Santa Barbara owl

Micah Schloss and I made great efforts this year to find a Spotted Owl in Santa Barbara.  Sadly, we couldn't turn one up.  We recommitted ourselves to that goal again yesterday, and decided to try to stir up the Short Eared Owl that has been seen lately at a place called More Mesa.

We found it quickly, just beginning its hunt, patrolling over a large meadow.  This bird came in particularly close, and we got excellent looks at it in flight - illuminated by the final sunset of 2012.  It was a life bird for me, and a good way to close out birding in 2012.

Great job this year gang.  I had a lot of fun doing this together, and I'm a better birder for it.

Here is the bird, photographed earlier in Dec.  

christmas birding in CT

I had a few days of birding opportunity in Connecticut this past week.  Folks had been reporting Razorbill's in fairly good numbers for all of December on Long Island Sound, so I birded with Beth and my sister and her boyfriend.  We couldn't turn up any Razorbills.  Weather was poor, visibility was pretty low, and the barometric pressure was dropping - the birds were settling down.  

We didn't see any Razorbill, but were able to get great looks at Golden Eye, Long Tailed Ducks, Red Breasted Merganser's, and lots of Brandt and Common Loon.

We were able to add the following birds to the year list:

Common Merganser (414)

Pine Warbler

Red Crossbill

Winter Wren

Boat Tailed Grackle (418)

Also, Pete saw a Brown Headed Nuthatch in Alabama.  

Below is a male Long Tailed Duck that had been blown into a tree during a storm on the previous night.  It was laying in that puddle of cold water when I came across it.  Intensely beautiful bird. 

Birds

Hey guys,

I have been birding.  A lot of new birds for me, but not any new ones for our year list.  Liz also got a new camera and lens, which has been fun to play with.  Some photos are below.

The first set of photos came from our trip to Santa Cruz Island (home of the endemic Island Scrub-Jay, which Matt got earlier in the year).  That was the main target, and we saw about a dozen or so of them on our three days there.  I also got to see an endemic sub-species of Loggerhead Shrike, and an endemic Island Fox.  Perhaps the most exciting bird out there was a Summer Tanager, which is listed as only a vagrant on the island.

On the way out, there were plenty of Common Murres and Black-Vented Shearwaters.

The day after we got back, I was able to see a Painted Redstart and Summer Tanager that have been at a park near Pasadena.

And most exciting for me were some UCR birds this week (although I didn't have the camera).  I was looking for a wintering Verdin, which I was able to find.  But along the way I found a Green-Tailed Towhee.  This was exciting for me because last year, after the Verdin was reported, I went to find it and found both the Verdin and the Towhee.  But the Towhee was my first time finding a rare bird (or at least rare for the area), and since nobody was able to relocate the bird, I had begun to doubt whether I actually saw it over the last year.  So I nearly flipped when I saw the bird this week, back for its second winter.

Gray Hawk in Summerland

Gray Hawk found about 1.2 miles from our apartment in Summerland.

This is the first Gray Hawk EVER recorded in the state of California.  The magnitude of this bird being seen here is off the charts.  There are birders from all over coming to see it. A woman was crying yesterday after she saw it.

I've missed it twice - and mostly thats because its active in the mornings - I've been at work.  Hoping to take a few minutes off tomorrow morning and get a chance to see it.  I think its the most important bird in the USA right now.  1 mile from my place!!!

Monterey harbor seabirds

The day after Thanksgiving we sped up North for a chance to get on a famous Monterey Bay Whale watch.  Although its not prime whale season, or prime pelagic bird season, it was still a great chance to explore the incredible offshore eco-system there.  Here is what we were able to see, I had a really great time.

Red Phalarope  (407)
Rhinoceros Auklet
Cassin's Auklet (my favorite)
Black-Footed Albatross
Wandering Tattler (on the breakwater, pointed out to me by another friendly birder)
Pigeon Guillemot (412) 
Pacific Loon
Common Loon
Red Throated Loon (in the harbor, great looks)
Horned Grebe
Eared Grebe
Northern Fulmar
Black-Vented Shearwater
Brown Pelican
(dave)Brandt's Cormorant
Pelagic Cormorant
Surf Scoter
Heerman's Gull
California Gull
Western Gull
Bonaparte's Gull
Common Murre

One of the crew member's saw a Tufted Puffin - I got a nano-second look at it, but nothing more than just a blob of gray.  After thinking about it the last couple days, I don't want to include the Puffin.  It wasn't a confirmed sighting, and I just didn't see it well enough.

The woman who runs the whale watch let us bring Poppy on the boat:   She kept barking at the Pelicans as they sailed smoothly past our clipper.

Big Sur - Thanksgiving

Spent two days exploring around Big Sur for the holiday.  The temperatures were mild, and I had heard of a Gray Whale carcass that had washed up at a notable Condor spot....conditions were excellent.

I scanned the ridge near Julia Pheiffer State Park, and saw one condor day roosting.  Even from the farthest reaches of my Alpen, I could tell that I had a California Condor in view.  I could see the tag, and the tremendous pink/orange head on the creature was unmistakeable.  Plus, the bird was massive.....but it was still abouut 3/4 of a mile away.  After about 20 minutes of watching this bird sit completely still, Beth and I heard a whirring and whoosh come from behind us as 2 adult Condor's zoomed directly above head!  They stayed close circling within 40 feet of us, and one of them even eventually set down on a bald rockface.  The looks were perfect, couldn't have asked for any better viewing of the birds.  This Condor encounter tops a majority of all my other bird experiences this year....and it felt good to have such close encounters with these Condors, the rarest of species.

We also had good luck with an AMERICAN DIPPER (406) on an early morning walk....watched that thing do its water dance for about 15 minutes.  Very excellent bird.


Here I am scanning the beach below for any Condors that might be feeding on dead things washed ashore.

Ben

Go get that Pink-Footed Goose.

Or better yet, tell it to stick around Peace Valley Park until December 28, when I get to PA.