We set off from Yosemite National Park in the morning. The last birds there were Steller's Jays, Brewer's Blackbirds and a lone Brown-Headed Cowbird. It was a long journey through agricultural fields. The drive was quite good for raptors with Swainson's Hawk, Red-Tailed Hawk, Bald Eagle, Turkey Vulture, White-Tailed Kite, American Kestrel and Northern Harrier all being seen from the car window (these were spread across 4-5 hours). There was one new bird for the trip seen on the car journey, a Tree Swallow. We arrived at the Monterey Dunes, Moss Landing early evening. We went for a walk into Moss Landing where we saw a Common Tern and a flock of Pintail.
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| Pintail |
On the 28th I got up early and walked to the beach (about 30m away from the accommodation). I was greeted by masses of
Sanderling,
Willet and
Marbled Godwit, scattered in amongst them were
Long-Billed Curlews and
Western Sandpipers. Les then joined me and a spot of seawatching produced two
Great-Northern Divers (
Common Loons) and a handful of
Surf Scoter. We then set off to spend the day in Monterey. On the way there I spotted a
Pied-Billed Grebe in a ditch by the road. Once at Monterey we started at the aquarium. It was amazing to see all the fish (including Tuna) on display. We also went on a guided tour behind the scenes on what the aquarium was doing to help
Sea Otters. The aquarium also had rescued birds including three Buffleheads and a variety of waders (these were either abandoned or rescued). From the aquarium we also saw a
Spotted Sandpiper and a
Black Oystercatcher on the rocks. Whilst eating lunch a
Peregrine flew overhead, not what I had expected. After the aquarium we walked around Monterey itself. Amazingly from the town we watched a pod of
Risso's Dolphins, as well as these we also found a
Botta's Pocket Gopher by the road in it's burrow. That evening I did a little seawatching, much to my amazement there was a constant stream of
Sooty Shearwaters as the sun was setting way out on the horizon. Then after about half an hour they had all disappeared.
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| Spotted Sandpiper |
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| Mixed Waders |
The 29th was the day of the first whale-watching boat. However before this I got up early again to see waders on the beach, I saw all of yesterdays as well as two
Grey Plovers (
Black-Bellied Plovers) (flew south) and a few
Snowy Plovers on the beach. There was also, to my surprise, a
Black-Necked Grebe (
Eared Grebe) just beyond the surf. A
Black Scoter then flew north. Not a bad start to the day! When we got to the jetty (in Moss Landing) we saw a
Least Sandpiper and a couple of
Black Turnstone. The boat arrived, captained by Kate, and we got into it (a six person rib so just enough to fit the 6 of us in). We set out, we saw lots of
Steller's Sea Lions (even miles out in the open ocean) and also an
Elephant Seal, which often favour deep water. We kept going out. Suddenly Adam shouted shark! He was right beneath the boat there were two
Blue Sharks! We hadn't expected to see these. We started seeing
Humpback blows in the distance, so we pushed on, going further out we started to see flocks of
Red-Necked and
Grey Phalaropes as well as a flock of small waders which were probably
Sanderling. Once we got to the point where land was fading away behind us we seemed to enter a world of
Sooty Shearwaters! There were thousands and thousands of them sat on the sea and flying past. In amongst them were quite a few
Pink Footed Shearwaters and three
Black-Vented Shearwaters (
Black-Vented Shearwaters used to be a rare winter visitor, but over the last few years they have become more common). We then started to see quite a few
Humpback Whales which were absolutely amazing, they even breached for us! Then something nobody expected happened. 10+ miles offshore a tiny
Townsend's Warbler landed on the boat. It stayed with us for quite a while eating the
Kelp Flies which were on the boat from the harbour. The bird then sat and posed for photographs whilst digesting it's food, it even landed on my mum's arm! Then, after having eaten a sufficient number of flies it took off and headed south over the ocean. This just shows the amazing ability of birds to travel huge distances across very dangerous waters. As well as the
Townsend's Warbler there were quite a few
Barn Swallows migrating over the ocean and even (unbelievably) the odd
Dragonfly. The boat then went towards some more
Humpbacks and a large whale-watching boat that had none other than fellow Filey birder and ringer Pete Dunn on it, doing a tour for nature trek. He then went on to take some pictures of us whilst everyone else was looking at the whales. The only two things that we hadn't seen were
Blue Whales and
Albatrosses, Kate took the boat out further and stayed out longer but our luck was out. However I can't complain the experience was amazing, and we still had half a day left! Coming back into the harbour we saw two
Hudsonian Whimbrels overhead and a
Western Grebe on the water. Mum and Adam then returned to the accommodation but Les, Shirley, dad and I went to Elkhorn Slough. This is a large wetlands area. Pete had recommended that we went to the dairy where the owner lets people park near his cattle enclosures. The smell was very strong but attracted to the cows were thousands of (
Eurasian)
Starling,
Red-Winged Blackbirds (both normal and bicoloured) and a few
Tricoloured Blackbirds. As well as these there were (
Oregon)
Dark-Eyed Juncos and
American Red Squirrels. We walked towards the water. We straight away saw
Killdeer and
Semipalmated Plover as well as
Forster's Tern overhead. There was also quite a good mix of wildfowl which were unfortunately in eclipse: two
Cinnamon Teal, a few
Green-Winged Teal, a
Ruddy Duck, a
Shoveler, a
Blue-Winged Teal, hundreds of
Mallards and a couple of flocks of
Pintail flew south. Waders (as well as the plovers already mentioned) didn't disappoint: a
Solitary Sandpiper, lots of
Least Sandpipers, a
Western Sandpiper and a
Black-Necked Stilt were the best. As we walked between the pools there were also good numbers of passerines:
Nashville Warbler was probably the highlight but there were also lots of
House Finches,
American Goldfinches and a
Common Yellowthroat. Dad saw a bird that was later identified as a
Marsh Wren but I missed it unfortunately. The last bird three birds of the day were three fantastic lifers with a
Cliff Swallow, a
Western Kingbird and a
Clark's Grebe. This truly was one of the best birding days of my life!
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| Snowy Plover |
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| Blue Shark |
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| Townsend's Warbler |
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| Humpback Whale |
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| Townsend's Warbler |
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| Pink-Footed Shearwater |
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| Sooty Shearwater |
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Clark's Grebe
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It was the 30th and we didn't really have any plans as such. We decided to just walk along the beach and see what was about locally. Down on the beach, with
Long-Billed Curlews,
was a
Hudsonian Whimbrel. It was incredibly confiding! What I hadn't expected (with us being so close to the sea) was a party of
California Quail. In the dunes there was also a
House Wren. We walked along the beach and watched
Bottlenose Dolphins and a
Sea Otter just behind the breaking waves (thus showing how it gets deep very quickly). Whilst watching these an
Arctic Skua flew south close in and an
Osprey flew north (further out) Part of the afternoon I spent in the pool, but this didn't mean no birds.
California Towhees,
Bushtits,
White-Crowned Sparrows and
Anna's Hummingbirds were all in the vicinity of the pool. That evening we went on a guided canoe tour in Elkhorn Slough focussing on bio-luminescence in plankton. As we left the harbour to get into the slough curios
Harbour Seals approached us and slapped the water. We got into the slough and talked about the plant life as it was getting dark. Even after it had got dark
Elegant Terns were still flying in a large flock overhead, I could just make out there ghostly silhouettes. Once it was dark enough we were free to move our hands through the water. The bio-luminescence was phenomenal, it was like sparks were moving through the water like tiny fireworks around your hand. On return the odd
Great Egret was alarmed by us and bolted away grunting in the darkness. Once back in the harbour a
Black-Crowned Night Heron watched us clumsily get out of the boats. Back at the house we planned what exactly we were going to do the next day. We were originally going to drive down Big Sur but the fires there meant we couldn't. We contacted Pete to see if we could fit on the boat he was on and we could!
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| Hudsonian Whimbrel |
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| House Wren (in the fog) |
It was the last full day and we were scheduled a boat trip. We greeted Pete, bought our tickets and got on. On leaving the harbour there was a
Surfbird on the rock armour in amongst the
Sea Lions. We told Pete about our experience with the
Townsend's Warbler and he said it then came onto their boat! As we went out we got straight onto a pod of
Risso's Dolphins. We then went through the
Sooty Shearwaters also seeing some
Pink-Footed but no
Black-Vented. We again also saw both
Phalaropes and lots of
Guillemots (
Common Murres) mainly fathers and chicks. Then on the horizon, whilst watching
Humpbacks, I saw a huge bird. I couldn't believe my eyes I had found an
Albatross, it was a magnificent
Black-Footed Albatross, which for me was the best bird of the trip. It glided effortlessly across the hull of the boat. People started seeing some slightly larger blows on the horizon, we headed that way. They were enormous
Blue Whales. Although they weren't as 'showy' as Humpbacks their sheer size was a sight to behold and, just to top things off, sat with them were four
Black-Footed Albatrosses! On return we found a group of Humpbacks, they were lunge feeding. The sea was red with krill and the
Gulls and
Shearwaters were going mad for it. As we headed in from this already highly successful trip a
Rhinoceros Auklet flew past the boat. After this we spent the afternoon in Carmel. Here we saw
Red-Breasted Nuthatch and a flock of
Yellow-Rumped Warblers as well as a colony of
Brown Pelicans. Not a bad last day!
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| Black-Footed Albatross |
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| Blue Whale |
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| Humpback Whale |
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| Pink-Footed Shearwater |
We had to leave mid-morning. As I walked through the dunes for the last time I was hopeful, this paid off. A pair of
Anna's Hummingbirds were sat in the tree but the very last bird of the entire trip was a
Bewick's Wren. This ensured that I had had at least one lifer every single day!
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| Anna's Hummingbird |
This truly was one of my best trips ever and I highly recommend it to anyone especially birders. It is a place I definitely would love to go to again in the future.
By the end of the holiday the mammal list was as follows- California Sea Lion, Harbour Seal, Harbour Porpoise, Rat, Grey Squirrel, California Ground Squirrel, Bush Tailed Woodrat, Yellow Pine Chipmunk, Douglas's Squirrel, River Otter, Elephant Seal, Thule Elk, White-Tailed Deer, American Red Squirrel, Mexican Free-Tailed Bat, Sea Otter, Little Brown Bat, California Myotis (Bat), Botta's Pocket Gopher, Risso's Dolphin, Humpback Whale, Bottlenose Dolphin and Blue Whale.
By the end of the holiday the bird list looked like this -
Feral Pigeon Great Blue Heron Pelagic Cormorant
House Sparrow Collared Dove Black Turnstone
Raven Starling House Finch
Western Gull Willet Snowy Egret
Brown Pelican Pigeon Guillemot Barn Swallow
Surf Scoter Caspian Tern Marbled Godwit
Brewer's Blackbird Heerman's Gull Elegant Tern
American Crow Black-Crowned Night-Heron Long-Billed Curlew
Great Egret Purple Finch Semipalmated Plover
Double-Crested Cormorant Anna's Hummingbird Turkey Vulture
American Goldfinch Killdeer Cooper's Hawk
Canada Goose Red-Tailed Hawk White-Faced Ibis
Lesser Goldfinch California Gull Brown-Headed Cowbird
Bald Eagle American Kestrel Acorn Woodpecker
Red-Shouldered Hawk Vaux's Swift Oak Titmouse
American Robin Wild Turkey Pacific-Slope Flycatcher
Hairy Woodpecker Steller's Jay Western Scrub-Jay
Belted Kingfisher California Towhee Western Wood-Pewee
Wilson's Warbler Olive-Sided Flycatcher Northern Flicker
Mourning Dove Northern Mockingbird Northern Rough-Winged Swallow
Western Bluebird Red-Winged Blackbird American White Pelican
Sharp-Shinned Hawk Greater Yellowlegs American Avocet
Loggerhead Shrike Black-Necked Stilt Western Sandpiper
Dunlin American Coot Canvasback
Least Sandpiper Northern Harrier White-Tailed Kite
Bushtit Yellow Warbler Golden Eagle
Lesser Yellowlegs Short-Billed Dowitcher Baird's Sandpiper
California Quail Brown Creeper Spotted Towhee
Pacific Diver Western Grebe Townsend's Warbler
Rock Wren Arctic Skua Ring-Billed Gull
Swainson's Hawk Forster's Tern Dark-Eyed Junco
White-Throated Swift Yellow-Rumped Warbler Mountain Chickadee
Western Tanager Red-Breasted Nuthatch Tree Swallow
Pintail Common Tern Great-Northern Diver
Pied-Billed Grebe Spotted Sandpiper Peregrine Falcon
Sooty Shearwater Snowy Plover Grey Plover
Black Scoter Grey Phalarope Black-Necked Grebe
Red-Necked Phalarope Black-Vented Shearwater (Hudsonian) Whimbrel
Pink-Footed Shearwater Western Kingbird (Dark Eyed Junco - Oregon ssp.)
Tricoloured Blackbird Clark's Grebe Green-Winged Teal
Common Yellowthroat Cliff Swallow Solitary Sandpiper
Shoveler Nashville Warbler Cinnamon Teal
Ruddy Duck Blue-Winged Teal Mallard
House Wren Black-Footed Albatross Surfbird
Rhinoceros Auklet Bewick's Wren
