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.

Day of the Oystercatcher

Mid morning - Montaña de Oro Bluff Trail - The resident Black Oystercatchers were carrying on something fierce - in groups of four to six, they were flying noisily between rock formations, and I do mean noisily. (above photo - Oystercatcher habitat)

Their high piercing sound, which makes them easy to identify, can be heard at a distance of at least a 1/4 mile.  The Oystercatchers were very active along the bluffs this warm, spring like morning.

Fortune shined when the opportunity arose to observe two separate flocks of four, flying between formations.  The lead pair would find a suitable rock and land. The second pair looking like they were going to land in the same area, would suddenly veer off to a nearby, but not close, rock. (Oystercatcher pair by Mike Baird)

Being a romantic at heart I thought this behavior might indicate the beginning of the breeding season, as fledged juveniles do not go off on their own until the next breeding season.  Perhaps this behavior was an indication that breeding season was near and that the juveniles now have to face the reality that adulthood is just around the next rock. (flying Oystercatchers by Mike Baird)

Today, Black Oystercatchers dominated the scene.  I wonder what tomorrow will bring. 

Pickleweed - A Yummie Treat!

First, a little information on pickleweed.  Photo of Black Phoebe - Note the pickleweed turning red.

Morro Bay Estuary - Pickleweed, is ideally suited to the estuary as it can survive periodic inundation by salt water; saltwater travels up through the pickleweed roots where it is stored in the top of the plant.  In the fall the top sections turn red and fall off, and the cycle begins anew.  Pickleweed which covers most of the estuary provides habitat for many species of animals, such as insects, crabs, a variety birds, including shore birds, song birds, wading birds, ducks and geese. 

Morro Bay Marina Boardwalk - Yesterday morning - An extreme high tide silently pushed many species of the bay birds to the edge of the pickleweed, and as a consequence making them much easier to observe from the boardwalk that I was standing on.

"Much easier to observe," is rather an understatement, for only a few feet away were eight Brant intently feeding in the pickleweed.  Usually, Brant fly if you are within 500 feet.  A boy rolled by on a scooter and the geese didn't even raise an eyebrow.  I watched them for about an hour and as the tide ebbed and hundreds of Avocets, accompanied by three Caspian Tern, moved into the shallow water, the Brant continued browsing through the pickleweed.  For me and two out of town birders this was a rare sighting.  

 Now I am faced with a question, what were they eating?  Ah, a bird related mystery that bears investigation.   Oh, oh, it's getting late, had better finish this blog and get my stocking hung on the fireplace.  Do not want to miss Santa.  Merry Holidays.

Birding Morro Bay Beach

Morro Bay Beach - Weather coolish, cloudy and breezy.  As you can see in the photo the beach was very quiet.  I was hoping to see two winter visitors, Bonaparte's Gull and Mew Gull.  Fortunately there were only a few gulls on the beach, making it easier to spot the little migrants as they moved between a small beach pond and the edge of the surf. 
 
Bonaparte's Gull at 12-13 inches in length is the smallest gull (photo above).  Both gulls breed in Alaska and Northern Canada and winter along the west coast.  A fascinating aspect of the Mew Gull (photo below) is that it is the only gull that nests in trees.  And you will never guess who Bonaparte's Gulls are named after  -  Napoleon's brother, Charles Lucien Bonaparte who was a leading ornithologist in the 1800's. 

When trying to ID the Bonaparte's Gull and the Mew Gull keep in mind they are about 1/2 the size of a common Western Gull and are often alone or on the edge of a group of Gulls. 

Other beach birds - Feeding in the breaking surf was a mixed flock of Surf Scoter, female Bufflehead, and Eared Grebe.   Farther out was a flock of Western Grebe.   After a chilly hour of birding the beach it was time for a cup of tea.

Birding South to North

This morning's bird-a-thon began at the Baywood Pier.  A great Egret was checking the Blue-winged and Cinnamon Teal, two Greater Yellowleg were in attendance.  Nearby were 16 Brant Goose.  A few days ago a Brant count was taken, a total of 163, a drastic decline from the typical numbers of 2,000 - 3,000.

Sweet Springs 32 species.  Favorites were - Wigeon, Black-bellied plover, and a noisy Kingfisher.

Continued my bird quest south a mile or so to the ponds at the Sea Pines Golf Course.  At the larger pond were two female Common Goldeneye, an A+ sighting; the smaller pond held 5 species, Mallard, Shoveler, Bufflehead, Ruddy Duck, and Pied Billed Grebe.  On the grass were several hundred coots or more. The local eagle has a taste for Coots.

Next stop,  El Chorro Park, 5 miles south/east of Morro Bay.  The numerous pepper trees were loaded with plump red berries.  America Robin, some with very deep red/orange breasts, were indulging in a berry frenzy; counted 50 Robins in and under this one pepper tree (photo).   Among the Robins were, Golden and White-crowned Sparrow, Hermit Thrush and several pair of Western Bluebird.   

 A few days ago birded Estero Bluffs with Harry and Norma Catchpole.   Our feathered friends were abundant -   Pelican, Cormorant, Turnstone, Surf Scoter, Western Grebe, Whimbrel,  etc.  At Villa Creek, the northern end of Estero Bluffs we experienced a lengthy sighting of a Pectoral Sandpiper, a first for the Catchpoles.  It was concentrating on eating flies and was not alarmed by our presence.  The best sighting of the day, and probably of the month was a male Peregrine Falcon diving on a poor little Forster's Tern; the Tern managed to elude the Peregrine (yeah for the little guy).   Happy Birding!


 

BRANT HUNTING ON MORRO BAY BEGINS NOV. 8

 The Black Brant hunting season is upon us, beginning Saturday the 8th to December 7th.  Waterfowl season opens concurrent with the Brant season and goes through January 25.  Waterfowl includes all  species   https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Hunting/Waterfowl   

Below is a photo of Green-winged Teal and Cinnamon Teal.  Morro Bay is officially designated as a bird sanctuary and a nature preserve.  I find that difficult to believe, especially when I hear the shotgun blasts.  Heaven help all the migratory Geese and Waterfowl that come to Morro Bay for sanctuary.

Morro Bay Marina Boardwalk - High Tide Birding

Morro Bay Calif - High tide is an excellent time to go birding from the Morro Bay Marina Boardwalk.  An incoming tide causes the shorebirds to feed in the pickleweed; the higher the tide, the closer the birds are to the boardwalk. 
 
Today observed huge flocks of Godwit, Willet; a few Long-billed Curlew (top photo); and one Whimbrel.  Here and there, Black-bellied Plover and Dowitcher.   In wetter areas several Killdeer and a solitary Spotted Sandpiper (above photo).  Farther out in the estuary were Great Blue Heron, and Great and Snowy Egret; even farther out, a flock of Avocet.

All the shorebirds birds were busy feeding until a Turkey Vulture (below photo) made a low pass, causing panic and chaos, thousands of birds took flight; the sound of the wings was music to my ears. In a few minutes the shorebirds were back feeding, their worries over for the moment.  Do believe Turkey Vultures enjoy teasing shorebirds.
 
On the inland side of the boardwalk, in the extremely dry vegetation, birds were sparse - White-crowned Sparrow, Song Sparrow,  Bewick's Wren, a glance at a Palm Warbler, and to my delight, a Fox Sparrow - my second sighting of the year; the first was sighted on Alcatraz Island (the previous blog post). 

Before the boardwalk, there was a path along the edge of the estuary.  At high tides the path filled with water and for days afterward was totally unusable.   Now, one can leave their hip boots home and bird the estuary with ease.