22 Nov 14 - California: The Final Morning

Having returned to the Californian mainland after seeing Island Scrub Jay, I had a final morning of Birding before having to head off to Los Angeles airport for my flight home. The options were to have another morning around the Ventura coastline, try somewhere nearby or try for Mountain Plover. I decided to have a look for Mountain Plover, but didn't know if they would have arrived in their Californian winter sites yet. In the end, I decided to head off to the Davis Road leading North from the town of Lakeview in the hope of seeing my first Mountain Plovers. This left me with a journey of around two hours to drive back to Los Angeles airport, when I finished Birding. Despite a late arrival at a random motel in San Jacinto, I was up in the cold pre-dawn temperatures to head off & find some early morning breakfast, so I could maximise the morning's Birding.

View along the Davis Road: This is a relatively quiet, but well known, dirt road referenced in an old Lane guide

View along the Davis Road: The Birding is checking the fields & rough ground alongside the dirt road as there are many signs up indicating the land is private

View along the Davis Road: The road also overlooked some farms

There was a selection of Raptors feeding around the more open fields at the Southern end of the Davis Road where the Mountain Plovers winter.

Northern Harrier: Female after a successful hunt

Northern Harrier: Female

Red-shouldered Hawk: It's a pity that this is a harsh crop as it wasn't close

American Kestrel

Black Phoebe: A common species in the Southern US states & many Latin American countries

Mountain Bluebird

Northern Mockingbird

Western Meadowlark

Along the road there was also the San Jacinto Wildlife Area which the Lane guide says is a Birders paradise & where the naturalist may be able to provide up to date information on Mountain Plovers. What it didn't say, but possibly due to me using a mid 90s edition, is it is now a shooting range with hunters trying to stay hidden, by standing in the open in full camo gear. Now I know there is at least one local Poole photographer who knows he can't be seen when he does that in Poole Harbour, so these hunters obviously thought it worked for them as well. Even several hundred metres away it was possible to hear their Duck whistles as they tried to lure Wildfowl to land in front of them, after they had been flushed from one of the many hunters around this small wetland. Unfortunately, this seemed to be the only wetland for some miles & so the Wildfowl didn't have a lot of options, other than to fly out of the area to look for a new sanctuary. Having had no joy with finding any Mountain Plovers, I did try driving into the car park to see if anybody knew about Mountain Plovers. When I managed to get a word in between the main organiser's joy at photographing another hunter with some dead Ducks, it turned out nobody knew anything about Mountain Plovers. The only good news was perhaps that was because they aren't allowed to shoot them. I maintained a check on my bad language on these activities until I was safely driving off the site with the car windows up. With all the other pressures on wildlife these days, having people doing their best to direct wildlife into small remaining areas of habitat, just so mindless idiots can kill them for fun is just crazy.

The San Jacinto Wildlife Area: Now just a sanctuary for people who like to kill wildlife for fun

I can't see anybody in this photo thanks to the magic of camo clothing

Having failed to find any Mountain Plovers in the wintering fields & been unable to get any up to date information, I abandoned the search & drove North for a few more miles along the dirt Davis Road. This road was good for a flocks of New World Sparrows. There were at least two hundred Savannah Sparrows in scattered flocks, with reasonable numbers of White-crowned Sparrows with them. I tried to find something more interesting in with the flocks, but didn't succeed.

California Towhee

Savannah Sparrow

Savannah Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

Song Sparrow

California Ground Squirrel: It was good to see something that wasn't a New World Sparrow

California Ground Squirrel

The final stop was a quick look at Lake Perris, a large freshwater reservoir a few miles West of the Davis Road. It proved to be a large reservoir with little vegetation around the edges. I didn't see a lot here due to the lack of decent habitat on the reservoir & limited time. All too quickly I had to head for the two hour drive to the airport.

Killdeer: This was the highlight of the quick visit

While I didn't manage to find any Mountain Plovers, the morning's Birding had been enjoyable with a reasonable selection of wintering species seen. It was a shame that I ended up having to grab some quick photos & immediately move on, rather than try & get something more presentable. However, time was not on my side on this occasion & I was keen to cover as much ground as I could in the available time.

20 Nov 14 - Coastal California

On the way home from the Pitcairn & French Polynesia trip, I decided I might as well have a couple of days Birding in California rather than race home. I've visited California twice in the past. The first trip was in Nov 1995 when I had nearly three weeks to travel around the state which included a half day over the border into Oregon state. The second visit was a day stop over at the end of my second trip to Mexico in Mar 02. On these trips, I had managed to see a good selection of the late autumn & winter species. However, there were a few species I missed that I was keen to have another look for. One species was Grey Whale, but again I was visiting too early for their Southerly migration. Another option was to look for Island Scrub Jay. The isolated population of Scrub Jay that occurred on the Californian Channel Islands wasn't split on either visit & hence I didn't consider trying to fit a visit to the Channel Islands into my tight itineraries. The alternative options were to look for California Condor or to revisit Monterey Bay in the hope of some Seabirds or Cetaceans. After looking at options, I decided to limit the driving to the Channel Islands & then try & fit some general Birding in around that option. It was early afternoon before I cleared customs, picked up the hired car & was leaving from Los Angeles airport on my two day trip. The plan was to find a hotel in Ventura & stop at suitable spots along the coastal highway. The first interesting looking stop was at Hobson Beach Park. This is a small stretch of coastline next to the coastal highway with a couple of car parks next to a few houses. It didn't look that special, but it was a good place to break the journey for thirty minutes. The tide was out & there were a few species to photograph on the beach.

Grey Plover: Good to start with a familiar face on a foreign shoreline

Whimbrel: This is the hudsonicus subspecies also known as Hudsonian Whimbrel

Whimbrel

Marbled Godwit: This is the beringiae subspecies which winters on the Pacific coast of the US

Sanderling: Another familiar face from home

Sanderling

Ring-billed Gull: Adult

California Ground Squirrel

California Ground Squirrel

The next stop was Andree Clark Bird Refuge which is a small lake in an urban part of Santa Barbara. This was a small lake with a narrow scrubby edge.

The Andree Clark Bird Refuge

A view of the lake at the Andree Clark Bird Refuge

Shoveler

American Coot

Least Sandpiper

Heermann's Gull: A really cracking Gull

Anna's Hummingbird: This common local resident looks quite dull at this angle

Anna's Hummingbird: Turning its head & suddenly the reflected light makes the facial mask a lot brighter

Anna's Hummingbird: Another turn of the head & the forehead starts to glow

Say's Phoebe

California Towhee

California Towhee

House Finch: Male

House Finch: Female

There was still another couple of hours before it got dark, so I headed on for the Santa Barbara coastline to find a few viewpoints over the ocean.

Brown Pelican

American Herring Gull: Adult. This is the smithsonianus subspecies which is also known as American Herring Gull which Clements still regards as a subspecies of Herring Gull

Western Gull: Adult

Sunset: For the second night there was a cracking sunset: It was time to go looking for a motel & some food as I had an early start the following morning & I hadn't slept well on the plane