Puerto Peñasco, Mexico - Day 1

Birding buddy, Chris Rohrer, and I had talked many times about making a trip to Puerto Peñasco, Mexico (most generally referred to Rocky Point, Mexico, by most gringos).  This spot is a short 4 hour drive from the Phoenix metro area and is Arizona's closest access to any kind of an ocean beach.  Puerto Peñasco is situated on the northeastern shore of the Sea of Cortez, (also known as the Gulf of California) and is only about a 1 hour drive from the Arizona/Mexico border.  It is a popular tourist spot for Americans wanting to get away for a weekend.  One does not even have to make any conversions of currency as everywhere in this resort will accept the US dollar.  We rented a condo for 3 nights, which was located right on Sandy Beach with an awesome view of the ocean and pretty good access to Choya Bay and downtown Puerto Peñasco. 

Since the first day was our arrival date, we were not going to have a full day of birding, so we were going to venture to to the Malecon or Pier area where the shops were located.  But before we left the condo, we noticed some sparrows foraging on the lawns near the pool of the condo and quickly discovered they were Lincoln's Sparrows.  This is a great sparrow and one of my favorites.  We get them in the winter in Arizona, but usually they like the deep cover of brush piles.  We were surprised by the number, (counted 8 at one time all in the same view on the grass), and of course we had to try for some photos since they seemed a bit less skittish in this surrounding.

 Lincoln's Sparrow

Of course, Chris and I were there to do some birding instead of shopping, so off we went in the search of birds.  As is the case in almost any dock/pier area with people and restaurants, many of the common birds were gulls.  The most common gulls we had were Ring-billed and Heerman's Gulls, but mixed in were a few Yellow-footed Gulls and Western Gulls.  The Yellow-footed is probably the most desired gull to find as it has a fairly limited range and is almost endemic to the coast line of the Sea of Cortez/Gulf of California.  A few do make their way in the summer to the Salton Sea of California, but the habitat issues at the Salton Sea, might lead to fewer sightings in the future.

 Yellow-footed Gull

 Heerman's Gull

 Heerman's Gull - Notice anything missing in this photo?

 Western Gull

Hungry Heerman's Gulls feeding out of my hand.

Naturally Brown Pelicans are to be found just about everywhere one looks.

 Brown Pelicans and gulls

 Brown Pelicans

Eared Grebes abound in the ocean waters and the water is fairly clear allowing for great viewing.

Eared Grebe

Where ever there is water with fish, one can almost always be assured of finding an Osprey or two.  In this location, with very few trees, the Osprey will take advantage of just about any tall object for nest building and the materials used are much more diverse than usual.  They take advantage of anything they can find.  Trees are few and far between as this area is one of the driest spots in Mexico, if not the driest.  

Osprey sitting on nest.

Lots of other interesting things to photograph while exploring the city around the pier area.  While walking around one of the hotels and its restaurant, we found a pair of caged Military Macaws.  Once they knew we were watching them, they became very loud and boisterous, but sure were gorgeous to look at and it appeared they were being taken care of very nicely.

 Military Macaw

Near the cage of the macaws we we found an amusing water fountain which was good for a couple of laughs.

Later back at the condo, while Chris and I were relaxing in the late afternoon, we got to witness some dolphins feeding out in the water and they had attracted several birds that got in on the feeding frenzy.  Photos are not the best as it was out quite a ways from the condo, but fun to see anyway.

What a great beginning to a nice relaxing long weekend!  More to come in 2 more posts.

  

  

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.  

  

A Pelagic Pinnacle

Saturday, May 16th!  The day had arrived for our pelagic trip, Tommy's first and my second with hopes of a better outcome than my first.  This time we went prepared and with a very positive attitude, which has a lot to do with a successful trip.  We applied a medical patch the night before which helps prevent seasickness and also took some ginger tablets to help settle the stomach.  The next morning waking up was a bit weird as we both felt a little dizzy, but contributed that to the medical patch.  We also took a chewable tablet and ate a mild breakfast and headed across the street to sign in and meet up with the fellow passengers.  I forgot about the dizziness and it must have went away, because it never crossed my mind the rest of the day and I did NOT get sick on this trip.  

 

Check-in was from 5:00 to 6:00 am with a departure time of 6:30 and we were going to be travelling on the great vessel the Grande, one of the largest in the fleet.

 

Grande


As we made our way out into the channel and out towards the open water a look back shows where our ship was moored.  And we sailed past some of the huge Naval ships and a submarine all at anchor.  Fascinating vessels to see up close.

 

Almost immediately part of the crew started chumming by using bags of popcorn, a few kernels at a time.  This was to attract the many gulls, mostly Western Gulls, and they in turn would attract other birds closer to our boat. 

 

 

Our trip was to be a full 12 hours on the Pacific with visits to 9 Mile Bank and as far out as 30 Mile Bank.  We even found buoys out in the main channel and many of them had become longing spots for California Sea Lions.  We also had Flying Fish, some whales and a couple of visits from schools of Common Dolphins.

 

 

 

But since birds were the main focus of this trip, we will get started posting some of the bird photos.  I will say that some of these sea birds are on the small side and many do not approach the boat or scurry off when the boat approached and trying to take photos with a camera with a zoom lens is a bit of a challenge as it is hard to get it to zero in on the bird only.  Keep in mind that while the birds are zigzagging every which way, the boat is also constantly moving up and down and sometimes rolling sideways.  Therefore many of my photos of these smaller birds leave a lot to be desired, but most are at least good enough for a proper ID.

 

Black Storm-Petrel

Black Storm-Petrel

 

 Sooty Shearwater

 Pink-footed Shearwater

Pink-footed Shearwater

Pink-footed Shearwater (middle front) & 3 Sooty Shearwater

 

A flock of Shearwaters and a Western Gull

On Friday both Tommy and I got 2 new life birds apiece, and on this pelagic trip I added 2 more life birds while Tommy racked 'em up with 10 new life birds!  One of my new life birds was the Scripps's Murrelet.  Most were quite skittish and one pair had a chick with them which made them even more difficult to approach.  However, I did manage at least one photo of this new life bird.

Scripps's Murrelet

 

After our visit to 30 Mile Bank we started back towards the harbor, but with a bit of a different route that took us into a bit of Los Angeles County and then back to 9 Mile Bank before heading to shore.  While we had seen several cool seafaring birds, we did not strike it rich with one of the much rare specialties.  However, our luck changed once we arrived back at 9 Mile Bank.  We were still chumming and had plenty of Western Gulls to follow us when all of a sudden I noticed a new and very different bird and I knew immediately what it was and one of the guides quickly called it out, Black-footed Albatross!!!!  An albatross was one of Tommy's target birds, so I quickly turned around to see his grin, but he was not there. I scanned the boat and did not see him anywhere.  I went back to the BFAL and tried to get some photos for myself and twice more I turned around to look for him and on the 3rd try, I saw him headed down the side of the boat looking at me wondering what was going on.  I quickly got him on the albatross so he could enjoy this moment.  (Found out later he was in the bathroom and all he heard over the loud speaker was Black ??????? ????????????.  But he knew it was something special because of the excitement.  About an hour later he was able to finish what he started!)

 

Black Footed-Albatross

 Black Footed-Albatross

Black Footed-Albatross

 Black Footed-Albatross

Black Footed-Albatross

 

 Black Footed-Albatross

Black Footed-Albatross

 

The pinnacle had finally been reached in getting a really cool bird and Tommy's first albatross!  And my first photos of one, even though I had seen one once before on my previous pelagic and I was under the weather. 

 

What happened next was even more astonishing!  Within a minute or so of the appearance of the Black-footed Albatross, one of the bird guides yelled out LAYSAN ALBATROSS!!!  Just that quick, this much rarer species for this area came into join the rest of the birds.  This is only the 2nd record of this species in San Diego County, so you know it is pretty special.  And now I had my second life bird of the day and it was a spectacular one.  After the Laysan Albatross arrived and a few moments later a second Black-footed Albatross appeared, giving us a 3 albatross day.

 

 Laysan Albatross

 Laysan Albatross

 Laysan Albatross

 Laysan Albatross

Laysan Albatross

 

Laysan Albatross beating the Western Gulls to a piece of popcorn (in its beak)

 

This was an epic grand finale to our pelagic trip and to celebrate we finished the evening back on land by dining on seafood!

 

After seeing Tommy's blog post on this glorious day, I lost a bit of interest in finishing my post as his was way more informative and interesting and included a bit of video in it.  But I finally persevered and finished it.  We have one more partial day to finish our trip out west, so I will have one more post to complete this3 part series.