Post by Dave on Jan 7, 2008 20:40:11 GMT -8
Hello Fellow Birders!
During the Christmas Break, I enjoyed a vacation with my wife, son, and 6 friends from church and/or work. The trip was not all about birding, but there were two major things that helped a lot to make it into a trip WITH birding.
1. I organized the trip, so also picked the camping locations. Rather strategically, I must say.
2. There were 4 adult guys and 4 adult girls on the trip, and the guys really picked up birding through out the trip. 2 had been with me on the CBC count, so had some exposure to birding, but I was impressed with the interest in birds in general. I sure did a lot more birding than I expected to!
We rented a large, fancy motorhome for luxury purposes, and off we went! When the cost is divided 8 ways, it makes for a cheap vacation! We were blessed with awesome weather the entire time (except for the drive home).
December 25 – Left Chilliwack and headed down the 1-5 around noon. Picked up the first 20 birds of the list before dark, and was again impressed by the loads of swans around the Skagit Flats area of Washington. For the sake of the list, I just wrote down Trumpeter Swans. By midnight, we were entering California.
December 26 – By sunrise, we were just north of L.A. By 11:00 we were pulling into our campsite along the Pacific Ocean at San Elijo Lagoon State Beach. If you know the area, you will know why we camped there. I already heard warblers before we backed into our campsite. Once we set up camp, I was on the birds. Townsends, Orange-crowned, and Yellow-rumped Warblers were everywhere. Bushtit, Black Phoebe, Blue-grey Gnatcatchers, American Kestrel, Brewer’s Blackbird were present as well. Our campsite backed the ocean, and 3 Gull species were easily identified (Heermann’s, Western, Ring-billed – later Bonaparte’s showed up). Western and Least Sandpipers were basically pecking our tires, along with Willet, Marbled Godwit, Royal Tern, Double-crested Cormorant, and Brown Pelican. THEN came the walk to the lagoon, an excellent birding spot and short stroll from the campsite. House Finch, Sparrows (Golden-crowned, White-crowned, Lincoln’s, Song, Fox), California Towhee, Anna’s Hummingbird, Western Scrub-Jay, Wrentit, Common Yellowthroat, Marsh Wren, Snowy Egret, Great Egret, Gadwall, Pintail, American Coot, both Scaups, Blue-winged Teal, Black-necked Stilt, American Avocet, White Pelican, Pied-billed Grebe, Osprey, etc, etc…. John found a Long-billed Curlew with me, but at least there was another to come on the trip. Let’s just say the list was at 70 species in short order!
Picture from campsite!
Black Phoebe
December 27 – An early morning walk with John before the rest were awake was back at the same lagoon. Yellowlegs, dowitchers, turnstones, Whimbrel, Mourning Dove, Mockingbird, California Quail, Says Phoebe, Hermit Thrush, and the only Cassin’s Kingbird of the trip were added. I am sure there were more birds there as well! We packed up and headed into San Diego with a short stop at Torrey-Pines State Reserve (Peregrine Falcon, Wrentit, more Anna’s Hummers, etc). We set up at our campground for the next 5 nights – Campland on the Bay. This campground is right on Mission Bay, and comes complete with pools and hottubs, a real “snowbird” location. For the birder, it is on the water and next to a wildlife sanctuary. Someone had a great choice here. Black Skimmer, Eared Grebe, Horned Grebe, Western Grebe, Spotted Sandpiper, Common Loon, Redhead, Brandt galore, Little Blue Heron, Great Blue Heron, more Egrets and pipers, Savannah Sparrow, etc…
December 28 – one of the best of the trip! John, Brian, and I went hiking in the Cuyamaca Mountain range. The others went shopping in Mexico with a rental van. We started at the Paco Picasho Campground as I wanted to look for White-headed Woodpecker. I failed to find it, but did just as well with my first life bird of the trip - Williamson’s Sapsucker!
There were woodpeckers galore! Acorn Woodpeckers all over the place.
And the tree
We also saw Hairy Woodpeckers, and a few Nuttall’s like the one below.
John and Brian found an Oak Titmouse, a specie I failed to look for during my last trip to California. Also in the woods here and the hike up Cuyamaca Peak were loads of Mountain Chickadee, White-breasted Nuthatch, and Pygmy Nuthatch. Western Bluebird and Spotted Towhee were in the area as well A Red-shoulder Hawk sat nicely for it's picture.
From there we drove to the Laguna Mountains. On route were raptors all over the place. White-tailed Kite, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper’s Hawk, Ferriginous Hawk, American Kestrel……
After some illegal manovers with a 30’ rig, we found my life Tri-coloured Blackbirds, along with Black-crowned Nightheron, Red-winged Blackbirds, and water birds.
We hiked down some canyon to a waterfall that was more of a tiny dripping faucet and saw a Song Sparrow.
We arrived back at the campground after dark.
During the Christmas Break, I enjoyed a vacation with my wife, son, and 6 friends from church and/or work. The trip was not all about birding, but there were two major things that helped a lot to make it into a trip WITH birding.
1. I organized the trip, so also picked the camping locations. Rather strategically, I must say.
2. There were 4 adult guys and 4 adult girls on the trip, and the guys really picked up birding through out the trip. 2 had been with me on the CBC count, so had some exposure to birding, but I was impressed with the interest in birds in general. I sure did a lot more birding than I expected to!
We rented a large, fancy motorhome for luxury purposes, and off we went! When the cost is divided 8 ways, it makes for a cheap vacation! We were blessed with awesome weather the entire time (except for the drive home).
December 25 – Left Chilliwack and headed down the 1-5 around noon. Picked up the first 20 birds of the list before dark, and was again impressed by the loads of swans around the Skagit Flats area of Washington. For the sake of the list, I just wrote down Trumpeter Swans. By midnight, we were entering California.
December 26 – By sunrise, we were just north of L.A. By 11:00 we were pulling into our campsite along the Pacific Ocean at San Elijo Lagoon State Beach. If you know the area, you will know why we camped there. I already heard warblers before we backed into our campsite. Once we set up camp, I was on the birds. Townsends, Orange-crowned, and Yellow-rumped Warblers were everywhere. Bushtit, Black Phoebe, Blue-grey Gnatcatchers, American Kestrel, Brewer’s Blackbird were present as well. Our campsite backed the ocean, and 3 Gull species were easily identified (Heermann’s, Western, Ring-billed – later Bonaparte’s showed up). Western and Least Sandpipers were basically pecking our tires, along with Willet, Marbled Godwit, Royal Tern, Double-crested Cormorant, and Brown Pelican. THEN came the walk to the lagoon, an excellent birding spot and short stroll from the campsite. House Finch, Sparrows (Golden-crowned, White-crowned, Lincoln’s, Song, Fox), California Towhee, Anna’s Hummingbird, Western Scrub-Jay, Wrentit, Common Yellowthroat, Marsh Wren, Snowy Egret, Great Egret, Gadwall, Pintail, American Coot, both Scaups, Blue-winged Teal, Black-necked Stilt, American Avocet, White Pelican, Pied-billed Grebe, Osprey, etc, etc…. John found a Long-billed Curlew with me, but at least there was another to come on the trip. Let’s just say the list was at 70 species in short order!
Picture from campsite!
Black Phoebe
December 27 – An early morning walk with John before the rest were awake was back at the same lagoon. Yellowlegs, dowitchers, turnstones, Whimbrel, Mourning Dove, Mockingbird, California Quail, Says Phoebe, Hermit Thrush, and the only Cassin’s Kingbird of the trip were added. I am sure there were more birds there as well! We packed up and headed into San Diego with a short stop at Torrey-Pines State Reserve (Peregrine Falcon, Wrentit, more Anna’s Hummers, etc). We set up at our campground for the next 5 nights – Campland on the Bay. This campground is right on Mission Bay, and comes complete with pools and hottubs, a real “snowbird” location. For the birder, it is on the water and next to a wildlife sanctuary. Someone had a great choice here. Black Skimmer, Eared Grebe, Horned Grebe, Western Grebe, Spotted Sandpiper, Common Loon, Redhead, Brandt galore, Little Blue Heron, Great Blue Heron, more Egrets and pipers, Savannah Sparrow, etc…
December 28 – one of the best of the trip! John, Brian, and I went hiking in the Cuyamaca Mountain range. The others went shopping in Mexico with a rental van. We started at the Paco Picasho Campground as I wanted to look for White-headed Woodpecker. I failed to find it, but did just as well with my first life bird of the trip - Williamson’s Sapsucker!
There were woodpeckers galore! Acorn Woodpeckers all over the place.
And the tree
We also saw Hairy Woodpeckers, and a few Nuttall’s like the one below.
John and Brian found an Oak Titmouse, a specie I failed to look for during my last trip to California. Also in the woods here and the hike up Cuyamaca Peak were loads of Mountain Chickadee, White-breasted Nuthatch, and Pygmy Nuthatch. Western Bluebird and Spotted Towhee were in the area as well A Red-shoulder Hawk sat nicely for it's picture.
From there we drove to the Laguna Mountains. On route were raptors all over the place. White-tailed Kite, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper’s Hawk, Ferriginous Hawk, American Kestrel……
After some illegal manovers with a 30’ rig, we found my life Tri-coloured Blackbirds, along with Black-crowned Nightheron, Red-winged Blackbirds, and water birds.
We hiked down some canyon to a waterfall that was more of a tiny dripping faucet and saw a Song Sparrow.
We arrived back at the campground after dark.