My plane landed in San Francisco after midnight local time. By the time I checked into my hotel it had been 23 hours since I started the day in New Jersey. I used the rest of the day for rest and laundry. My birding started the next day with a pelagic trip out of Half Moon Bay with Alvaro's Adventures. My last tour of the year started the next day and would culminate with another pelagic outing with Alvaro.
Half Moon Bay is a good departure point because the continental shelf is relatively close, about 30 miles away. As the depths suddenly drop from 300 feet to 1,200 feet, there are more sightings of birds that are deep water specialists.
A Black-footed Albatross was one of the highlights.
Black-footed Albatross
Our boat which comfortably held a crew of two, Alvaro (our tour leader), four "spotters" and about twenty intrepid birders.
Most of the birds seen on pelagic trips are black and white. The spotters on board are experts who help us find the birds and alert us to the differences between various species. Sometimes the way a bird flaps its wings is the distinctive field mark. Other times it is more subtle and difficult to discern. It is especially challenging on a moving boat that is bouncing up and down as we try to focus on birds that are either flying or rising and falling on the ocean swells.
Photographing under these conditions is also challenging. I am supplementing my photos with pictures from my fellow travelers, with proper credit given, as always.
The Sabine's gull's upper wing has a distinctive pattern. The combination of black, white and gray makes this one of the easier gulls to identify,
The diminutive Common Murre was seen in the harbor.
The sky was overcast as we departed just after dawn. The jetty was covered with Brown Pelicans.
Marbled Murrelets were also seen close to shore. Photo by Simon Boivin.
South Polar Skua
Rhinoceros Auklet, photo by Simon Boivin
Sooty Shearwater, Photo by Simon Boivin
Pomarine Jaeger, photo by Simon Boivin
Ashy Storm-petrel, photo by Simon Boivin
Black Storm-petrel, photo by Simon Boivin
Buller's Shearwater, photo by Simon Boivin
Arctic Tern, photo by Ed Corey
Tufted Puffin in winter plumage
The tour began on Saturday September 24. It was my seventh trip with Tropical Birding this year, and my fourth with tour leader Dorian Anderson. Five other birders joined us as we birded our way around Northern California. We saw 51 species at our first stop, Palo Alto Baylands. the highlight was four Ridgway's Rails - a life bird and bird # 685 for the year. I added Pacific Slope Flycatcher at our next stop. We saw many other birds including this one;
Marbled Godwit. You need to look closely to see the unusually long bill.
Coyote Point is a great place for birds. I saw my first Tri-colored Blackbird there and also added Elegant Tern to my list.
Elegant Terns
Black Oystercatcher
Black Turnstone
Our first stop Sunday morning produced two more new birds for me: Nuttall's Woodpecker and California Quail.
California Quails, # 690
A walk along Mines Road turned up some nice scenery as well as a few nice birds.
California Thrasher on Mines Road
Monday morning started with a trip to Big Trees State Park. The giant sequoias alone made the trip worthwhile.
Big Trees State Park
The giant sequoias make everything else look small.
I added two more birds to my year-list. The first was a Mountain Quail which we heard but did not see. We were promised "tons" of White-headed Woodpeckers, but it took a while to find one.
White-headed Woodpecker, # 692
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Mountain Chickadee with distinctive white eyebrow stripe
The White-headed Woodpecker was the 21st woodpecker on my list, leaving only the Red-breasted Sapsucker. (I am not counting Ivory-billed Woodpecker as a possibility as there has not been a confirmed sighting since 1934.) Some members of our group saw a Red-breasted Sapsucker earlier in the trip, but I missed it. Tuesday morning I found one in some bushes and later got better views.
Red-breasted Sapsucker, # 693
We visited Bodie, a ghost town.
Bodie
Mountain Bluebird in Bodie
We visited Mono Lake on Wednesday. Many years ago feeder streams to the lake were diverted for drinking water. As a result, the water level dropped by more than 40 feet. The lake has no outlet to the ocean and accumulated salts have made the lake alkaline. Columns of limestone known as tofa towers formed in the lake. As the water level dropped the tofa towers became exposed along the shore and above the surface of the lake. Tofa is pronounced Two-fah as in "Two fah the price of one."
Mono Lake
Tofa Tower
We hoped to see a variety of birds at Mono Lake, but saw thousands of Eared Grebes and little else. Apparently Mono Lake has a monoculture.
This coyote was roaming around an area that used to be covered with 40 feet of water.
In the afternoon we visited the site of a fire. Black-backed woodpeckers move into forests after a fire and feast on wood-boring beetle larvae for up to eight years before moving on to the site of a more recent fire.
Burn area
Black=backed Woodpecker
Friday September 30 was the penultimate day of the tour. With a pelagic trip scheduled for Saturday, this would be our last chance for birding on dry land. The target was California Condor at Pinnacles National Park. On our way to the park we made a brief stop and found a Bell's Sparrow, bird #694 for the year.
At Pinnacle National Park we found a small flock of Lawrence's Goldfinches at the pool in the campground..
Lawrence's Goldfinch, #695
A Western Bluebird also perched on the fence near the pool.
Next we headed for Condor Gulch Trail in search of condors. The California Condor was extinct in the wild in 1987. The 27 surviving birds were captured and bred in captivity. Four years later some birds were released into the wild. Their population is now over 500. This is the largest land bird in North America with a wingspan of over 11 feet.
The condor is a heavy bird, but its flight requires little effort. As land warms in the morning sun, the heat creates rising columns of air known as thermals. Condors find these thermals and glide in circles to slowly gain altitude. It takes a while to form thermals strong enough to lift these birds, so we did not need to get to the viewing area until well after dawn.
According to my fitness app, the hike up the trail was equivalent to 30 flights of stairs. Along the way we saw many trees used by acorn woodpeckers to store acorns.
Acorn Woodpeckers can store up to 250,000 acorns in a tree. They drill holes of various diameters. When storing an acorn, they find a hole that provides a snug fit and hammer the nut in place. This makes it harder for other animals to steal them. As the nuts dry, they shrink a little. The woodpeckers regularly check for loose acorns and move them to smaller holes.
Acorn Woodpecker
Condors are frequently seen above these peaks at the summit of the trail. We stopped about halfway up and trained our binoculars on the cliffs and skies above the peaks.
As the birds lifted off in the morning thermals we saw many turkey vultures, but no condors. Turkey vultures have a six foot wingspan, so they are about half the size of condors.
We gave up on the condors and headed for Pescadero State Beach.
Surfbird, #696!
Sunday morning was the last day of the tour. I planned to end the trip the way I started, with a pelagic trip from Half Moon Bay. I did not yet know that my trip would be extended.
We saw most of the same birds I had seen on my first trip, plus a rare Hawaiian Petrel.
Hawaiian Petrel #697, photo by Joshua Joun
We saw three Ocean Sunfish, also called Mola. They are very odd looking with large heads a broad tail and not much in between. They occasionally swim on their sides near the surface. This may be to warm themselves. Some people believe they are trying to get rid of parasites. They are nearly as tall as they are long. The biggest known individual was more than 11 feet long and weighed over 5,000 pounds. The largest one we saw was closer to six feet long.
Mola
We also saw a blue whale, the largest animal ever to live on earth.
But the most impressive sight was the group of Humpback Whales feeding on anchovies.
Dozens of sea lions joined in the feast. I posted a video on YouTube which you should be able to see here.
You may need to copy and paste this.
I thought the boat trip would be the end of my vacation, but I learned I had been exposed to Covid. I extended my stay by three days to avoid the possibility of infecting others. I did not get infected.
Instead of heading home, I headed for the beach on Sunday morning and found four Snowy Plovers, with a lot of help from Dorian Anderson.
Snowy Plover, # 698
Next it was time to renew my search for a condor. I drove an hour and a half to a hotel in Hollister. That still left me with an hour drive to the trailhead where I would have three days to search for the condor. My first attempt on Sunday night was a failure. I had hoped to see the birds returning to roost since morning and evening are the best times to see the condors in the park.
I tried again Monday morning and evening again with no luck. My final chance was Tuesday morning. I would not be able to return in the evening since I needed to drive to a hotel near the San Francisco airport and rise early to catch my 5:40 a.m. flight home.
Once again I watched the turkey vultures leave their roosts and I scanned the cliffs and skies in vain for a condor. A birder from Maryland joined me after I had been watching for nearly two hours. I told him I would be heading to my car soon and would drive to the campground where a condor had been seen around noon the previous day.
I was near the trailhead when I heard a voice from behind me calling "Condor!" I ran back up the trail and finally saw a condor in the distance. I got some decent looks through my fellow birder's scope but no pictures. Here is a picture from the internet:
California Condor, #699! Picture from Flathead Audubon
I am back in Michigan where I do not expect to see any new birds in the near future. I plan to visit Texas in November and should have no problem getting number 700 there. It has been a great year!