Just back from our (non birding) California Road Trip. Our route took us from Los Angeles to Morro Bay, Carmel by the Sea, Yosemite, across to San Francisco and finally, 60 miles north to Napa before flying home from San Francisco. The weather throughout was good with no rain at all. San Francisco and Carmel seem to have their own micro climates with a day or so in each that were cool and cloudy. Otherwise it was fine and sunny, ranging from warm to very hot, especially in Yosemite. On our journey from Yosemite to San Francisco, the thermometer peaked at 100 degrees f.
We were with a non birding couple, so it was a question of birding a half hour here and an hour there whenever possible. An ongoing health problem causing fatigue put paid to any pre breakfast walks so most of my birding was done mid day. Morning lies in together with a kip late afternoon were the order of the day. Good if you like your sleep but not good if you are a keen birder!
Areas birded :-
- San Francisco from the hop on, hop off bus - Morro Bay, beautiful estuary type scenery, would have liked to have spent more time here - Nepenthe Restaurant viewing terrace, Big Sur - Garland Ranch, roughly eight miles in to the Carmel Valley - Carmel River Mouth and shore - Moss Landing Harbor. Cracking area adjacent to Elkhorn Slough a reserve I could have really got my teeth into given different circumstances - Wawona Meadow walk, southern section of Yosemite - San Francisco Bay to Alcatraz Island via boat - Timberhill Park on the western edges of Napa - JF Kennedy Park, Napa
On the whole, a great trip even if the birding was limited. The trip list finished at 89 with around 25 being additions to my US list and 22 being lifers.
Trip List :-
Canada Goose Mute Swan Gadwall Mallard Surf Scoter Pied billed Grebe Western Grebe Brandt's Cormorant Pelagic Cormorant Double-crested Cormorant American White Pelican Brown Pelican Great Blue Heron Great Egret Snowy Egret Black-crowned Night Heron Turkey Vulture Osprey White-tailed Kite Red-shouldered Hawk Red-tailed Hawk Black-necked Stilt Snowy Plover Killdeer Long-billed Curlew Marbled Godwit Common Murre Pigeon Guillemot Heermann's Gull Western Gull California Gull Caspian Tern Forster's Tern Black Skimmer Rock Pigeon Band-tailed Pigeon Eurasian Collared Dove Mourning Dove Vaux's Swift White-throated Swift Anna's Hummingbird Allen's Hummingbird Acorn Woodpecker Red-breasted Sapsucker Pileated Woodpecker American Kestrel Prairie Falcon Red-masked Parakeet Western Wood-Pewee Pacific-slope Flycatcher Black Phoebe Loggerhead Shrike Warbling Vireo Steller's Jay California Scrub-Jay American Crow Common Raven Northern Rough-winged Swallow Tree Swallow Violet-green Swallow Bank Swallow Barn Swallow Cliff Swallow Chestnut-backed Chickadee Oak Titmouse Bushtit Red-breasted Nuthatch Brown Creeper Marsh Wren Western Bluebird American Robin Northern Mockingbird European Starling Yellow Warbler Black-throated Grey Warbler Grasshopper Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco White-crowned Sparrow Savannah Sparrow Song Sparrow Spotted Towhee Black-headed Grosbeak Lazuli Bunting Red-winged Blackbird Brown-headed Cowbird Brewer's Blackbird House Finch Purple Finch House Sparrow
A few bridge camera photos attached showing California Scrub-Jay, Steller's Jay, Red-masked Parakeet, Western Gull, Pigeon Guillemot, American Robin, Red-winged Blackbird, Western Bluebird and Marsh Wren.
The Monterey Peninsula (south of San Francisco) is a must. In the Monterey area, have a look at Moss Landing, Elkhorn Slough, Moonglow Dairy Ponds and the ponds at Zmudlowski Beach.
Carmel Valley is only a few miles south of Monterey itself. The best bits here are from Carmel Rivermouth right up to Chew's Ridge. I have done a bit of research into Carmel (the town) and it looks a really nice place to stay and where you could certainly make your base for a few days.
Down the coast from Carmel is Big Sur State Park and also Pfeiffer State Park, both worth a look. However, I am told there has been a landslide on this section of the Pacific Highway. Hopefully, any road problems will have been rectified by the time you travel.
Regarding the Pelagics from Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey, the seabirds are just about the best anywhere in the US. They should also be good for several species of Whale and Dolphin. If you have a look at my Alaska trip report within this section, the second part of that trip (a cruise) was from Vancouver down to San Diego. We were around 25-50 miles off the California coast and we saw stuff like South Polar Skua, Phalaropes, Black-footed Albatross, Buller's Shearwater, Black-vented Shearwater, Sooty Shearwater, Fork-tailed Storm Petrel and a good variety of Gulls. Bearing in mind we were on a cruise liner steaming through at 22 knots or whatever, the mind boggles at the birds a pelagic would turn up.
Regarding field guides, the Sibley ones are just about the best for the US. A mate of mine who has recently moved to Colombia from Florida, after living in the US for around 25 years, recommended them. Essentially, there are three. One for the west, one for the east and one for the whole of a North America. A word of warning, the latter is quite heavy, although it's the one I bought for a birding trip to Texas in 2015, partly because there was some range overlap in western Texas, where we were.
I am hoping to go on a family road trip type holiday to California next spring, with a bit of birding here and there. Not sure if you go on the website ebird.org but it's quite useful for current/past sightings and hotspot areas, with hundreds of trip lists for hundreds of birding sites. I am planning on doing some birding in the Monterey area (Big Sur and Carmel Valley) and there are also one or two pelagics that run out of Monterey. In that regard, September should be ideal. I also plan to visit Yosemite and have been using ebird to see what is generally seen within the park. Other than that, I'll be asking my mate for ideas nearer the time and meanwhile looking at trip reports from the birding tour companies that are easy enough to peruse on the net.
I'm heading to California for a fortnight in September and wondering if anybody can recommend me a decent field guide to buy? And if anyone has been themselves, tips on must-visit locations would be greatly appreciated.
