from the Whitney Portal approach road

Steller’s Jay (Pacific race) – not seen since El Paso, Texas

Jane, Bob & Sue search the pond at Furnace Creek golf course for migrants

At 190 feet below sea-level, Furnace Creek in Death Valley is the lowest settlement in the USA. It also holds a number of other records including the highest reliably recorded air temperature on Earth, at 134 °F (56.7 °C) on July 10, 1913, as well as the highest recorded natural ground surface temperature at 201 °F (93.9 °C) on July 15, 1972. Probably not the best place to go looking for birds but, surprisingly, we did find a few species around a tiny pond at the edge of the golf course, including Ring-necked Duck, Common Yellowthroat and, amazingly, two White Pelican! Further up the road, at Salt Creek, we had yet another encounter with critically endangered fish – this time the Death Valley Pupfish. Not much different to the Ash Meadows Pupfish to be honest but all these various Pupfish populations have evolved in tiny, isolated, spring / pond systems in the desert. Their vulnerability is self-evident. Tomorrow we cross Death Valley and head into  California, leaving the desert landscapes, which have been such a prominent feature of the first half of our journey, behind us.

Today was a minor ‘low point’ in another way – our first day without seeing a new bird. Let’s hope it was a one-off.

Prize for the most unexpected bird species of the day – two American White Pelican, which circled over-head for ten minutes before moving on

A Death Valley (Salt Creek) Pupfish – happily swimming around in less than an inch of water, it’s dorsal fin just breaking the surface 

Burrowing Owl, first seen at Floyd Lamb State Park, this one was at Ash Meadows. Our sixth species of owl, if you count the dead Barn Owl on the road in Texas that is

An excellent days birding. We left our Las Vegas resort apartment for the last time and headed for Floyd Lamb State Park, on the edge of the city. Armed with some recent intel from Carol & Ken, we were looking for Burrowing Owl. We entered the stoney desert enclosure, opposite the pay booth, and quickly encountered our first ‘night birds’ – actually several Lesser Nighthawk, flying around us and obligingly perched-up close-by. Then Jane spotted the first of several Burrowing Owl, on the distant sand cliff. We eventually saw at least three and came across them later at the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. Next we made a return visit to the Desert National Wildlife Refuge where the birding was as good, if not better, than our previous visit. Here we added Sagebrush Sparrow, on the approach road, and then, in or around the orchard, Evening Grosbeak, Blue Grosbeak and an out of range Northern Parula. The afternoon was spent at the desert oasis reserve of Ash Meadows. The most interesting wildlife here were not birds, although we did see Wilson’s Phalarope and Snowy Plover, but Desert Longhorns – a sort of mountain sheep and a critically endangered fish – the Armagosa Pupfish, which can only be found in a few desert spring ponds on the Ash Meadows reserve – no where else in the world! They can survive in less than an inch of water, at temperatures over 90 degrees.

Also seen at Floyd Lamb and again around our Armagosa Valley casino accommodation in the desert, Lesser Nighthawk

Ash Meadows is home to some critically endangered fish – Armagosa Pupfish. This is my pitiful attempt to photograph them in their desert spring pond home!

I had more success photographing the pond

Desert Longhorns, near-by

Record shot of two Red-necked Phalarope – Henderson poo ponds

We were drawn back to Clark County Wetlands Park and Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve this morning by reports on eBirder of a couple of species we need for either our trip or State lists. In the event we couldn’t find them and it looked, at one point, that today would be the first when we added no new species to our trip list. We’d done the Wetlands and were nearly finished walking the trails around the poo ponds when two birds appeared ‘spinning’ in the middle of one of the ponds. Clearly, phalarope species, closer inspection confirmed that they weren’t Wilson’s, which we’ve seen already at several locations, but Red-necked – a State, GABRAT and America tick. The guy at the Centre said he thought that, as these are ‘early breeders’ in North America, they were probably returning migrants. Coincidentally, a report on the internet today announced the first arrivals of Red-necked Phalarope back in Iceland – at the beginning of their breeding season. This reminded me of the comparatively recent discovery that the Red-necked Phalarope which breed in The Shetlands and were originally thought to winter in The Red Sea, in fact spent their winters off the coast of Peru. Whether these birds were heading north or south is unclear but one thing’s for certain they were a very welcome addition to the list.

This evening we did the tourist thing and visited The Strip – a unique and rather bizarre experience on a number of levels – one I doubt I’ll ever repeat!

Venice, in the desert