The Water Birds of Oregon

I have saved all the water-related birds for the last blog post.  After all, my last lifer on this trip was a water bird, the Mew Gull.  And we got it on the last day before our flights carried us back to the sunshine of Arizona.  And, par for the course, Chris and I had to deal with the rain to find it.  They are fairly common, but trying to locate one in the rain with binoculars getting wet, proved to be a challenge.  So we just stood on the shoreline of the Columbia River at Broughton Beach and started taking photos of a lot of gulls that were traveling upstream in the rain.  

Mew Gull

Gulls are not my forte in the birding world and not one that I would chase a lot.  There are a couple of species that would definitely get my interest to chase, but doubt if either will show up in Arizona.  We were challenged with the identification of the various gulls in Oregon.  Gulls are notorious for hybridizing and we quickly found out that some of the hybrids in this area are quite common.  So we had to approach the gull identification process with caution.  We did have other gulls that were not hybrids and one of them was the Glaucous-winged Gull.  This was not a lifer for me, but it was the first time I got to see one in adult plumage.  My previous sighting was a juvenile in Arizona several years ago.

Glaucous-winged Gull

Below are a few photos of some of the other water birds we observed during our stay.  Some I have seen in Arizona in the past, and some I have not.  But always fun to see and observe some of these species that I do not see as often.  

Horned Grebe

Common Murre

Common Murre

Surf Scoter - Male

White-winged Scoter

Black Oystercatcher

Black Turnstone

Belted Kingfisher

Belted Kingfisher

Golden-crowned Sparrow

Was also pleased to see a few other unusual flora and fauna.  My first ever sighting of a Vole.  I know they are a common rodent and are frequently seen as part of the diet of many raptors including owls. 

My first ever photo of a Vole

Western Skunk Cabbage was a new and interesting plant that we found.  Had heard of it before, but never knew much about it until now.  It is sightings like this that are fascinating as I read up on things like this and understand more about our natural world.

Western Skunk Cabbage

These last 2 photos are of a spider species that was fairly common clambering around on the snow in the vicinity of where we had the gorgeous male Spruce Grouse.  I have no idea what species it might be, but I had never seen a spider on snow before and seeing several of them leaves me in awe of what else is out there yet to be discovered.

  

Spider in the snow!

I returned to Arizona with 9 more new life birds so it was a great trip with some really awesome birds.  If anyone is planning a trip to the Pacific Northwest and have some of these birds on your wish list, I highly recommend contacting Khanh Tran.  He knows his birds well and not only knows where to find many of them, but also how to find them and what time of the year is best to observe them.  

San Diego: The Quest For a Tattler

In preparing for this trip to San Diego, I had gone through a lot of lists and reports to see what new birds I could possibly find in San Diego.  Surprisingly, the list was relatively small.  Only 2 life birds stood out for me, without taking a pelagic trip for sea birds out on the ocean, the Wandering Tattler and the Scaly-breasted Munia.  Most of the other species in southern California were either birds that could also be found in Arizona, or birds that I had already found on a few previous trips to the area.  Prime target was Wandering Tattler.  After perusing the many eBird reports on this bird for the month of January, it appeared that it was most frequently encountered around the La Jolla Cove area on the coastline.  I decided that this would be my first stop to see if one might be hanging out in this area. Thanks to all the new smart technology and the use of my iPhone, I was able to locate this place in a reasonable amount of time.  What a view this was from the parking along the street high above the ocean waves crashing on the rocks below.  It was early morning and the cliffs were covered with cormorants; Brandt's, Pelagic, and a couple of Double-crested in the mix.  A few Brown Pelicans dotted the rocks as well.  But what quickly caught my attention was a Brown Booby on the cliffs with all the cormorants. Not a bird that I see that often and fairly close.

 Brown Booby

 Brandt's Cormorant

Brown Pelican

I decided to walk the entire coast road and along the way, I had the pleasure of seeing some California Sea Lions and at the far end, some Harbor Seals.  Both species had pups and they were pretty darned cute if you ask me.  And for those that are interested, sea lions have small visible ear flaps, whereas seals do not have visible ear flaps

 California Sea Lion & Pup

 Harbor Seal & Pup

Harbor Seal

Just as I reached the end of the walk, I noticed a different bird on a large boulder along the shore and once I got my binoculars on it, then I knew that I had struck gold; Wandering Tattler!  Sandpipers can sometimes be notoriously difficult to identify, but knowing behavior of many birds can most assuredly help in the ID process.  The Wandering Tattler has a behavior of bobbing and teetering as it walks or stand still.  This behavior is also seen in Spotted Sandpipers, but these 2 birds are vastly different in appearance, so it would be difficult to get them confused.

 Wandering Tattler

Also along this area I was able to find and photograph a Black Turnstone, a Royal Tern, and a Western Gull.

 Black Turnstone

Royal Tern

Western Gull

Mission accomplished for my number 1 target bird and I still had a lot of time left in the day.  My next plan was to visit Tijuana Slough, which is a place I had visited in May of last year and I liked it so well, I wanted to go again.  But along the way, I decided to make a slight detour off the freeway and visit Tecolote Canyon Natural Park.  Reports of the Scaly-breasted Munia had been sketchy on eBird up to this point, but this spot seemed to be the most likely possibility.  I pulled into the lot, parked my car and got out to hear an American Crow calling and then heard something unfamiliar to me on the north side of the parking lot, and lo and behold, there was the Scaly-breasted Munia!   That just seemed too easy, but then I remember so many of the times I have dipped on birds, so I guess I was due for a bit of good luck!

 Scaly-breasted Munia

Scaly-breasted Muni

But since I was there, I decided to hike a ways up the canyon to see what else I could find.  Got some decent looks at Bushtits, California Towhee, and California Thrasher.

 Bushtit

 California Towhee

California Thrasher

I then made my way to Tijuana Slough, and while there, my zoom lens on my camera quite working.  I was left without a workable zoom lens for the rest of Saturday and all day on Sunday, so photos became a bit tougher.  Nevertheless, on Sunday I headed out to the area of the San Diego Harbor area.  I was looking for another bird that I had only seen once before in Rocky Point, Mexico, and at quite a distance.  This time I was hoping to see a Brant a little closer and also add it to my USA list.  I not only saw it, but I saw over 100 of them!  Without a zoom lens, I still had an issue with photos, but did the best I could with my regular lens.

Brant

Also, quite plentiful, were Surf Scoters, which is a bird we see occasionally in Arizona in the winter, most generally females.  But this time, I got to see the males and they are outstanding!

 Surf Scoters

One last stop on Sunday, gave me a view of a new reptile for me; a San Diego Alligator Lizard.  What a cool looking reptile, very long at probably about 14" from snout to tail and such tiny legs.

The trip was most definitely worthwhile and I got my 2 new life birds that I had targeted plus so much more.  

  

California: Coastal Birding Continued

To continue with my first day of birding in the coastal areas south of Half Moon Bay in California, we had our lunch break at Pescadero Beach. My lunch did not last long as I could not wait to get to the beach to start taking photos and observing birds.  The Black Oystercatcher was a new bird for me.  I have seen and photographed American Oystercatchers in Puerto Penasco, Mexico, but in this location we found numerous Black Oystercatchers.  On this beach, 3 of them paid a visit to us and one of them even took the time to bathe in the surf on the beach.  Definitely not a bird to get confused with an identification.

 Black Oystercatcher

Black Oystercatcher

A Western Gull was leisurely swimming in the shallow surf just a short distance off shore and was quite content.  Many of the other gulls were perched on some rock islands a short distance off shore or flying overhead.  This one made a nice photo op with the deep blue color of the water as a background.  A Heerman's Gull also paid a visit on the beach which is one of the easier gulls to identify.

Western Gull

Heerman's Gull

Other birds that paid a visit to this section of the beach were a pair of Sanderlings.  This is a fairly common bird on most sand beaches and are best known for their behavior of running back and forth with the waves as they come ashore.  

Sanderling

We were also visited by 2 Black-bellied Plovers and 6 Black Turnstones.   The Black Turnstones were another new bird for me.  Don't know why the group was travelling together, but it made for interesting comparisons on the size difference of these 2 species.

 2 Black-bellied Plover and 6 Black Turnstone

 2 Black-bellied Plover and 1 Black Turnstone

Black Turnstone

The biggest surprise and totally unexpected was a Harlequin Duck.  This is a species that has its southern most winter range in this area.  It would be expected much further north, so this species was quite exciting to find.  While it spent most of its time on a rock island a ways off shore, it eventually took to the water and did manage to get a bit closer than the first viewing.

 Harlequin Duck

Harlequin Duck

Also seen on the rocky island were the cormorants; the Pelagic Cormorant and Brandt's Cormorant.  Since both of these birds were new to me, it was really nice to see both species together on the island which helped to distinguish the differences in the two species.

 Pelagic Cormorant

Brandt's Cormorant

And to top it off, a nice group of Harbor Seals were sunning themselves on part of the rocky island.

Harbor Seals

This was definitely a worthwhile stop as many new birds were seen and photographed.