I can't say as I'm breaking any new ground this week; this is something that I've written about before - how when you go out for a day of birding, you just never know what you're gonna see. Maybe you see a really great and unexpected bird; maybe you see barely any birds; maybe it's something else entirely that makes the day memorable. Good or bad, you can't know what your day will be until you get out there - which is the real reason for going out again and again.
I can say this, though. If you head south on the peninsula from San Francisco, you know for a fact you're going to see some nice scenery...
My friend and I headed south, starting up on Skyline Drive; since we were mired in fog, we took La Honda Road down toward the coast. It was a good morning for exploring and he was getting familiar with a new camera. We ventured down a side road that I hadn't birded in a while and eventually came to a small creek that seemed promising.
larger version or a short video clip
I'd wished for a dipper, perhaps (a girl can dream), but more realistically thought there'd be some nice warblers and so there were. The heavily-mossed trees fairly shouted "bird heaven". Lots of little guys flitting around, robins and steller's jays shouting over each other, creepers climbing up and nuthatches racing down, a veritable choir of winter wrens - and then the unmistakable call of a sapsucker. It sailed overhead, landing on a tree ten yards away. I called to my friend, and he was able to get his first sapsucker. Nothing like a lifer to get the day rolling.
If you were a bird, wouldn't you want to be here? (As a human, I also find it quite desirable.)
We continued the drive to the coast. The forecast had said that Sunday was supposed to be the better day last weekend but we were shown, once again, that forecasting is an inexact science. The coast was overcast, cold and windy. We stopped for a few minutes at Pescadero, where the surf may not have been Mavericks-class, but the waves still put on a good show.
larger version or a short video clip
Brrrr!! Back in the car, back on the road. Just south of Pescadero we stopped at yet another turnout. It's been a good place to look for birds over the years but another draw was a vehicle that had some large carriers in back - from the Marine Mammal Center. Oooh, cool. Maybe we could see someone doing a rescue or, even cooler still, a release! We scanned the beach and saw someone near a beached mammal, and realized that it was (alas) beyond rescue. It looked somewhat like a dolphin, and curiosity got the best of us so we went to take a look. Even though it was dead, we were interested in seeing it up close. When we got to it, we were surprised to discover that it was actually a newborn orca.
It had one large opening where some of its guts were spilling out, but was otherwise intact. It seemed pretty fresh - no stench in the air at all. A woman who works with both the Marine Mammal Center and the California Academy of Sciences was there documenting it - taking a series of measurements and preparing to collect it for the Academy. She allowed us to watch her at work - fascinating stuff for a biology nerd. (More photos here - nothing really gory, but perhaps not for the squeamish.) We didn't stay for the whole process because there were still plenty of birds to be seen. I was glad we stopped, and not just for the very unexpected mammal sighting - we also saw two large flocks of brant go by; I love brant but don't often get to see them. One flock was over 100 birds, the other about 30; don't think I've ever seen so many at one time... awesome birds.
We headed inland at Gazos Creek Road. It's still a little early in the season for this spot, but in a few more weeks it will be just crazy with birdsong there. After a few stops (enlivened by displaying Allen's Hummingbirds and others), we turned north onto Cloverdale Road. My eagle-eyed friend spotted another non-bird up the hillside.
short (sorta jumpy) video
For a birdblog, this thing is sorely lacking in birds, isn't it? Well after seeing the cool kitty, we stopped in Pescadero for lunch. Our first thought was to go to Duarte's for some of their awesome artichoke soup or chowder, but we didn't want to wait 45 minutes (that's a lot of birding time to sacrifice, no matter how good the soup is). We grabbed a couple of sandwiches at Archangeli's Deli and headed back to Pescadero Beach to eat.
At last, a bird. This Brewer's Blackbird was probably trying to use telepathy to get us to drop some crumbs.
We'd had enough cold and wind for one day, decided to go back to the bay side. As we headed back up Pescadero Road, we passed a flooded field with a number of ducks paddling around. Among them, we were surprised to find some Blue-winged Teal - very uncommon in our area. Nice!
Blue-winged Teal, with the ever-elegant Cinnamon Teal
Up the hill, over the ridge, down the hill, over to the bay. We stopped first at Palo Alto Baylands and checked out shorebirds wandering the mudflats at low tide. A nice assortment, and some were starting to get their breeding colors (the avocets were looking particularly dashing). We left there and headed south to Charleston Slough at Shoreline Park to look for some of their most famous residents. I've missed them the last few times I was there, but this time they appeared almost as soon as we started scanning - the Black Skimmers. In the west, their range is well south of us, but for the past ten years or so, a small population has lived in the south bay.
If you're not familiar with skimmers, they've got a very unique feeding strategy. As you can see they've got very large bills, and what's unusual is that the lower bill is longer than the upper bill. (You can sorta see it on the bird just left of center in the foreground in the photo below). They fly above schools of fish, barely higher the water's surface, with the long lower bill dragging in the water - they're skimming the surface. When they hit a fish, they snap their bills shut to catch it.
I left the house Sunday morning thinking about seeing some warblers and early coastal migrants. I came home with the high points having been mammals (one live, one not), odd ducks, sea geese, a sucker and some skimmers (though not skimming). You just never know what the day is gonna bring. And that's why birding's so damn much fun.
Something strange is happening in the comments and, among other things, the first thread is repeating itself. If I may ask a favor, could folks not comment in that thread anymore since it's doubling up? Also, I can't tell at a glance whether or not I've rec'd comments so bear with me.