Birding on the other side of the pond - Ontario, Canada (Part 1) - May 2014

I am very fortunate in having some relatives living in Ontario, Canada which over the years has meant several trips out to visit them at various times of the year. Of course any trip has to involve a spot of birding, and usually includes a few days away to some of the top birding destinations. For this trip our base is their home in Oakville, near Toronto, which is within easy reach of places such as Point Pelee, Rondeau and Carden Plain, which are the sites I hope to visit whilst here. I will hopefully have the time, and internet access, to update things as I go, but that will obviously depend on how much time I spend out in the field.

Oakville Area Tails
We arrived on Friday 16th May, late in the afternoon so there was no time for birding other than bits and pieces in the garden, which included American Goldfinch, Common Grackle, American Robin, House Finch and Mourning Dove.

Male American Robin - this bird was clearly already feeding chicks

Female Americam Robin - Listening for worms

There are numerous trails in the local area that meander through the various housing estates and these provided the ideal location to re-acquaint myself with some of the commoner species and their calls. Early in the morning the network of paths are little used, except by the odd jogger or dog walker that is, but it doesn’t seem to make much difference to the birds at that time of the day. I don’t remember seeing Chipping Sparrows during my first few visits, but they appear to have become a fairly common species now. Although it maybe that I have just become more familiar with their call, which is a continuous and distinctive chipping. 

Chipping Sparrow - a common garden species here

In eastern Canada the winter has been long and hard which is really evident in the vegetation. Most of the trees are still not in leaf and the ground consists mainly of bare mud, that is except for the trout lilies and Trilliums. Trilliums are the Canadian equivalent of the British bluebell in some ways, since they are an early spring flower that illuminates the woodland floor. Their flowers start white but gradually turn pink with age, as in the picture below. 

White Trilliums - the petals turn pink as the flower ages

Birding the trails can be quite slow at times with Blue Jays, Northern Cardinals and American Robins the most vocal, and numerous. However as the sun got up on the morning of 18th May I started to pick out a few more bits including, more Chipping Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos and an Indigo Bunting. The latter being a first year male, so not the bright blue plumage of a adult, but with some brown juvenile feathers still present.

Male Indigo Bunting - the grey and brown feathers age
this as a second calendar year bird

My first Warbler of the trip was a male Tennessee, which was feeding and singing in a flowering Maple tree. It was showing very well but its energetic feeding style combined with the leaf cover made it difficult to photograph. Whilst watching the Tennessee Warbler I picked up Hairy Woodpecker, Norther Flicker, Red-breasted and White-breasted Nuthatches, which highlights the value of just standing in one place periodically.

Male Tennessee Warbler - this species lacks the bright colours of other warbler species

Male Tennessee Warbler 

The next warbler was somewhat brighter than the Tennessee, a Blackburnian, and a nice male at that. I spent a while enjoying this bird before my attention was drawn to a tiny bird at the top of a small tree enjoying the morning sun - a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. There were two birds, which occasionally engaged in aggressive aerial combats, before returning to their favoured perches. 

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

The other species seen included Black-capped Chickadee, Barn Swallow, American Crow, Brown-headed Cowbird and Red-winged Blackbirds.

Balls Falls Conservation Area
Balls Falls Conservation Area is located along the Niagara Escarpment and only about an hours drive from Oakville, that is when the traffic is good. It took considerably longer for us, but then what do you expect on a holiday weekend. There are a few trails and cycle paths and a small waterfall, that is probably about one tenth of the size of Niagara. There wasn’t much time for birding, but in what time I had I picked up Gray Catbirds, Song Sparrows, more American Robins, some Bank Swallows, (Sand Martins in the UK) and a cracking Eastern Phoebe.

Gray Catbird 

Eastern Phoebe

Whilst looking at the falls, several Turkey Vultures appeared overhead. The were using the air currents caused by the waterfall to circle, and seek out somewhere to to roost. There were at least 10 birds that put on an excellent aerial display, before dropping into the trees.

Turkey Vulture

Turkey Vulture

Turkey Vulture

California, September 2012 - Bodega Bay and Jenner

Continuing north our next destination was the Bodega Bay area, which was chosen due to a planned pelagic with Debi Shearwater on 21st September, but I will write about that in the next post. We headed north on Highway 1, and since we planned to stay for two nights in Bodega Bay we continued north eventually stopping at the small village of Jenner. Jenner is situated at the mouth of the Russian River, and our accommodation looked out over the creek. A colony of Harbour Seals haul out at the mouth of the creek affording excellent views. We drove out onto Goat Rock, which forms the western, outer side of the creek; there was some great birding to be had in this area. 

Harbour Seal

Most notably were good numbers of Western Grebes, but despite my best efforts I could not turn any of them into Clark's Grebes. Red-throated and Common Loons were feeding among the crashing waves, and further out there were good sized flocks of scoter, mainly Black but also occasional Surf. Brandt's and Pelagic Cormorants, Common Murres, Brown and a flock of 30 American Pelicans were also present. 

Americam White Pelican

In the evening a small flock of Red-breasted Mergansers and two Belted Kingfishers were also recorded. 

Anna's Hummingbird

Behind our accommodation a small green, enclosed with scrub was present and a pre-breakfast visit produced several Anna's Hummingbirds, Spotted Towhee, Fox Sparrow (of the Pacific Coast sooty form), Lincoln's Sparrow, loads of White-crowned Sparrows and a rather gothic looking Turkey Vulture, warming its wings in the morning sun.

Turkey Vulture

After spending the day north of Jenner we headed back towards of Bodega Bay, stopping at various viewpoints on the way. Our stops produced the usual gull species, more Red-throated and Pacific Loons and the occasional passing Pomarine Jaeger (Skua), but the highlight was two Hump-backed Whales that were feeding just offshore. A brief stop at Portuguese Beach, one of the beaches on the journey south, had over 20 Red-throated Loons, 10 Eared and two Western Grebes, another Pomarine Jaeger and two Glaucous-winged Gulls.

Glaucous-winged Gull

Salmon Creek, is situated just to the north of Bodega Bay, and consists of two pools to the east of the road, and the main creek to the west. The pools apparently hold loads of ducks during the winter, but chatting to a couple of birders revealed that they had arrived early this year as within the resident Mallards were Cinnamon Teals, Shovelers, American Wigeon, and as we stood chatting five Pintail dropped in. There were also a few waders on the pool, the most notable being a Pectoral Sandpiper, along with four Long-billed Dowitchers and a Spotted Sandpiper. The mouth of the creek was even more productive with Least and Western Sandpipers, Semi-palmated Plovers, Sanderling, Dunlin and a Marbled Godwit.

Marbled Godwit

Bodega Headland, known locally as the West Side is an excellent birding location. Spud Point Marina is located on the east side of West Shore Road (the main road onto the headland), and support a large wader roost at high tide. We stopped here twice and recorded a peak count of over 200 Marbled Godwits, 100 Willets, 24 American Pelican, four Sanderling, one Long-billed Dowitcher, two Brent Geese and a Black-bellied Plover (grey). 

Mixed Wader Roost, Marblled Godwit, Willet, Long-billed Dowitcher
and Black-bellied Plover

Moving on to the headland itself we spent a while looking out to sea, but by this time the wind had picked up and the sea was not in a good state for looking for cetaceans. The headland and patches of scrub had some interesting species present including Warbling Vireo, Savannah Sparrow, Purple Finch, American Goldfinch, Glaucous-winged Gull and a cracking Northern Harrier. 

Northern Harrier

The Port of Bodega was another good birding spot with several hundred Western and Least Sandpipers roosting on the rocks, giving me an excellent opportunity to get some photos.

Western Sandpiper

Least Sandpiper

Returning to our accommodation 20 Killdeer, 2 Western Bluebirds and a Black Phoebe  were present in the field behind and a flock of Pine Siskin and a White-tailed Kite flew over. 

California, September 2012 - San Francisco

My lack of posting recently has not been due to a lack of activity, due to the recent appalling weather here in the UK, but due to the fact that I have been on my travels again...this time to California, USA. As with all my holidays, the aim was to have a relaxing break with my wife, but like any self-respecting birder, some birding had to be involved....well in fact this trip had been planned around several locations which I hoped would provide some great birding, and be relaxing at the same time. Our trip commenced in San Francisco, before heading north to Bodega Bay, east to Yosemite and then south-west to Monterey. The next few posts will diarise our trip, so that birders who wish to travel to California may find some of my experiences useful.

Heermann's Gull

Our trip began with a three day city break in San Francisco, so I wasn't expecting to be doing much birding. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find some decent birding to be had along the shoreline immediately south of the Golden Gate Bridge. On reaching the bay shore, along The Embarcadero Road we were greeted by large numbers of Heermann's and Western Gulls, scavenging for scraps among the hoards of shoppers and sightseers! 

Western Gull

Walking east there are several wharfs that support good numbers of gulls and other sea birds such as Brandt's and Double-crested Cormorants and Brown Pelicans. There are several trips running to Alcatraz daily and it was our plan was to walk along the bay shore and then take a trip out to Alcatraz, unfortunately all the trips were fully booked, until the following Tuesday, when we would have left the city. We continued east along the bay found another company offering trips around Alcatraz (without landing), but also going to the Golden Gate and Bay bridges. As it turned out, for me this trip proved to be the better option, as we were soon sailing among flocks of Elegant and Caspian Terns, Brown Pelicans, Double-crested and Brandt's Cormorants and Common Murres (Guillemots in the UK). As we approached the Golden Gate Bridge three Sooty Shearwaters circled the boat before landing, but the most interesting thing for me was the number of Harbour Porpoises, I must have seen at least 20 in the waters beneath the bridge. My experiences with this species usually involve seeing them rapidly swimming away as they try to escape the on coming ship that I am on, these individuals seemed oblivious to the busy shipping lanes and tourist boats, and just went about their business. The boat trip leaves from Pier 39 and as it exits the dock passes a colony of California Sea Lions that have taken up residence on one of the piers. They are good value, but are very noisy and do whiff a bit!!

California Sea Lions 

Further east you come to the East Beach and Cissy Park, where a small saline lagoon  and an area of sandy beach is located. Western and Heermann's Gulls were again common, and the small lagoon produced the first waders of the trip, Long-billed Curlew (1), Willet (1), Marbled Godwit (2), Long-billed Dowitcher (3), Western Sandpiper (1), Killdeer (6) and Semi-palmated Plover (3) and a single Snowy Egret. 

Long-billed Curlew

A Townsend's Warbler was present in the bushes and Brewer's Blackbirds were commonplace. Looking out over the water hundreds of Elegant Terns were feeding along with two Caspian Terns, Brown Pelicans and a cracking drake Surf Scoter, whilst watching the scoter I got some more cracking views of close in shore Harbour Porpoises. 

Drake Surf Scoter

I also found a Red-throated Loon huddled on a section of beach, looking pretty ill so I didn't disturb it. North of the bridge we ventured down to an area of scrub and a small harbour, a Spotted Sandpiper was present on the waters edge and Turkey Vultures drifted overhead. 

Turkey Vulture

The scrub seemed fairly quiet but did produce the first Western Scrub Jays and White-crowned Sparrows of the trip. Returning back over the bridge I noticed the frame of an old wooden pier that seemed to be covered with terns all of which were Elegant Terns, there were hundreds of them. 

Hundreds of Elegant terns

Elegant Terns

This was a new species for me so it was great to get such good views, of both adults and juveniles, and look at the plumage variations of each and difference in the length and coloration of their bills. Some of the juvenile birds still had yellow legs, but this was quite patchy and dark was beginning to come through on all of them.

Elegant Tern