After the excellent pelagic in September and the recent run of rarities on land, I had high hopes for a 12-hour pelagic on October 11 followed by the next cruise down to the booby colony at Santa Barbara Island on October 13. Unfortunately, rough sea conditions caused by a combination of the first storm of the winter from the NW and the tail end of a hurricane system from further south resulted in the first boat being cancelled. The booby cruise was still on and with the hope that the remnants of the hurricane might have brought something exotic up from the south, I was busy studying up on potential rarities like Juan Fernandez Petrel. Countering such optimism were recent reports from pelagic birding and fishing trips off LA and Orange County where very few birds had been seen.
Once the pelagic proper got underway after we left Scorpion
Anchorage on Santa Cruz Island, we ran into a couple of issues that we don’t
normally face. First, the hurricane had added a southwest swell component to
the usual northwest swell. Secondly, the lack of a marine layer meant we were
heading almost directly into the sun. The combination of a bumpy ride and
difficult viewing conditions made it challenging to see the birds well. This
was especially true as the great majority of the birds were storm-petrels.
As we headed south from the Anacapa Passage, Captain Joel
spotted a whale, whose blow was coming out at an angle. Suspecting a Sperm
Whale, we hightailed it over and had great prolonged close-range views of it.
This was either a ‘lifer’ or the best ever anyone on the boat had had of a
Sperm Whale and even though we were all birders, everyone was very happy.
We did get good looks at a couple of juvenile Sabine’s Gulls
and eventually all got reasonable views of Ashy, Black and Least Storm-petrels.
It was disappointing that we failed to see any ‘black-and-white’ murrelets as
Craveri’s has been easy the last few falls and this year has been good for
Guadalupe.
On arrival at the booby colony, we quickly found a mostly
adult Nazca Booby followed by two Blue-footed Boobies among all the Cocos.
Since the Red-footed Boobies recently on Anacapa Island had been roosting on
their own away from the other boobies, I suggested that Joel run the boat along
the E side of the island so we could check out various roosting areas for
cormorants and pelicans. Embarrassingly, I dozed off and almost missed the
first island record of Yellow-crowned Night-Heron! Fortunately, Dave Pereksta –
another leader – realized I would want to the see the bird and woke me up in
time so the boat could double back to the spot to see it again.
The return trip yielded some more nice looks at
storm-petrels and Red Phalaropes. Anacapa had a lot of Cocos Boobies, but no
other species.
A couple of days later, I was back on an Island Packers boat
again, this time heading out to Scorpion for a three-day camping trip. There
were three nights of “Santa Ana” winds, which blow offshore and are often good
for migrant arrivals on Santa Barbara Island and the other islands further
south. My previous experience with Santa Ana winds at Scorpion had been so-so,
but I put that down to the fact that these had blown more from the E rather
than the NE, where the current winds were coming from.
On arrival at the island, there were no sparrows at some of
the usual places that have flocks, but getting into the campground, I located a
few Purple Finches, doubtless a product the montane bird irruption. Shortly
afterwards, I found a cracking Red Fox Sparrow – a race that winters east of
the Rockies. I will have to check, but I think this is the first pure Red I
have seen in the county.
Although there were plenty of White-crowned Sparrows and juncos,
along with a number of Chipping Sparrows, I struggled to find many other
migrants with the best being a fairly late Western Wood-pewee and a Black-throated
Gray Warbler. Even worse, I missed a flyover flock of six Clark’s Nutcrackers
that would have been an island bird for me. Late in the day, I found a juvenile
Cooper’s Hawk, the first I had ever seen on the island, although it seems a
little more frequent in the interior.
The next day, after a check around Scorpion, I set out on
the almost seven mile round trip to Smugglers Cove on the south side of the
island. Smugglers has more fruit trees, including olives and figs, than
Scorpion and I was hopeful there might be some tanagers or thrushes hanging out
there. The peculiar nature of the last winter, in which we had very heavy
rainfall during November and December, but virtually none after that, seems to
have greatly reduced fruiting on many trees along the south coast and the same situation
was apparent at Smugglers, with only a few olive trees having anything. The
birding here was even duller than Scorpion, although I was happy to see a
couple of immature or female Lawrence’s Goldfinches.
After arriving back at Scorpion, I found another Lawrence’s
Goldfinch there, while persistent checking of the (Oregon) junco flocks turned
up a Gray-headed Junco. Late on, I finally got visual confirmation of two
female Cassin’s Finches, which I had suspected of hearing earlier in the day.
The second day had been very windy until late afternoon, which
had hampered birding. It had also cancelled the boat which was due to arrive
along with two of birding friends planning to camp with me – Hugh Ranson and Peter
Gaede. Fortunately for them, they didn’t miss anything really rare, at least
from a Santa Barbara County perspective.
The third morning, while still having offshore winds, was
less windy. I wandered out towards the beach where the creek mouth had a couple
of drinking spots. These were created by big tides coming over the beach and dumping
water in the creek bed. The subsequent water was apparently fresh enough for
birds to drink and this morning, a lot of birds were coming in. Over a period
of some 45 minutes, I had good numbers and diversity of species, highlighted by
three Lawrence’s Goldfinches, a Cedar Waxwing and a Vesper Sparrow. Working back
up the valley a couple of times yielded at least seven Purple Finches, two pairs
of Cassin’s Finches and, best of all, a Clark’s Nutcracker. A second
Gray-headed Junco showed up but, despite a lot of scrutiny, I could not come up
with a pure-looking Pink-sided Junco, although I did find one bird that appeared
to be an intergrade between Pink-sided and Oregon. Migrant diversity was significantly
better on this last day with two each of Merlin and Western Tanager and singles
of Western Wood-Pewee, American Robin and Western Kingbird, in addition to a
couple of mixed flocks of cowbirds and blackbirds. While the montane species were
good for the island, the overall experience was disappointing, and I was surprised
to miss birds like Clay-colored Sparrow and Palm Warbler that can often be
found out here later in fall as well as failing to see anything rarer. Well,
there is always next time …
Thanks to Peter Schneekloth for the Sperm Whale pictures.
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