California day 2 - San Mateo county

My second day in California (May 27th) was another full dawn-till-dusk birding day. I had the pleasure of spending the day with Aaron Maizlish. It was spent in San Mateo county, birding from the Pacific coast to the San Francisco Bay area. We met up at Pigeon Point and started off at Gazos beach and Gazos road going inland. The riparian forest was excellent with lots of activity, visual and vocal, and some good stuff.

'Russet-backed' Swainson's Thrush - horrible photo of an insurance tick ahead of a proposed split

Often seen flying up in tree canopies, Band-tailed Pigeon is quite spectacular when seen at eye level. 

In more open, grassy areas a few stunning Lazuli Buntings were seen:

As well as equally-stunning Grasshopper Sparrows ;-)

And a tatty-looking Savannah Sparrow

At Pigeon point we had two Wandering Tattlers. We then headed up the coast towards Half Moon Bay, that produced some nice stuff as well. At sea we had lots of alcids including many Pigeon Guillemots:

At Devil's Slide we had one Rock Wren, but it didn't stick around for photos

Across the ridge, we arrived in San Francisco Bay. At Coyote Point the long-staying Harlequin Duck was located resting on distant rocks:

Nob Hill pond in Belmont provided nice urban birding, with Black Skimmers - that bill:

Cinnamon Teal - what it says on the tin:

We were in desperate need for lingering migratory shorebirds for the day list. We checked different mudflats and wetlands - nothing left behind. Finally, while driving on Dumbarton bridge at full speed, we spotted a group of 'brown' shorebirds in Don Edwards NWR saltpans. We pulled over and enjoyed a medium-sized group of Greater Yellowlegs that also contained a marvelous Wilson's Phalarope (my third ever, after two winter-plumaged vagrants, in Israel and in UK):

'Western' Willet

And a beautiful summer-plumaged Long-billed Dowitcher

We ran out of daylight at Coyote Hills Regional Park. Our daily total of 113 species was quite good, I think. Thanks again to Aaron for another great day out. Aaron worked hard all day, including keeping all the eBird lists.

Spurn Migfest 2017

Glad to be back home after another brilliant Spurn Migfest weekend. So many stories to tell but in short - great birding, good time with friends old and new, fantastic talks (hope mine was good too?), incredible young birders and lots of smiling faces. Stellar job, as always, by Spurn Bird Observatory team, BTO, RSPB, Migfest volunteers, Westmere Farm - congratulations!
For me, personally, it was a charged weekend. Last time I was here, in 2015, I spent most of my time with Martin. Since then also Andy had passed away and the gap in the Spurn heart seems to have increased even more. But Migfest team, led by chairman Rob Adams, certainly made this weekend so good for me - thank you!
Birding was very good - beyond weather-expectations. On Saturday morning vismig was brilliant with huge numbers of Meadow Pipits, hirundines and Tree Sparrows going through. I heard one Richard's Pipit call but nothing more than that. Other vismig and seawtching highlights were Roseate Tern (sweet call! First time I hear it), several Short-eared Owls and two Bonxies.

Short-eared Owl

Tree Sparrows

Great Spotted Woodpecker working the fence poles by Numpties. Yummy grubs!

Then I lead a walk with Terry. Five minutes after starting news broke of the headline bird of Migfest - Long-billed Dowitcher at Corner Pond / Holderness Fields. Brilliantly picked up on call by Paul - legend! We did make the group run a bit; completely ignored a cracking juv Little Stint en route. By the time we got there quite a crowd had already assembled. Great bird - distant views though.

Long-billed Dowitcher

Digiscoping results were not much better

Dowitwichers (copyright Jonnie Fisk)

The great Darren Woodhead in action. That's how far the bird was

After a few minutes of admiring this beauty of a shorebird, we moved on to look for the Wryneck at the top of Beacon Lane. We saw the bird immediately as it was feeding on aphids. As I was leading I spent no time on photography, hence the poor photo. Others got some great photos and footage of this cooperative bird.

Then a few minutes of seawatching produced Little Gull and 2 Arctic Skuas. Not a bad walk... And look at this daily summary, complete with a swallow:

Enjoyed this brilliant Comma sunning itself

On Sunday morning I helped with ringing at Church Fields. Pretty quiet but nice to see the Caspian Gull fly over, first seen over Numpties a few minutes before. This female Migrant Hawker was sweet:

Perhaps my best photo of the weekend was taken on Friday morning near Kings Lynn - while waiting at a meeting point to swap cars this Muntjac sped across a cut wheat field in the warm morning sun. Stunner. 

BC day 8 - Boundary Bay - great birding and cool people

At last we did some proper birding this morning. We met up with Tom Plath who courteously invited us to go birding with him in some sites around Boundary Bay - many thanks Tom! We started off checking Blackie Spit and some adjacent fields at high tide. The fields were nice with lots of Grey Plovers and one or two American Goldies among them, and also 3 American Buff-bellied Pipits and some Vaux's Swifts. At the spit itself there were not too many shorebirds. Two Marbled Godwits made a brief appearance but didn't settle for long. There were some nice gulls including a brief California, two Common Terns and a large group of Greater Scaups. 

Ring-billed Gull 2nd cycle

'Puget' Gull (Glaucous-winged X Western hybrid) 3rd cycle

Bonaparte's Gull - stunning bird

House Finches

Savannah Sparrow

Our next stop was Iona Sewage Farm - what a great site! Good shorebird numbers despite the dropping tide, and lots of waterfowl too. Among the many Western and Least Sandpipers there were some Semi-p's:

Semipalmated Sandpipers with dirty legs

Nice palmations

Wilson's Snipe

The ponds held both dowitcher species. These are long-billed:

Additional species included Lesser Yellowlegs and Spotted Sandpiper. This Northern Harrier flew over a few times:

Blue-winged Teals

Lesser Scaups

American Wigeon

We paid a causal visit to the adjacent Iona Island Bird Observatory, and had a great time.  They trapped Rufous and Anna's Hummers. The rufous is so tiny:

Recently-fledged male Anna's Hummingbird

 Lincoln's Sparrow

Wilson's Warbler

Many thanks to our new friends from WildResearch - Christine, Dan, Paul and Louise, for the hospitality. Keep up the good work! Here is Christine and moi, sporting my brand new WildResearch shirt:

On the way out we said hello to BC's only breeding Yellow-headed Blackbirds in the adjacent wetland:

Nice afternoon in Stanley Park with the family. Couldn't resist the male Buffleheads: