I just got back from leading a six-day birding trip across Central California. We hit San Francisco, Pt. Reyes, Livermore, Sierra Foothills, Monterey and Big Sur. We had 149 species before six of our birders took the extension pelagic trip with Debbie Shearwater out of Monterey Harbor.
Biggest bird, of course, was a pair of California Condors about sixty feet overhead. They turned out to be father and son. Each free-flying condor carries a wing number.
Some other highlights included such California specialties as Oak Titmouse, Nuttall’s Woodpecker, the endemic Yellow-billed Magpie,
California Thrasher on Mines Road south of Livermore, Townsend’s Warbler (a wintering species), Tricolored Blackbird on Pt. Reyes Peninsula and California Towhee.
Uncommon migrants included 2 Harlequins at Pt. Reyes, a Pectoral Sandpiper at Asilomar State Beach in Pacific Grove and a Chestnut-sided Warbler at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park.
Birds that are generally not found east of the Sierra Nevada included: White-headed Woodpecker, Hermit Warbler, Sooty Shearwater, Black Turnstone, Surfbird, Black Oystercatcher, Heermann’s Gull.
Other birds of limited range included Elegant Tern, Marbled Godwit and Snowy Plover.
We saw hundreds of Red-necked Phalarope:
Altogether we had two dozen shorebird species on this trip.
Posts Tagged ‘Harlequin’
CALIFORNIA BIRDING
September 16, 2012SEABIRDS IN THE RAIN FOREST, GALLERY PART 2
October 26, 2010More pictures from the birders on our 2010 winter trips to the Pacific Northwest. HERE YOU CAN FIND OUT ABOUT OUR TRIP IN 2011.
PHOTOS, TOP TO BOTTOM:
Brant loafing along the shore of Hood Canal, Washington State. Photo by Steve Murray.
Male White-winged Scoter, Hood Canal. By Steve Murray.
Harlequin couple on the rocks along Hood Canal. Photo by Jeannie Mitchell.
Male Olds… Long-tailed Duck cruising the yacht harbor at Sequim, Washington. Photo by Ms Mitchell.
A Glaucous-winged Gull struggles to get up enough speed to show its disapprobation of an adult Bald Eagle. The eagle seemed to be carrying a Coot in its talons. This action shot by Ms Jeannie Mitchell.
Red-tailed Hawk dining on fresh rodent, Sauvie’s Island, Oregon. Photo by Ms Mitchell.
Trumpeter Swans in flight, Sauvie’s Island, Oregon. Photo by Ms Mitchell.
Whidbey Island beach, photo by Jennifer Hyypio. Here we saw a large flock of Black Oystercatchers. A flotilla of Harlequins, several species of loon and grebe fished offshore and a Pacific (nee “Winter’) Wren came down to insect-hunt in the driftwood.
SEABIRDS IN THE RAIN FOREST
October 26, 2010The continental United States has only one rain forest. It stretches along the spectacular Oregon and Washington State coastline. The evergreens reach two hundred feet into the skies, often disappearing in the low-lying clouds. The Pacific and Puget Sound shoulder up to a rocky coastline with scattered bits of sandy beach. The cold, wave-churned waters are rich in critters from plankton to Orcas. And here the seabirds pull out onto huge floating logs carried down from the forest just uphill from the water’s edge.
Last year PIB had two winter birding trips to the Northwest Coast for those wintering birds down from the Arctic. Here are a few of the photos taken by birders on those trips. Take a look, because we are once again offering this great photo safari into the great American Northwest:
TOP TO BOTTOM:
Northern Shrike at Nisqually NWR, Washington. Photo by Ms Jennifer Hyypio.
Harlequins off the shore of Whidbey Island. Photo by Steve Murray.
Pelagic Cormorant and Glaucous-winged Gull pole sitting. Photo by Ms J. Hyypio.
Gang of Bald Eagles patrolling the edge of a marsh at Nisqually. Photo by Ms Hyypio.
Red-throated Loon in Hood Canal. By Mr. Murray.
Rhino Auklet over Puget Sound. By Steve Murray.
Surfbird along Oregon Coast. You’ll wait a long time before this species shows up in Colorado. Photo by Steve Murray.
Still More of Murray’s Marvey Images
March 21, 2010
Black-bellied Plover on lawn, Whidbey Island.
All thee Pacific coastal cormorants on the dock next to Keystone Ferry Terminal, Whidbey Island. The lone Brandt’s Cormorant is third from the right. That species has become hard to find in lower 48 because of El Nino and the lack of upwelling and thus fish along the coast. On a recent visit to San Francisco I saw ZERO Brandt’s though they traditionally cover the sides of Seal Rocks.
Three Harlequins, male on the right. Off the beach at Whidbey Island, WA.
This bird needs no introduction, no caption.
Glaucous-winged Gull feeding at Sequim.
Surfbird on the rocks, Seaside, Oregon.
Olympic Birding, My Last Pics
February 20, 2010
Ferryboat approaches Port Townsend ferry dock. The water really is that blue.
This lone Sanderling was acting like a “rockpiper” on the boulders at Point Wilson Lighthouse. From this location we found dozens of Pigeon Guillemot, a dense float of about three dozen Rhino Auklets, saw pairs of Marbled Murrelets and one tiny Cassin’s Auklet.
Dozens of Pintails were grazing in the tall grasses near the Keystone Ferry Terminal on Whidbey Island. There were also Marsh Wren, Harrier, Bald Eagles and another handful of duck species there.
Left: Kingfisher on pole at Keystone Ferry Terminal. The right hand Kingfisher was along the beach at Fort Ebey State Park on Whidbey Island.
House Finch at Audubon Center, Sequim, WA.
Black-capped Chickadee at Audubon Center feeder, Sequim. The center is located in Railroad Bridge Park on the Dungeness River. Good riparian habitat for birding. The bird in the logo of the local Audubon Society? Male Harlequin’s head.
Here’s website for the Dungeness River Audubon Center.
Here’s website for the Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society, complete with their Harlequin head logo.
Bryan Arnold’s Photos From Northwest Birding Trip
January 29, 2010You can see them here. A couple examples.
Top to bottom: Sandhill Cranes in flight over Sauvie Island, OR.
Harlequin pair at Hama Hama, WA.
Puget Sound sundown, from Deception Pass, WA.
Pictures From Puget Sound
January 29, 2010Here are some fine pictures by Tom Bush, one of the PIB expedition members on the Northwest birding trip. We expect to do another trip in 2011. The next group to go will gather in Portland next week.
There could not be a more emblematic bird for our trip than the Harlequin. This delicately marked duck goes from breeding on crashing streams to wintering on cold, open water. Here’s a pair of males cruising off Whidbey Island.
Here’s a pair on the rugged shore at Hama Hama on the Hood Canal.
Here’s that same pair, now alerted to our staring gaze.
Top to bottom:
Barrow’s Goldeneye male on Hood Canal at Potlatch State Park.
Common Goldeneye male practices for the spring displaying competition.
Truly a golden eye.
Black Oystercatcher feeding on the beach at Sequim yacht harbor.
Young Bald Eagle at Nisqually NWR. We probably saw four dozen different Bald Eagles on this trip. Sightings included a copulating pair at Railroad Bridge Park in Sequim. Tow different eagles with ducks at Whidbey Island. Most amazing was a young eagle catching, then losing, a Cackling Goose on a lake on Sauvie Island. That action attracted three other Bald Eagles and not even the mature individual could re-capture the goose which actually dove to escape capture.
Trumpeters at Sequim.
Song Sparrow, Nisqually.
Hood Canal Beauties
January 26, 2010
ONe of the Barrow’s Goldeneyes we saw today. One on the right is making his courtship moves. “How smooth am I?” he mutters in Barrowese.
Harlequin pair we found near the Hama Hama Estuary. There we also found some great smoked oysters.
Long-tailed Duck female at the Sequim marina.
Partnership for International Birding 