Hacking My Way Through The Field Season

I'm over halfway through my field season...time flies! The Global Birder Ranking System awarded me many points when I Haynored this female Lark Bunting through a dirty truck window at Christy Ranch last month. Not only a very rare spring bird anywhere in California, it is the first one ever recorded on Santa Cruz Island! This one is especially white and neatly-marked.

This Yellow-headed Blackbird (immature male?) was around for a few days as well. In fact, I got to put it on my meat list. I realize some of you think that I'm making me dumb Farrallon joke, but the original definition of this phrase (which came into existence years before) is far more perverse...I will enlighten you all soon.

I crushed this Rock Wren back in March, but I visited its territory again recently for another round. I think it likes the attention. I wonder what singing birds think when they attract a large half-asian birder instead of a female.

California Quail are introduced on Santa Cruz Island, but they don't seem out of place. A couple feather piles I've found make me think the foxes don't mind them being there either. My inner biologist tells me to shun them, but I like them anyway.

It seems I've never posted a Pacific-slope Flycatcher before. I practically melted my camera firing off shots of this confiding individual at the Scorpion Ranch visitor center. No one will ever call this bird a facemelter, but it's hard not to like them.

This is a nesting colony of Brandt's Cormorants, one of the things I'm paid to look at. By the time I get back out there practically ever Brandt's Cormorant nest will have hatched eggs, and some will have large chicks. The nests I'm monitoring seem to be doing pretty good, but we'll see how many chicks get fledged.

One of the views at Christy Ranch, one of my temporary homes for the summer. Not bad, eh?

Gratuitous Island Fox cuteness.

They seem to constantly be squinting. Maybe their allergies are as bad as mine.

A young Barn Swallow keels over and dies. The end of days are upon us. When the swallows fall from the skies, we can expect the skies to be falling right behind them. Repent! Repent for all your misidentifications! Repent for the times you nerdily tried to one-up another birder in conversation!

Who said that? This bird is just sunbathing.

The "jay crew" reports that Island Scrub-Jays are having a terrible year. Very few young are fledging, and they are finding some birds far from where they are expected (these birds are not prone to wandering). I haven't seen any juveniles at all yet. This can probably be directly or indirectly attributed to the drought, but its hard to say whats giving them problems for sure.

I'm really hoping the drought breaks next winter. Everything needs the water...of course, this is all just going to get worse as the years go by...life is pain, unless you are looking at an Island Scrub-Jay lifting its skirt.

I have seen this Zombie Spotted Towhee a number of times. I don't know what's going on with it; the other side of its face looks even worse, with a lot more blue-gray skin...as close to an actual Terminator a Spotted Towhee can get. Luckily for us, this bird only terminates seeds and insects.

Island Bound

This is it bird fiends. Perpetual Weekend Y2K12-Y2K13 has finally slipped beneath the waves of my actual career. Today I go out to Santa Cruz Island for five days of training, orientation and getting familiar with field sites. Black Oystercatcher is one of the species we will be monitoring if we are lucky enough to actually find some nests. Photographed at Miller-Knox Regional Shoreline, Richmond, CA.

Brandt's Cormorants will be occupying a lot of our time, as they make up a significant portion of the breeding seabirds there. Photographed in Monterey, CA.

One thing I am looking forward to is counting and identifying foraging seabirds...this is something I do for fun, but now it will be for Science! I'm sure some Surf Scoters will be around while it is still early spring. Photographed at Miller-Knox Regional Shoreline.

I expect Pomarine Jaegers to make a decent showing as well.  Distant jaeger identification is something I would like to be better at, so these long seawatches should provide great opportunities for hardcore jaeger-gazing. Photographed offshore from Monterey, CA.

Parasitic Jaegers will no doubt be around as well. I'm really looking forward to commuting to and from the island (by boat, obvi) for seabirding opportunities. It's all over the continental shelf but the channel can be birdy sometimes. Photographed in Half Moon Bay, CA.

This is one of the long-staying hybrid American X Black Oystercatchers at the Ventura Harbor, where I'll be getting on the boat. These birds are relentlessly misidentified as American Oystercatchers by various birders. Note the heavily black uppertail, which is one of the best marks that show off its hybrid vigor.

Later nerds!

Another Half Moon Bay Pelagic

Nothing cuts a profile like a Black-footed Albatross. Albatross are good luck to the ancient mariner and dedicated seabirder alike.

In early October I got a surprise invitation to go on a Shearwater Journeys boat out of Half Moon Bay, CA, which I gladly accepted. This was my third and final boat trip of the year (a November trip got cancelled due to weather) that started out slow, but got a lot more interesting as we approached the Farrallon Islands. No gannet detour was made (bummer), but it was a good day even without the celebrity sulid. No real rarities, but lifer Leatherback Sea Turtle, hundreds of Buller's Shearwaters and hearing a Marbled Murrelet call for the first time in years were definite highlights. If I am free next fall (which is usually the case), I hope to make it on a lot more bird boats.

Here's the first batch of photos, more to come.

Double-crested Cormorants, Brown Pelican, Brandt's Cormorant. These are some of the most noticeable harbor-loving birds on the California coast. Note the lefthand cormorant, which is sporting a white gular fringe in the style of a Neotropic Cormorant.

Brandt's Cormorant. Their eyes stand out like sore thumbs...beautiful, emerald blue sore thumbs.

Marbled Murrelets are dependable on boat trips out of Half Moon Bay. There are usually a couple pairs on the water just south of the harbor, and on this day I watched a (calling!) bird fly into Pillar Point Harbor as well.

Like storm-petrels, Marbled Murrelets aren't big fans of big boats, and being Endangered, we don't get too close to them on the water.

A Black-footed albatross buzzes a little shearwater flock. Rafting behind it are Pink-footed and Buller's Shearwaters, and a Heerman's Gull doing its best Flesh-footed Shearwater impression. Considering their penchant for impersonating jaegers, Heerman's Gulls are really versatile birds.

After the albatross cruised by, a small parade of Pacific White-sided Dolphins made a pass by the shearwaters.

Pacific White-sided Dolphins are easy to identify, with their strongly curved dorsal fins and lack of the typical dolphin snout. They look more like porpoises.

Pacific white-sided Dolphins are one of the more animated cetaceans found in California waters. Like most dolphins, they really like being dolphins.

Buller's Shearwater (year bird). I finally managed to get some shots with their signature back pattern. On my previous pelagic trip out of Monterey Bay, we saw about 4. On this day, we saw hundreds! Whole flocks of them! That will dilate the pupils any day.

It's been a warm water year off of California, with big numbers of Black-vented Shearwaters making it all the way up to northern California for much of the fall. This isn't a bird to expect this far north most years. 

Pacific Loons are not hard to see from shore, but its pretty rare to get very close to them. Boats off California encounter many in late fall and winter. Note the good posture on this bird, Red-throated Loons slouch their necks. Lazy bastards.

A Tufted Puffin (year bird) in its infrequently-seen basic plumage. This one still sports a big orange bill, but has dropped its tufts and white facial patch. From a distance, it reminded me of a male Surf Scoter.

Trinidade Petrel All The Way Across The Sky

Common Murres do live up to their name around these parts, but I still think they should be named something else. Wikipedia claims they are sometimes referred to as Thin-billed Murre, but I've never heard that.  Random fact of the day: people in Newfoundland love eating murres.

As promised, here are some more photos from my November pelagic trip out of Half Moon Bay. I think what I really need to do is get on an east coast pelagic, where there are so many potential life birds that I would likely be blinded by the end of a trip. I'm tearing up just thinking about it.

The way I envision my first east coast pelagic (likely a Brian Patteson boat, of course) would be something like what you see in the infamous Double Rainbow video (watch it if for some inexplicable reason you haven't seen it, and yes, he is on mushrooms). It would just be so...intense, you know? Great Shearwater would give me the shakes. Black-capped Petrels would bring me to tears. Band-rumped Storm-Petrels would make me scream for joy. A Trinidade Petrel would have me crapping my pants. I have no intention of eating mushrooms, however, I can totally see myself saying "Whoa. It's a Trinidade Petrel. Trinidade Petrel all the way. Whoa, that's so intense...whoa man.....WHOOOAAAAA! Oh my god oh my god! Woooooooo! Ohhhhhh, wowwwww!!! WOOOOOOO! Yeah! Oh my god, look at that! Trinidade Petrel all the way across the sky! Oh my god! Oh my god! What does this mean?"

Just something to think about. Have a cathartic week everybody.

Northern Fulmar. White morphs are pretty uncommon in California. They look so clean compared to their filthy gray cousins.

Surf Scoter. Not rare, but still rad.

Mew Gulls are celebrated amongst birders for their tenedency to not breed with other gull species, and being easy to identify. And they are, dare I say it, "cute".

A Pink-footed Shearwater has more moves than the average bird; they are perfectly at home flying like this (it's standing on its wing, not flying overhead).

Red-throated Loon. What to say about a basic-plumaged Red-throated Loon? They are....long. Yeah.

Rhinoceros Auklet with mini-horn. There's probably a market for their horns in China, which will eventually lead to their demise. WHY, CHINA?! WHY??????????

Brandt's Cormorant immature.

This was part of the big Ancient Murrelet flock we found. All my photos of said flock totally suck. Sigh.

Brown Pelican. Pretty good composition for a completely uncropped/unrotated photo, I reckon.