Bird Festival Birding

The Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival is an annual 4 day event to celebrate birds, birds, and more birds.  My friend Cathy arrived from Palm Spring to join in on the festivities. She was scheduled for a field trip, a workshop, and to help with the evening's reception.  Fortunately she had nothing planned for the morning.  

Our first stop - The Morro Bay Marina

Birders with binocs, scopes, and cameras were everywhere. To say the birds were cooperative is an understatement.  They must have known that this was the Bird Festival Weekend.  Immediately we saw Pintail, Lesser Scaup, 3 species of Grebe, Ruddy Duck, Bufflehead, Shoveler, and the "pièce de résistance," a glorious Red-tailed Hawk eating a Coot under a Pine tree.  Now how often does one have the opportunity to observe a scene like that?  In the above photo Cathy and a birding photographer are focused on the Red-tailed Hawk.  It had finished its meal and was perched on a branch watching the birders.

In addition to the plethora of water birds, there was also Spotted Sandpiper, Savannah Sparrow, Fox Sparrow and Ms. Black Phoebe.

In the above photo, Field Trip leader Rich Hansen awaits the arrival of his fledglings birders.  Little do the fledglings realize that they are going to have the birding experience of a lifetime.

Onward to Baywood.  At the northeastern edge of the bay we discovered Dowitcher, Dunlin (I have not seen for ages), a solitary Avocet and a flock of resting Sanderling.  The highlight of the morning occurred off the Sweet Springs overlook.  A perfect ebbing tide allowed for memorable viewing of dozens of dabblers feeding with their feathered bottoms pointeing toward the sky.  Undoubtedly our Bird Festival Birding was the best birding ever.

BIRD FESTIVAL BIRDING

I led two walks for the Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival - The Cloisters and the Marina Boardwalk.

Cloisters Pond and Park  -  Nine enthusiastic birders showed up for the stroll through the Cloisters.  We were fortunate to see 31 species.  A flock of Western Meadowlark feeding on the lawn, gave us a beautiful view of their brilliant yellow breasts.  On the shrinking pond (the drought is taking a toll) were several Northern Shoveler, many Mallards, a Northern Pintail, and Pied-billed Grebe (Pied - having patches of two or more colors).  Resting in the reeds were Black-crowned Night Heron and Great Blue Heron.  Black and Say's Phoebe made an appearance; always fun to see the flycatchers. While ambling along the paths we were serenaded by a perky California Thrasher perched atop a Bush Lupine.

 The Morro Bay Marina Boardwalk and Trail - The weather was fantastic, temperature warm, tide high, and the bay like glass.  The marina is a cozy size which makes the feeding and resting birds easy to observe.  As soon as we stepped on to the path we saw Bufflehead, Greater Scaup, Ruddy Duck, and an Eared Grebe (photo).  An active discussion ensued over the difference between the Greater and Lesser Scaup.

Identifying Greater from Lesser can be a challenge, to say the least.  "In bright sunlight and at the right angle the Greater Scaup may show green iridescence on its head and neck.  The Lesser Scaup may also show green iridescence but can also show purple, which is never seen on the Greater Scaup." (a quote from birding.about.com.)

34 species were identified.  We were all in agreement that the best sighting was a small flock of Fox Sparrow.  They are the largest sparrow, brown to reddish brown, have a dark brown speckled breast, and scratch in the leaf litter for insects.  We were on the boardwalk when we spotted several digging in the sandy leaf litter.  They are known as enthusiastic diggers.  The little darlings were digging with such intense enthusiasm that the sand was flying - a first sighting for several of the birders.  A Merlin perched on a twig in a nearby Eucalyptus was our last sighting - a great way to end a memorable morning of birding the Marina Boardwalk.

Cloisters Pond - Pre-Birding

Christmas Morning - Cloisters Pond - On the 17th of January I will be leading an "Easy Birding" walk in the Cloisters Park.  My goal this a.m. was to find out what birds to expect on the day of the walk.  Due to a total lack of rain, the pond is shrinking, and the vegetation along the park paths is extremely dry and birds are scarce (nothing to eat I figure).  The park lawn and some of the plants are watered which helps in providing habitat and insects for the warblers and flycatchers; the number one attraction for the birds is the pond.  The majority of the 26 species I observed were in or around the pond or on the lawn.

The above photo was taken from the overlook; as I approached, a family that had been feeding the ducks crumbs, were leaving.  The Mallard Ducks, being more skittish, moved closer to the water which left the Sparrows pecking at the crumbs.  As I was watching the little darlings, a California Thrasher came into view - a most unusual sighting.  Ca. Thrashers are usually off in the distance singing from atop a tall bush.  I am hoping this Thrasher will appear on the "Easy Birding" walk in January.   For a 24 second, could stand improvement Thrasher video, go to  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hcp6sMyvFE&feature=em-share_video_user
 
 
 On my last visit to the pond I saw a male Northern Pintail Duck - a first-time Cloisters sighting (photo from wikipedia - with tailfeathers).  Male Pintails have long, pointy tail feathers, and this fellow was missing his tail.  He was probably hanging around the pond waiting for his tail feathers to grow back.  And sure enough his pointy tail feathers were sprouting, but they had a looong way to go.  I am hoping this handsome male will make an appearance in January.

Since the majority of the Cloisters birds are located in and around the pond, it looks like "Easy Birding" will be easy birding.

NO ONE GAVE A HOOT

Yesterday, gave the first of two "Easy Birding" walks in the Cloister's Park. Weather was coolish with a slight breeze, and puffy clouds. Our total bird count was 21. Most exciting was the brilliant yellow breast of a Meadowlark. A flock of these fine looking birds can be found in the grass east of the playground. Many of them were posturing, with head and neck pointing up, much like a Bittern. Co-leader Sylvia (photo) and I thought the posturing was part of their mating ritual. A lovely morning, but there was a bit of a snag. No one showed up. I do hope attendance is better for tomorrow's walk.

Well, that was yesterday. On to this morning. For some unknown reason, after a cup of delicious coffee and dressed in several layers of warm clothing, and with flashlight in hand, I headed toward Sweet Springs, to listen for the gentle hoot of a Great Horned Owl. The time was 6:00a.m. In route I had a phenomenal sighting - a meteor flashed by. It was in our atmosphere. It was not a tiny dot, but a bright object moving very fast from south to north east.

The Owl was gently hooting from somewhere in Sweet Springs. No one was about. A breeze came up. Not wanting to come across a skunk or raccoons I opted not to enter the dark and spooky looking forest. I did go a few yards in but turned around when it got winder. A wise move on my part. Suddenly there was a large crash, more than likely one of the Eucalyptus falling. Fortunately it was not the tree the Owl was perched in, as he continued to hoot.