Seven New Birds

We left Bodega Bay and birded the convenient coastal turn-offs along Highway One. This part of the coast is referred to as the Pacific Sonoma Coast and extends all the way up to the Oregon border. We saw our first life bird of the day, while it was sitting on the overhead wires along the highway. A group of Ringed Turtle Doves was sitting with several Mourning Doves and Eurasian Collared Doves, both of which we see often at home. The Ringed Turtle Dove is very pale and its white tail is diagnostic.

We continue to be awed by the beauty of the Pacific Ocean with its waves crashing over the large boulders of the northern California coast. On top of one of the rock formations, we saw a faint outline of a bird that was not a gull or Pelican. Once we pulled out the spotting scope, we were delighted to see that it was a Black Oystercatcher, our second life bird of the day. The oystercatcher scampered down the side of a boulder to nibble at tiny creatures in the seaweed next to the sea water. We have seen American Oystercatchers in Florida many times, but Black Oystercatchers are unique to the Pacific coast.

In that same turn-off, in the vegetation, we saw a bird that led to a debate. Berry saw the pink color of its lower breast. Robert noticed the diagnostic black undertail coverts and a black supercillium streak. It turned out to be our third life bird of the day, a Says Phoebe.

We picked up our fourth life bird at another of the coastal turn-offs while driving through a campground. Right before an early morning jogger scared them away, we saw three beautiful California Quail walking out of the underbrush. While we were admiring the teardrop shaped tassel on its head, a jogger with no birding etiquette jogged by and, of course, the quail fled into the woods. We saw them again later in the day.

After stops at several of those really convenient turn-offs, we decided that we needed gasoline and supplies from a grocery store. We turned inland and drove about 12 miles down narrow, wet, winding roads to a Safeway Grocery Store in the woods. We got what we needed and left the store headed to the Austin Creek Natural Area. This is a 600 acre forest of large, ancient Redwoods. These amazing trees were very tall and enormously large in circumference. We walked around the floor of the forest amid the undergrowth of large ferns. We drove to a “pond” at the top of a mountain, only to find that, due to the severe drought in California, the pond was absolutely dry. We probably should have gotten a hint of this type of disappointment when we had earlier walked past the nearby dry creek bed. Everywhere there are drought warnings about using water.

Next to the amazing Redwood forest, there are thousands of hippies, artist types and other people living in rabbit hutch like houses among the Redwood trees. They have spray painted everything. Tie dye t-shirts and peasant skirts abounded. The only road in led carefully between the huge trees and the tiny tree houses with no room to spare. One fellow has a chair lift to get in his house. We can not report any life birds from the Redwood forest, but the cultural side trip to this corner of the forest was well worth it.

On the way to back to the Pacific, we stopped at Cape Fear Cafe for a nice lunch of smoked salmon for Berry and tandoori chicken salad with cranberries, carrots and caper berries for Robert.

We pulled into the Fort Ross Historical State Park around 3pm. We wanted to use it for birds, not the historical presentation. After parking the car, we hiked along the cliffs overseeing the ocean. We found there many of the usual birds we had been seeing all week. There was a boulder with about ten Black Oystercatchers. We saw Double Crested Cormorants and Pelagic Cormorants. One of our favorites is the off season version of the American Goldfinches. We usually see them in their mating feathers. In September we see them in their duller, less distinctive feathers.

We made our way to a small collection of picnic tables. Across the opening there were bushes that had berries on them and bushes that had sweet red flowers on them. We sat down right there and were treated to our final three life birds of the day. The Stellar’s Jay, the Anna’s Hummingbird and the Black Chinned Hummingbird. Wow! Here is a photo of Anna's.

Normally, on vacation, we just start looking for a hotel room and dinner around 5pm, after birding. One hotel owner told us that all the hotel rooms “in the Valley” are booked a year in advance at this time of year. Again, to emphasize. All hotel rooms up and down the coast were full. All of Napa Valley was celebrating its harvest of grapes. We were forced to drive inland about 50 miles to find a room. Fifty miles does not seem like a lot, however, when the roads along the side of mountains contained dangerous hairpin turns and S curves cutting back every few yards in the pitch black darkness, traveling just 50 miles and dodging herds of mule eared deer grazing in the darkness takes about 2 hours.

We scarfed a Mexican dinner in a city called Boonville, and finally, snagged the last hotel room in Ukiah.

Robert and Berry

photos courtesy of wikipedia