BIRDING TO THE EDG

Northern California amazes me everytime I visit! Birding anomalies seem to occur with fair regularity and the exciting part is, you never know what species and how many it might be. I recently spent a week up there for the Godwit Days Festival. This festival always seems to produce great birds plus the normal birding is exciting for anyone not from northern California!

Western and Least Sandpipers are quite common along with migrating Surfbirds! Coastal birding is what this place is all about. While driving the along the coast you will find yourself immersed in towering Redwoods with Varied Thrush's and Winter Wrens (like the one below) singing all over the place. Of course, you can reasonably expect that a pair of Spotted Owls are staring down at you, but finding them is the trick.


This Winter Wren above was photographed in Mendocino County on a trail that follows the Big River north to Legget, CA starting from Mendocino itself. This bird along with Pacific-Slope Flycatchers are among the most common birds along the trail. I spent twenty minutes waiting for this guy to pop out and even when he did the light was so poor that getting a good shot was tough. I had Nikon 7x42 EDG binoculars with me to aid in absorbing some of that light. My EDG bins helped immensely, but photography is a whole different story. With this Winter Wren, notice the barring below (can be variable), thick supercilium (eyebrow), and pudgy shape. These birds look tailess and have one of the most beautiful avian songs in this country. It is said that if you can hear the last three notes of a Winter Wren song then your hearing is still in good shape. I always test myself and this time I was pleased with the results. Okay, so that Aerosmith concert in college didn't do as much damage as I thought! Wheew!

Winter Wrens nest in dark, moist patches of northern coniferous forests and can be difficult to track down. Good thing they sing often! They are almost always associated with water nearby. This bird above was under a canopy of a bunch of Redwoods! So cool!


Being an outdoor enthusiast and a biologist I cannot pass up the opportunity to watch some California Sea-Lions basking in the sun. These guys can make a ton of noise and are entertaining to watch. These animals are native to the northwest United States coast and have been experiencing huge population increases the past few years. They can adapt well to human surroundings which helps their ability to survive.

Interestingly enough, these social creatures are used in military assignments where the Sea-Lion can sneak up on an enemy in the water to attach clamp to their leg. I assume to stop them from proceeding to the ship. This comes from their ability to swim silently! Isn't that crazy?



I spent some time with some friends from Mendocino before the Godwit Days Festival. We work with these friends at Out of This World. They sell a variety of optical equipment and books. This is a really neat store and you can look out onto the rocky Pacific coast right from their store front. I would recommend visiting!

After that I left for Humboldt county where I was tipped off to a likely first-year Yellow-billed Loon at Elk River Slough in Eureka, CA. I rushed over there immediately since I had only seen one of these guys before in my life.....in Iowa ironically! The bird was swimming the channel at ridiculously close distances. It was real easy to study this bird that breeds in the high Alaskan/Canadian arctic and rarely comes down to the lower 48. Most commonly found in winter on west coast. The farther north on the coast the more likely you are to encounter one. Notice the large yellowish bill with a pronounced gonydeal angle. This loon holds its head tilted up when in the water. The spot on the auriculars actually is attached to the crown of the bird which contrasts with the lighter colored neck. Overall, this is our largest loon and is not easily mistaken (except with Common Loon at a distance). Judging by the amount of Flounder this bird was eating it may end up staying around a while.

One more quick thing to notice is the white edging on the coverts of the bird. This signifies a first-year bird whereas non-breeding adults would have some black and white edging on the tertials alone!