From sea-level to 6000 feet and back again
Seawatching boosts the list. Our birding day started at La Jolla Cove where we met with Guy McCaskie, a fantastic birder who is California’s top lister and who was kind enough to help us today on our quest to maximise new birds. As we were to find out, if Guy couldn’t find them, then the birds weren’t there. While joggers slogged past us along the shoreline in this trendy part of town, we focused our attention on the birds at sea, and filled our boots with scores of seabirds. A constant stream of Sooty Shearwaters passed by, and careful searching picked out Pink-footed and Black-vented Shearwaters amongst them. Other highlights of the seawatch included three Pacific Loons (Divers), Pomarine Skua, and numerous local commuting Brandt’s Cormorants. The rocky beach also produced great birds with Heermann’s Gulls, Black Turnstone and Wandering Tattler.Leaving the coast behind, we headed inland and quickly collected Nuttall’s Woodpecker, Pacific-slope Flycatcher, Bell’s Vireo, Bushtit, Black-headed Grosbeak at Mission State Park. From here, Guy had some hot gen for a local lake where we scored Tricoloured Blackbird, enjoying great views of this range-restricted species. As we left here, we stopped to admire California Ground-squirrel and jammed in on a pair of nesting Cassin’s Kingbirds, alongside Western Kingbirds, also new. Next stop was Mission Santa Ysabel, a small church and churchyard where we immediately saw our target bird, Lawrence’s Goldfinch, so we quickly moved on to the next site. We climbed up steeply to 6000 feet in the pine forests of the Laguna Mountains in Cleveland National Forest where we added Violet-green Swallow, Pygmy Nuthatch, Mountain Chickadee, Oak Titmouse and Steller’s Jay. On again to Kitchen Creek, an area of semi-desert scrub, where we eventually found perhaps the most significant bird of the day, Gray Vireo. We also enjoyed good views of Rock Wren, Lazuli Bunting, Bullock’s Oriole and heard a calling Mountain Quail. A short distance down the road we stopped again and collected California Quail, an incredibly obliging male, sitting in the top of a small bush singing. Just before we began our descent to the desert, there was time for one more bird, White-throated Swift. We then descended rapidly down into the desert which lies below sea level, despite being far inland near the border with Mexico. We reached our hotel after dark, ready to bird the nearby Salton Sea tomorrow.
Bird species total: 2124
Posted 10pm, 26th April, El Centro, California