End

Here are the final San Francisco images from the trip... I might finally get out and do some proper UK birding now.

The house finch popped up in front of us while watching golden-crowned sparrow at the yatch club - a very dapper bird.

The red-shouldered hawk was, presumably like me, was dipping varied thrush in the Strybing arboretum in Golden Gate Park.

The black phoebe was near the rose garden in Golden Gate Park and was one of the final images taken on the trip. The walk in the park was quite productive, with townsend's warbler, hermit thrush, american wigeon, red-tailed hawk, common yellow throat, chestnut-backed chickadee and pygmy nuthatch also noted. I had hoped for a few more duck species, but I suspect the weather was too nice to draw them in for food hand-outs.

All in all a great end to a winter trip - roll on the next one...

Calypte Anna

I'll finish today's posting with a couple of photographs of one of my favorite Californian species - anna's hummingbird. They're delightfully colourful and incredibly hardy. In particular, I love the way that a male bird can transform from an aparant "black-throated" bird to a vibrant red-pink iridescent throated bird with the turn of it's head - amazing!

These two birds were photographed near Crissy Fields on 9th January 2009 and were very vocal as they dashed around their business.

Pacific Surf

A walk along the San Francisco harbour front area to Crissy Fields produced some very close viewing of pacific birdlife - including these two fellas' here.

I was lucky enough to see the first UK pacific diver on an old quarry in Yorkshire a few years ago - unfortunately I saw it within a couple of hours of the news being released, so viewing was from a distant roadside prior to the landowners giving permission to view (for a ten quid parking fee) from the waters edge. My twitch companion Mark was boozing abroad at the time, so when he arrived back the following weekend I was able to head back down the road again for another go... annoyingly we had just passed Darlington when the pager informed of the diver flying off high!! So that was the end of that... In San Francisco there were several birds off-shore, the bird photographed here was one of two feeding among the moorings of yachts. Great views and a fantastic opportunity to see the chin-strap up close.

The surf scoter was also feeding among the moorings, I just love the orange on the multi-coloured bill and the piercing eye!

Glaucous-winged Gull

Pity this wasn't taken in Cleveland, UK..... I had some moderate success with this species on the trip, with birds noted at Santa Monica, an immature on Hawaii (where any gull species is rare) and several in San Francisco. This adult, was photographed in San Francisco on the waterfront on 9th January 2009; it superficially resembles the bird that was in Cleveland at the very same time - heavily streaked head of winter adult with nice grey primaries and bright pink legs. For those regular readers of this blog you may well have noted that this species was predicted to turn up this winter way back in November (see this post) - however, it had a bit of a cheek to do so when I was out of the UK!! (I dipped it twice upon return...) Nevertheless, a great species that I expect to become available again in the UK... I hope!

Two Sparrows

Golden-crowned sparrow was a new species for me on this trip, and prove to be fairly numerous on our walk to Crissy Fields, with others seen in Golden Gate Park. I like the yellow on it's forecrown, a nice tough on what is relatively a dull coloured bird! This species was often in mixed flocks of white-crowned and song sparrow.

The song sparrow was photographed at Crissy Fields - I've a bit of a soft spot for photographs of birds on rusty wire fences (see below, yellow-rumped warbler...), very "rustic"?... maybe not!

Two Warblers

It was a return to cooler temperatures in San Francisco, our final destination of this trip. Featured here are two warbler species: yellow-rumped and orange crowned.

The yellow-rumped warbler was photographed at Crissy Fields, and was a common species in SF. A tricky species to photograph as they were very active feeding in the low coastal bushes - I struck lucky here when one bird landed on the fencing as I was waiting for a black phoebe to return.

The orange-crowned warbler was feeding under Fort Mason and was very inconspicuous. Not the best photograph as the light was poor in the undergrowth. Above us several red-masked parakeet were squabbling, quite a bizarre sight on a grey January morning!

Another Occidentalis

A gull this time! Western gull is a very stocky bird with quite a heavy bill (I reckon it could do some damage...) - it was probably the most encountered gull species on the trip, both at Santa Monica and San Francisco. Whilest staying in Los Angeles I would often seen small groups of this gull heading back to the coast as dusk approached.

Given it's abundance I was able to get a nice selection of images including several age groups - presented here are a juvenile/1st winter, 2nd winter and adult. Interestingly this species has plumage variation between northern and southern birds, with the latter having a darker toned mantle. Given the tone of the adult in the image above I'm guessing that this particular bird was "southern".

Only Occidentalis

First week back at work since the trip is now complete, so in effort to stay awake and finally get the body clock back to the UK timezone (a week of night shift has kept me in virtual Pacific time!) I've not gone to bed this morning and started ploughing through some more photographs.

Today's selection will take in the remainder of the Santa Monica images and onto Hawaii.

First up here is western grebe - this lone bird was photographed off the end of Santa Monica pier, dodging the many fishing lines. Many more were observed off San Francisco (Maritime National Historic Park, Crissy Field etc), none of which were as close as this bird. Regretfully for me, no clark's grebe were seen for comparison.

Heermann's

I've a bit of a soft spot for heermann's gulls - they're a very attractive species. On the trip birds were seen at Santa Monica and San Francisco - all the images here are from the former destination. Heermann's gull is almost exclusively coastal in all seasons, with the wintering rage extending up the California coast just north of San Francisco.

The dark brown immature bird is almost skua-like in plumage and was a bold as the waders on the shore. It's the first immature heermann's that I'd seen and none were encountered further north in San Francisco.

The non-breeding bird was on the pier (head-shot photograph), waiting for food hand-outs no doubt.

Several breeding adults were also present - I love the plumage - airbrushed qulity to the grey body and white head, vibrant red bill - very striking!

Cold

It certainly is. Arrived back in the UK on Sunday 11th mid afternoon and spent the rest of the day trying to get back into "normal mode". Retired to bed early evening and woke up at 03.30 - jet lag has set in!

Ok, down to business - here's a rough list of the species seen while I was away. Departed UK on 29th December for 2 nights in Los Angeles - birding was restricted to a morning at Santa Monica beach, then onto Hawaii (the Big Island) for seven nights at the Hilton Waikoloa Village. During the stay on Hawai'i we were able to take a full day excursion with Hawai'i Forest & Trail to the permit only Hakalau reserve - more on this great biring day in another post. Departing Hawaii on the morning of the 7th we headed to San Francisco for 3 nights via a few hours stop over at Honolulu on Oahu.

I've taken a heap of photographs, these will creep onto the blog over the next few weeks.

The unofficial "list", probably with spelling mistakes etc:

1. great white egret



2. american crow



3. anna's hummingbird



4. black phoebe



5. yellow rumped warbler



6. western gull



7. western scrub jay



8. bushtit



9. house sparrow



10. starling



11. mourning dove



12. sanderling



13. brewers blackbird



14. heermann's gull



15. double crested cormorant



16. brandt's cormorant



17. pacific diver



18. surf scoter



19. marbled godwit



20. willet



21. brown pelican



22. glaucous-winged gull (SM/Hawaii (Waikoloa imm on 3rd Jan, rare but annual on Big Island)/SF))



23. herring gull



24. forster's tern



25. california gull



26. common myna



27. nutmeg mannikin



28. spotted dove



29. zebra dove



30. pacific golden plover - unbelievably common and tame on Hawaii: car parks, grass verges on roads, garage roofs.... !



31. saffron finch



32. wandering tattler



33. black-crowned night heron



34. japanese white-eye



35. yellow billed cardinal



36. northern cardinal



37. african silverbill



38. bristle-thighed curlew (star bird on trip, single at Waikoloa throughout stay - oblivious to humans, many, many photographs taken!!)



39. short-eared ("hawaiian") owl - seen at close range on Saddle Road



40. ring-necked pheasant (inc green morph)



41. erckel's francolin



42. skylark



43. hawaiian hawk - pale and dark morph seen



44. wild turkey



45. kalij pheasant



46. red-billed leiothrix



47. house finch



48. yellow fronted canary



49. 'elepaiao - ridgwayi form



50. 'omao



51. 'akepa



52. 'amakihi



53. hawaiian creeper



54. 'apanane



55. 'i'wii



56. nene



57. java sparrow



58. ruddy turnstone



59. hawaiian stilt - 5 on pools north of hotel



60. grey francolin



61. red-vented bulbul



62. red-whiskered bulbul



63. red-crested cardinal



64. mew gull



65. ring-billed gull



66. western grebe



67. orange-crowned warbler



68. red-masked parakeet



69. great blue heron



70. greater scaup



71. ruddy duck



72. bufflehead



73. pied billed grebe



74. eared (black-necked) grebe



75. killdeer



76. least sandpiper



77. song sparrow



78. white-crowned sparrow



79. goldened-crowned sparrow



80. california towhee



81. american coot



82. snowy egret



83. northern mockingbird



84. red-winged blackbird



85. mallard



86. canada goose



87. chestnut backed chickadee



88. american robin



89. common yellowthroat



90. townsends warbler



91. ruby crowned kinglet



92. dark eyed junco



93. hermit thrush



94. raven



95. red-tailed hawk



96. red-shouldered hawk



97. american wigeon



98. pygmy nuthatch



99. red-breasted nuthatch

Annoyingly 'akiapola'au was only heard in Hakalau.

Bay Area Birding

Spent an hour or so at Hauxley NR today - located at the top of Druridge Bay - both bean and white-fronted goose had been reported on the 20th. Alas, there was no sign of either - just a large group of grey-lag and a few canada. Red-breasted merganser and goldeneye were about the best I could manage and with rapidly fading light (and a hungary stomach) I headed back home.

One advantage of quiet winter afternoons is the increased time available to browse through some older photographs - so keeping with the theme of the last post, here are a few more from California in May 2006, all were taken using a Canon 10D with a Canon 100-400mm IS lens - from the top down: steller's jay (pacific form - interior west birds have white forehead markings rather than blue, this bird was at Yosemite), western scrub-jay (Golden Gate Park, San Francisco), heermann's gull (a personal favorite!, this bird was at Seaside on Robert's Lake), black phoebe (Golden Gate Park, San Francisco) and finally dark-eyed junco ("oregon" form, this bird was at Presidio, San Francisco).

California Dreaming

It's cold and dull in the north-east of England - time to reminisce to sunnier days... I spent a very pleasant two weeks in California during May 2006. The brandt's cormorant was photographed at Monterey - I love the blue on the throat patch! This bird was one of many nesting on the harbour walls near Tinnery Row. Could not spend too much time there though - they're very smelly!!

The acorn woodpecker was at Yosemite and was very abundant throughout the trip. In Carmel most of the telegraph poles were riddled with stored acorns.

Two hummingbird species were photographed in San Francisco - allen's and anna's. The anna's hummer was photographed at Crissy Field - a wonderful reserve founded upon an old airfield site that was flooded to create a small wetland. Ah, sunshine...