The Goleta Birder

  Whenever there is an El Nino, there is a lot of anticipation of rare pelagic species owing to the changes in water temperatures and potential displacement of species far from their normal abodes. In practice, there are a number of species – Least and Black Storm-petrels, Craveri’s Murrelets and Elegant Terns, for example – that do predictably move further north, but we are still waiting for Wedge-tailed Shearwaters to show up more commonly even though they are quite regular in numbers around the southern tip of Baja California. One group of birds that has become much commoner over the last decade is boobies. I was hopeful that the “Super El Nino” would bring in an influx of Masked, Nazca and Red-footed Boobies into Southern California mirroring the effect of the “Blob” a few years ago. Although sea surface temperatures were much warmer than normal in the spring, after that they failed to advance much through the early part of the summer and it was only in August that they sta...

  Although a few bird species that require coniferous forest are resident in the highest peaks of the San Rafael Mountains in Santa Barbara County, these mountains need special access permissions and require multi-hour drives on poorly maintained dirt roads. As a result, it makes more sense to drive a slightly longer amount of time to the California Sierras or other high mountain ranges in Southern California to see these species and several others that do not breed or winter regularly in the county. In my case, you may have read here that I just had driven a lot further to see many of these species in Washington and British Columbia. However, in some years the failure of cone crops can trigger irruptive behavior in many montane bird species when they can appear in areas far from their normal range. On the morning of September 5, I visited the Hollister Tech Park, which is sometimes a productive site for migrating warblers. I found very few warblers but was surprised to turn up...

  After waking up at dawn, I tidied up my sleeping gear in my car and headed over to Sun Mountain Lodge near Winthrop. This location has acquired a reputation as the go-to spot for Dusky Grouse in Washington. While the pressure was off since I had just finally seen one in BC, it would still be a ‘Washington bird’ for me and only the second time I had seen the species. Arriving at the parking lot, it was immediately apparent that the hotel grounds and immediate vicinity were very birdy, with numerous Pine Siskins, Cassin’s Finches, Mountain Chickadees and Red-breasted Nuthatches evident. I was surprised and skeptical to see what looked like a female Purple Finch in with the Cassin’s but eventually had at least two birds and heard their characteristic ‘pik’ flight calls. Multiple flyover sightings of Red Crossbills and Evening Grosbeaks rounded a nice set of montane finches. The hilltop position and irrigated green lawns and lush tree foliage likely made the location a minor migr...

  My original plan for Monday had been to look for Dusky Grouse with Gary and start the drive back to Washington State around lunchtime. However, with the morning now freed up and Stuart scheduled to visit the doctor, I decided to make a longish detour to bird the Salmon Arm, north of Kelowna. Salmon Arm is the premier shorebird location in interior BC and I had originally intended to include it on my itinerary. However, due to schedule constraints in returning to California, I had dropped the idea. Now that I was a couple of days ahead of schedule, I decided to go there. Similar to E WA and NE OR, the interior of BC is more on the shorebird flyway that passes through the Great Plains and Texas than the Pacific Coast. As a result, species such as Baird’s, Pectoral, Solitary, Stilt and Semipalmated Sandpipers are proportionately much commoner than on the Pacific Coast. Given the Salmon Arm probably offers more extensive habitat than any other location in the interior Pacific North...

  I had planned for a four-day stay in Burton, British Columbia, where my brother Stuart lives. I spent the time there socializing and doing some casual birding and butterflying in the immediate vicinity. I had arranged to meet a local birder – Gary Davidson – to drive up some logging roads near Nakusp to look for Dusky Grouse on my last morning. I had done this on my previous two visits and was hoping it would be 'third time lucky'. Gary also suggested that we meet the previous morning at Burton Creek mouth, along the shore of Arrow Lake, a spot that can be productive for shorebirds when the lake level is low. Unfortunately, the lake level rose immediately before I arrived and there was very little shorebird habitat present. The creek mouth had good numbers of Canada Geese and Common Mergansers and small numbers of other ducks, including three Hooded Mergansers, three Pintail and six Green-winged Teal. A Solitary Sandpiper was the main shorebird highlight. Common Loons, Ospr...

  On August 17, I began the 1500-mile drive north to visit my brother, who lives in Burton in interior British Columbia. I was planning to do some birding in Washington State to get a few new state birds on the way up. My initial goal was to see the three remaining shorebirds that occur at more or less annually in the state that I had not seen, followed by a visit to the boreal forests in the extreme NE corner of the state. I arrived in WA around 4 pm on Aug 18 and proceeded to check out some ponds near Pasco for shorebirds. The water levels and viewing angles were not that great and the best were four Solitary Sandpipers I saw flying off.   At that point, I decided to drive to another set of ponds about an hour away that had some good recent ebird lists. Upon arrival, I saw no fewer than five Solitary Sandpipers in a single scan, as well as a Semipalmated Sandpiper in with the Leasts and Westerns, both yellowlegs and Black-necked Stilts. All very nice but not what I was hop...