The next Fowlerope local day tour is this SUNDAY, 21 September, and will focus on finding vagrant landbirds in the well-known coastal migrant traps in the Humboldt Bay region. We will also chase any recently reported rarities that have been recently reported. You can easily sign up through paypal on my Local Day Tour page and find more information there for this and other upcoming trips.


Below is a gallery of images from the shorebirding trip: 

Happy Fall Migration!! -- Rob 

    Second-year Bald Eagle along the Mad River in Blue Lake, Humboldt County, CA.

    After dipping on both the grouse and the shrike we felt like we need a bit of a "pick-us-up" kind of birding experience so we decided to head down to the Ferndale Bottoms to look for one of Ian's other desired birds, ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK. Ian was very keen on trying to see the North American subspecies of birds like Barn Owl, Rough-legged Hawk and Northern Shrike for the chance that they might be split into their own species at some point down the road. We all agreed that the best plan was to head to Ferndale for the Rough-legged and also maybe luck into the continuing adult WHITE MORPH GYRFALCON that had been causing quite the birding rage after being correctly identified on 6 February. This is the first Gyr to be found in California that wasn't a gray/brown morph immature and sent a wave of excitement through the CA birding scene with many birders traveling to Humboldt to look for this stunning raptor.
    We drove straight from Blue Lake to Ferndale and made in about an hours time with a brief stop along Highway 101 so Ian could photograph some ALEUTIAN CACKLING GEESE that were near the road. We arrived at the Eel River Estuary Preserve around 1:30 p.m. and some satisfied birders that were just leaving reported that they had great looks at the GYR! After signing in we walked right up to the Gyr and had somewhat distant, but satisfying views of the bird. How often do you get to walk up to a white morph Gyrfalcon in California. Answer = NEVER! I got some poor digiscoped photos of the bird that you can see below:

Adult Rough-legged Hawk. Eel River Estuary Preserve 16 Feb. Digiscoped image highly cropped. Note the grayish head, the washed out belly band and the thin blackish bands in the tail which may point to this being a male.

While at the preserve we saw a couple of flocks of Aleutian Cackling Geese flying over, also.

    After leaving the preserve we drove through the Ferndale Bottoms in an effort to look for maybe a closer FERRUGINOUS HAWK or another ROUGH-LEGGED. We didn't find a FERRUGINOUS but did find another adult ROUGH-LEGGED, this one being an adult male, also due to the mottled bib, and no fully dark belly band like on a female.. A couple of photos below:

After spending some time with this 2nd Rough-legged we decided that we should probably go back and try again for Ian's much wanted RUFFED GROUSE since we missed them in the morning. Did we get it?..........................................................................................................
YUP!! WE DID!! And as you can tell we got extremely close to the bird along the road judging by Ian's awesome photos below:

By this time we saw the grouse it was getting late so we decided to call it a day and end on a high note. On the way back to the coast we stopped off at a beautiful vista along Maple Creek Rd. and got a nice group shot of us, post grouse success! Thanks to Ian for allowing use of some of his fine photos from the day here.

Species Name / Species Count: 49 species total

Cackling Goose (Aleutian) 200
Tundra Swan 20
Mallard 4
Northern Pintail x
Green-winged Teal x
Common Merganser 3
Ruffed Grouse 1 (lifer for Ian)
Great Egret 2
Turkey Vulture 14
White-tailed Kite 2
Northern Harrier 6
Bald Eagle 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 2
Red-tailed Hawk 9
Ferruginous Hawk 1
Rough-legged Hawk 2
American Coot x
Killdeer 2
California Gull 1
gull sp. 7
Mourning Dove 15
Barn Owl 1
Great Horned Owl 2
Anna's Hummingbird 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 6
American Kestrel 1
Gyrfalcon 1
Black Phoebe 2
American Crow 16
Common Raven 3
Black-capped Chickadee 5
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 2
Pacific Wren 2
Marsh Wren 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2
Western Bluebird 2
Hermit Thrush 9
American Robin x
Varied Thrush 15
European Starling 10
American Pipit 10
Yellow-rumped Warbler 4
Savannah Sparrow 4
Fox Sparrow (Sooty) x
Song Sparrow 2
Dark-eyed Junco 10
Western Meadowlark 5

Well, another year has passed and gone and 2013 has ended. Here in Humboldt County, 2014 has kicked off with a bang as far as rare birds goes! Many rarities were found on the Arcata and Centerville to King Salmon Christmas Bird Counts and a couple have popped up in the New Year that weren't discovered beforehand. So, with my 4th annual Redwood Region Audubon ”Winter Rarities” field trip we had a lot of options to work on. This was how the day was planned out: 

1) NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH at the Arcata Marsh. Every year I've led this trip we meet at the Arcata Marsh at 7:30 a.m. and the first rare bird we always try for to kick off the trip with is the Northern Waterthrush that winters at the Butcher Slough Log Pond. We also typically spend time walking around the Log Pond to look for other somewhat rare birds like SWAMP SPARROW, but we had bigger fish to fry (well....birds...you know what I'm talking about!) which leads us to rarity number 2 on the agenda...

2) SUMMER TANAGER. On Thursday evening (2 January) I was forwarded some photos of a bird coming to a feeder in Arcata that was identified as a possible Summer Tanager. According to the home owners hosting this bird it had been present since 26 December but had just been identified by some other friends of theirs that were familiar with this species. The bird WAS a Summer Tanager and Daryl Coldren and I got to visit the couple and secure access for other birders to come look for the bird the Friday before this trip (3 January.) After visiting the Summer Tanager stakeout we went out to Blue Lake for the next rarity stakeout for the day....

3) LAWRENCE'S GOLDFINCH and 4) NORTHERN SHRIKE. A female Lawrence's Goldfinch was discovered by Paul Lohse at his farm out in Blue Lake near the end of December. A NORTHERN SHRIKE has also been present out here as of late and Daryl and I had it at Paul's farm Friday and Keith Slauson had refound the goldfinch before our arrival. Two good rarities in one location was too good to pass up so Paul's farm was to be our third location to visit for the day.

Arcata Marsh for lunch. We didn't have any other rare birds to look at the Marsh but I thought the I Street parking lot would be good for our lunch break to add some year birds to the trip list with the local wintering FORSTER'S TERNS, plus roosting shorebirds at high tide and waterfowl at Klopp Lake and north Humboldt Bay.

5) HARRIS'S SPARROW. On the Arcata CBC I had found a Harris's Sparrow in my sector in Eureka, which was  the next bird on our agenda. It's been a great fall/winter for Harris's Sparrow with 2 being found in the fall and then 2 were found on the Arcata CBC (Keith Slauson found one in McKinleyville, also) and another one was found in the Ferndale Bottoms before 2013 ended.

6) LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE. Since October of 2013 a Loggerhead Shrike had been present off of Quinn road and continued into 2014. This is the same exact location where we had refound a NORTHERN SHRIKE that was present here last fall/winter. Must be a great spot for shrikes! 

7) CATTLE EGRET. A Cattle Egret, now a rarity in Northwestern California, had been present as of late on Goble Lane in the Ferndale Bottoms and was being consistently seen. 

8) CRESTED CARACARA. This bird was found by Jeff Allen on the Centerville CBC and won the prize for one of the better rarities found on the local CBCs this winter. There hasn't been a caracara in Humboldt County since 2007 and, more than likely, this was the bird that had been long-present in Del Norte County to the north. This was probably going to be the hardest bird to refind as it can be ANYWHERE in the Ferndale Bottoms area/Eel River delta area.
9) SANDHILL CRANE. A juvenile Sandhill Crane was discovered around 18 December in the east Ferndale Bottoms and continued through the New Year and would probably be our “closer” for the day. 

Ok, So we had a game plan and lot's of potential birds for us to refind and certainly enough to fill the day up! Also, like I always tell the trip participants: even though we are focused on refinding stakeout rarities they are only the vehicle for getting us out birding and we make a point to enjoy every bird that we come across along our journey. The rarities are just means for the journey, not the end.

So....how did we do you wonder? Let's get into it, shall we?

1) NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH: After the 25+ people signed in and I gave a brief explanation on the plan for the day we went to go find our first target. At the brown wall at the southeast corner of the Butcher Slough Log Pond at the Arcata Marsh, I briefly pished. About a minute later, the WATERTHRUSH started calling and came in close but stayed out of view. All trip participants heard the bird. More often than not you hear this waterthrush and it's rather difficult to see most of the time so we were all satisfied with a “heard only.” eBird list here.

2) SUMMER TANAGER: Since we had such a large group, I called the homeowners that were hosting the Summer Tanager and informed them how many people to expect, making sure it was still ok for us to visit them. IT WAS! We carpooled to the tanager house on California St. in Arcata and quietly gathered in their front yard to watch the black oil sunflower feeder the bird was frequenting. Within 10 minutes the bird came in, grabbed a sunflower seed from the feeder and quickly flew out of view. Everybody saw the bird but I suggested we stick around for 10 more minutes to see if it would come back. It did, and we got much better prolonged views of the bird. Satisfied, we thanked the homeowners and moved on to Paul Lohse's farm in Blue Lake for our next targets. eBird list here.

Below is Gary Bloomfield's digiscoped video with photos he also took with his iPhone 5S. Check out that slow motion capability of the new 5s! 

3 and 4) LAWRENCE'S GOLDFINCH AND NORTHERN SHRIKE. 

Paul's farm is adjacent to the famous “Blue Lake Cottonwoods” and though the Cottonwoods are a popular birding location--especially during spring migration--his farm is always worthy of a walk through and he welcomes birders throughout the year. Paul's farm is especially attractive to seed eaters, especially sparrows from fall through winter and has attracted many interesting species like Clay-colored, Chipping, and Swamp, along with other interesting birds like Gray Flycatcher and rare eastern vireos and warblers.

After briefly introducing Paul to everyone, he personally led us through his farm looking for the female Lawrence's Goldfinch but, when birding Paul's farm you really have take the time to sift through the multitudes of other birds present, because there are TON of birds here!  Every few steps we took sparrows would burst out of the fallow beds (especially the plots with quinoa and amaranth) and within minutes we tallied all the expected sparrows for winter: Spotted Towhee, White-crowned, Golden-crowned, Lincoln's, Sooty Fox, and White-throated. Everybody also got to enjoy a male YELLOW-SHAFTED FLICKER, and, according to Paul a bird that has been present all winter.

After about an hour of birding the farm we walked to the northwest corner of the farm and somebody pointed out a small gray finch atop some vegetation: the female LAWRENCE'S GOLDFINCH! The bird took a bit to come up out of the vegetation and then flushed with all the sparrows it was with and landed in the open branches of a leafless tree some distance from the group. Everyone that wanted one got scope views of this bird, which is only the 2nd winter record for Northwestern California. 

Because we got our main target at Paul's farm and we spent more time birding here than any other location we visited or would visit during the trip, we decided it was time to move on. We all thanked Paul for allowing access to such a large group and being such a gracious host. eBird list here.

Before moving on, however, here's a couple of other photos from Paul's farm.

Wait, I did never mention anything about that NORTHERN SHRIKE? Did I? We didn't see it but, on the way out of Blue Lake, we ran into another local birder, Alexandra Lamb. She had just seen the NORTHERN SHRIKE to the west of the bridge over the Mad River. A few of us cruised over to the location where she saw it but we didn't find it with our brief search but did pick up CALIFORNIA QUAIL and WESTERN SCRUB-JAY for the day (and year!). On to the Marsh for lunch......eBird list here.

By the way, if you are keeping score we were 3 for 4 so far with successfully catching up to the waterthrush, tanager, and goldfinch but dipping on the shrike......Not bad.

We spent about an hour at the foot of I St. at the Arcata Marsh where we ate lunch and added some birds to the day list. Some also enjoyed a coffee or hot chocolate pick-me-up, that was quickly prepared by trip participant, David Gurley. I was surely happy to have a second cup of coffee for the day! Thanks, David!  We didn't pick up much unusual at the Marsh but did pick up one bird that we can only get at this location: FORSTER'S TERN. Forster's Tern is overall somewhat rare in Northwestern California throughout the year, but in the winter a small group of 10-20 winter in north Humboldt Bay. The foot of I St. is THE place to see them and it's best to see them here on a rising tide before the old Arcata wharf pilings are covered up and they have to move to another roosting location. eBird list here.

Moving on we headed out of the Marsh and drove to Eureka for our next target: 5) HARRIS'S SPARROW. I won't belabor our experience of walking around urban Eureka looking for a rare bird I found on the Arcata CBC anymore than I have to, so to just get it out of the way: WE DIDN'T FIND IT! No mind, however, we got invited into a resident’s backyard that was hosting the Harris's and many of the participants were wowed by the amazing exotic vegetation like tree ferns and others on display. A very unique yard that you'd never know about by just driving by. Even though we didn't connect with the stakeout Harris's we did manage to find a female BULLOCK'S ORIOLE, first identified and called out by Ken Burton. This would be THE rarity that we actually found during the trip (recall last year on this trip that the rarity highlight was us discovering a BALTIMORE ORIOLE in the town of Loleta. Read about that trip here.) Score: 3/5. eBird list here.

Ok, it was high time to get out of Eureka and move to more birdier areas of interest! I should mention that my car (well, PEOPLE in my car, that is) did see a NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD perched high in a tree where I had one on the Arcata CBC while we were working to get out of Eureka. Mockingbird is technically a rarity in Northwestern California, so add another to the score! Anyways.....next stop: Quinn Road outside of Loleta to look for number 6...(or actually 7, I guess!) LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE. This individual has been present at this location since 27 October and has been seen consistently since. Amazingly, the birder (Greg Chapman) that discovered this Loggerhead also discovered a Northern Shrike at this exact location the year previous (we saw that bird on this trip last year). Loggerhead is always a rarer bird than Northern Shrike in Northwestern California; the opposite is true through most the rest of California, however. It took a couple of minutes but we got the bird. It was a bit distant, though, so we had to settle for those views. Poor us. Score: 5/7. YES! eBird list here.

Ok, it was time to move on to the next possible birds in the Ferndale Bottoms in order of nearest to chase: 8) CATTLE EGRET, 9) CRESTED CARACARA, and 10) SANDHILL CRANE. Very soon after getting on Copenhagen Road from Quinn and heading toward Loleta we came upon 3 SNOW GEESE, which were year birds for most and a nice quick treat on our way to our next targets. Snow and Ross's Goose are low-grade rarities (though the latter is a bit rarer overall) as a few tend to show up in the fall and winter in flocks of Cackling Geese but are nowhere near as common as in areas in the Central Valley where both are abundant.

Ok, if you've made it to this far I congratulate you and thank you for reading this field trip report! Let's keep it brief for the next couple of birds and finish briskly. 

8) CATTLE EGRET: Got it! We drove right up the pasture off of Goble Lane in the Ferndale Bottoms and easily found the bird hanging out with its Great Egret buddies near some........cattle. If you know local bird extraordinaire and author, David Fix, you would know he calls Cattle Egrets “Beef Bitterns.” Excellent. Even though we refound the Cattle Egret and it was our target I'm pretty sure most people enjoyed the Ferruginous Hawks and Tundra Swans even more that flew over us while watching these guys. Score: 6/8. eBird list here.

9) CRESTED CARACARA: To try for this bird we got permission to visit the “Eel River Estuary Preserve,” which is currently private but they are working on getting public access worked out. Check out the Wildlands Conservancy website to learn more about this new preserve. Long story short on the caracara: MISSED IT. This bird was the most-expected miss, however. Nonetheless, some of the group did get to see a PRAIRIE FALCON, which is rare in the wintertime along the coastal plain in Humboldt County, with only 1-2 wintering locally. We also saw a distant ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK and many RED-TAILS. A Golden Eagle has also been present there but not for us this time. Score: 6/9. ”If six turned out to be nine, I don't mind.....I don't mind!”--Jimi Hendrix. eBird list here.

10) SANDHILL CRANE: This bird, now a second-year as of 2014, was first discovered by Casey Ryan and Tony Kurz on 18 December and has consistently been in the same location since, which is off Grizzly Bluffs Road just east of Lawson Lane/Pleasant Point Drive. We drove right up the bird as expected. We also saw a Ferruginous and Rough-legged Hawk at this location. Time was around 4:45 and I had to get back to McKinleyville so my loving and understanding wife could go out for her well-deserved “girl's night out” so we called it a day and all departed for home, satisfied with the productive day. Ending Score: 7/10 (Bullock's Oriole is a seasonal rarity so wasn't included in this total). eBird list here. 

Video of the Sandhill Crane. Mute the volume as there's a lot of background noise.


Species list. Total species for the day: 93 
Snow Goose 3 
Canada Goose 60 
Tundra Swan 8 
Gadwall x
American Wigeon 41 
Mallard x
Northern Shoveler 6 
Green-winged Teal
Greater Scaupx
Greater/Lesser Scaup 3
Bufflehead 2 
Common Merganser 2
Ruddy Duck x 
California Quail -- 
Pied-billed Grebe -- 
Great Blue Heron 1 
Great Egret 5 
Cattle Egret 1  
Black-crowned Night-Heron 2 
Turkey Vulture 9 
White-tailed Kite 2 
Northern Harrier 2 
Cooper's Hawk 1 
Red-tailed Hawk 9 
Ferruginous Hawk 3 
Rough-legged Hawk 2 
American Coot 20 
Sandhill Crane 1 
American Avocet 20 
Black-bellied Plover 40 
Killdeer 101 
Greater Yellowlegs 1 
Willet 10 
Long-billed Curlew 2 
Marbled Godwit x
Black Turnstone 1
Least Sandpiper x 
Mew Gull 2
Ring-billed Gull 13 
Western Gull 1 
California Gull x
Herring Gull 1 
Thayer's Gull 1 
Glaucous-winged Gull x
Western x Glaucous-winged Gull (hybrid) 1 
Forster's Tern 17 
Eurasian Collared-Dove 4 
Mourning Dove 30 
Anna's Hummingbird 4 
Belted Kingfisher 1 
Downy Woodpecker 1 
Hairy Woodpecker 1 
Northern Flicker 4 
American Kestrel 1 
Peregrine Falcon 1 
Prairie Falcon 1 
Black Phoebe 4 
Loggerhead Shrike 1 
Steller's Jay 1 
Western Scrub-Jay 2
American Crow 2 
Common Raven 11 
Black-capped Chickadee 3 
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 3 
Pacific Wren 1 
Marsh Wren 1 
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 5 
Wrentit 2 
Hermit Thrush 2 
American Robin 25 
Varied Thrush 3 
Northern Mockingbird 1 
European Starling 22 
American Pipit 70
Northern Waterthrush 1
Spotted Towhee 2
California Towhee 3
Savannah Sparrow 9
Fox Sparrow 24
Song Sparrow 10
Lincoln's Sparrow 8
White-throated Sparrow 5
White-crowned Sparrow 21
Golden-crowned Sparrow 27
Dark-eyed Junco 38
Summer Tanager 1
Western Meadowlark 2
Brewer's Blackbird 12
Bullock's Oriole 1
House Finch 7
Lawrence's Goldfinch 1
American Goldfinch 2
House Sparrow 6

 On Saturday, 7 December, I led a group of 6 other birders around many of the coastal hotspots in Del Norte County--the northernmost coastal county in California. This was the first of my local day tours that I am billing as "Stewardship Day Tours" since part of the proceeds from each trip will be donated to a local environmental non-profit. For this trip part of the proceeds went to Redwood Parks Association.
    We've been having a real cold spell in Northwestern California (well, most of the West Coast, really!) and the day ranged from 25 F to about 40 F with winds from 0-15 mph making for a pretty chilly day! Despite the chill in the air we had a great day of birding, tallying 95 species! Highlights included FOUR species of jay [Blue (a stakeout in Brookings, OR), Gray, Steller's and Western Scrub]. Other highlights for the day were: BARROW'S GOLDENEYE, BLACK SCOTER, ROCK SANDPIPER, and GLAUCOUS GULL. The "Best Looks Ever of a Common Bird" award went to some WILSON'S SNIPES that were foraging out in the open from just 10 feet away and perfect lighting on some male COMMON MERGANSERS that made their green head sheen shine like an emeral more than any of us had even thought was possible!

    We started off in Crescent City Harbor where we met up with the Del Norte County participants. We spent about an hour and a half birding the harbor and ocean adjacent to it, enjoying all the waterbirds present. From Crescent City Harbor we went to Point Saint George to look for rock shorebirds, sea ducks and alcids. At the Point we found all our expected rocky shorebirds, including one ROCK SANDPIPER, and had a high count of about 8-10 HARLEQUIN DUCKS, both males and females. One BLACK SCOTER was present here, also, though that was certainly a low number for this location as years ago you could expect up to 100+ individuals of this species here.
     From Point Saint George we made a quick visit to Dead Lake for inland waterbirds and freshwater ducks (and a quick bathroom break!) and after our quick visit here we visited Church Tree Road to look for the ever-present Gray Jays that have been coming to feeders here for a long time. Church Tree Rd. is THE easiest spot to see Gray Jay in Del Norte County and are often "drive-up-to-and-not-even-have-to-get-out-of-your-car-to-fully-enjoy" birds!
    After enjoying the Gray Jays it made sense to continue on our "jay quest" and try for the BLUE JAY that has been coming to a feeder in Brookings, Oregon for over 2 weeks. Steller's and Western Scrub-Jay are also present in in the same area there and it only took about 15 minutes for the BLUE JAY to stealthily arrive, hop down to it's favorite ground feeding area at the house that is feeding it, and quickly take off back over the house to a more discreet location. The Blue Jay did this one more time and both times it came in really quick and left. It was the sneakiest jay of the 3 species here by far and I couldn't manage to get a photo of the bird. The whole yard was quite birdy and we picked up maybe 10 species here for the day that we didn't see anywhere else in Del Norte County for the day.
    After dipping into Oregon a bit, acting like the Blue Jay we stealthily dropped back into our home state and made our way to the mouth of the Smith River, which was somewhat slow and the lighting wasn't that good. After the Smith River mouth we made our way south but quickly tooled around the town of Smith River to look at the various apple trees found inside the town limits. Just about every winter these apple trees harbor up to 4 species of orioles but we didn't find any with our quick drive through, and, after a quick break for some caffeine, we made our way to one of Del Norte's most famed birding location in the Smith River Bottoms-- Alexandre Dairy.
    The Alexandre family has always been very open to visiting birders and this location has maybe has had more rarities here than any other location in Del Norte County. Almost every shorebird that has been detected in the county has been found here at the dairy pond (except for maybe Spotted Redshank and Red-necked Stint) and other species like LITTLE BLUE HERON, GYRFALCON and RUSTY BLACKBIRD, etc. have been found here. We didn't find any species here of such rarity on this day and the rarity of the locationwas a 1st cycle GLAUCOUS GULL. We weren't really focused on finding rarities, however, and the trip participants especially enjoyed the numerous ducks that were present here. Maybe the top highlight while here was having "drop-dead" looks at the intricate and beautifully-plumaged WILSON'S SNIPE from just 10 feet away, a pretty rare experience in itself. Most of time that you try get that close to Wilson's Snipe like this they flush up and are quickly on their way as far to get as far away from you as possible! These birds frankly didn't give a damn how close we were or what we were doing.
    After Alexandre Dairy we made one last stop on the Smith River to look for reported BARROW'S GOLDENEYES that are always considered a rarity in Northwestern California. I ended up finding a male pretty readily amongst the other Common Goldeneyes, Common Mergansers, and other ducks. All of these birds were diving frequently and it was hard to keep up with the Barrow's and get everybody on it and the lighting wasn't that great anyways. Quite frankly, most of the trip participants enjoyed seeing the male COMMON MERGANSERS that were closer and in absolutely perfect late-afternoon sunlight, with their green heads shining as bright of deep iridescent emerald color. Shockingly beautiful! After enjoying all the diving ducks and other species here we decided to call it a day, being satisfied with the 95 species we found on our full day outing.  We ended up birding for about 8.5 hours and were ready to make the hour and a half journey back to Humboldt County.

Below are photos from the day, eBird lists from all the locations we visited, and the cumulative species list from the day. Thanks for reading!
 

On 17 October I hosted Ron and Jane Miller from Milwaukee, WI for four hours of birding. We spent the whole morning at the Arcata Marsh as Ron had wanted to try and get looks at Virginia Rail and Sora, which he had never seen along with some easy to find species like White-tailed Kite. There were also possibilities of seeing some recently found rarities like Painted Bunting and Brewer's Sparrow in the area. The weather was perfect with clear skies, cool temps in the morning, becoming warmer by the end of the morning and little wind the whole time, making for a very pleasant and productive morning of birding. With a leisurely and relaxed pace we ended up tallying 76 species!

    We started out the morning at the Marsh birding the trail known to local birders as "Sparrow Alley" since this is where the Painted Bunting (1st Marsh record and only the 4th confirmed in Humboldt County) has been present and a Brewer's Sparrow was found the day previous. There has also been a lot of rail activity in the area lately so it seemed like an obvious spot to kick off the day. Right after getting out of the car SOOTY FOX SPARROWS and a couple of GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROWS were birds number 1 and 2 of the day and soon after we got some brief looks at a NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH that was hanging out at the southwest corner of Allen Marsh and was calling frequently with it's loud and metallic "chink" note (See my video of this bird that I took earlier in the week). We continued east along "Sparrow Alley" and spent a brief amount of time looking at the scads of AMERICAN WIGEON foraging on the Duckweed (Lemna minor), hoping to spot one of the 5-6 EURASIAN WIGEONS that are present in the various Duckweed-filled ponds right now with the other wigeon. We continued along "Sparrow Alley" spending a bit of effort to try and find the PAINTED BUNTING but we ended up missing that bird. Not a big deal, though, as Ron and Jane had seen this species before and we didn't put a lot of focus on it.
    We made our way to the bridge that goes over Butcher Slough and soon after a pair of immature HOODED MERGANSERS flew in just 20 feet away from us and stuck long enough for me to snap a shot or two:

While enjoying the mergansers we also had a pair of BLACK PHOEBES in nice lighting at the bridge which Ron and I were quick to photograph:

    Also, while standing at the bridge we enjoyed a pair of EARED GREBES and went over their identification vs. Horned Grebe and also enjoyed our first AMERICAN AVOCETS of the morning. After enjoying these species we made it over to Klopp Lake, as the tide was rising and shorebirds were filtering in to the roosting islands to wait it out and rest a bit.
    At Klopp we picked up most of the expected shorebirds on the roosting islands: BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER, GREATER YELLOWLEGS, WILLETS, MARBLED GODWITS, 3 BLACK TURNSTONES, DUNLIN, LEAST SANDPIPERS, and at least FOUR RED KNOTS, which were a lifer for Ron and gave nice scope views, showing Ron and Jane how challenging they are to pick out amongst the superficially similar BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS. Ron and I also enjoyed photographing this ever-present BELTED KINGFISHER, which, for some reason or another, has been a challenge for me to get photos of previously:

    While looking over the shorebirds some VIRGINIA RAILS were calling and being very active along the northeast shore of Klopp and gave Ron and Jane their much-desired lifer looks of this hard-to-see species (see the photo at beginning of this report). Also, while looking at the shorebirds and enjoying the rails I heard a WESTERN MEADOWLARK calling and singing from Mount Trashmore (it's the old dump!) to the north of Klopp and heard a tardy WESTERN TANAGER calling from the conifers in that direction, also.

    After enjoying Klopp we did one more walk through "Sparrow Alley" to check on the bunting again. Once again we didn't find the bird during the brief revisit--others had seen it just before we showed back up--but Jane and I did have a very nice look at a SWAMP SPARROW that had been present in the area as of late. We then took a brief walk to look for WHITE-TAILED KITES that are always present in the fields (now being restored to saltmarsh) to the west of Gearheart Marsh and found at least 6 birds in no time at all, along with nice looks at a female EURASIAN WIGEON and close views of a CALIFORNIA RED-SHOULDERED HAWK:

     We then finished the morning up on the west side of Klopp Lake in an effort to find Ron some nice looks at Least Sandpiper, which he hadn't recalled ever really seeing very well. While taking turns using the bathroom I spotted a juvenile GREEN HERON at the northwest edge of Klopp, giving us a "heron slam" (saw all 6 regular occurring species found in Northwestern California this morning)! We also got some nice scope views of a WHITE-TAILED KITE that was closer than the ones out in the fields previously:

     We ended up getting nice looks at some roosting LEAST SANDPIPERS, though there were not as many roosting on the lake as I would have expected for the time of year. We also got more looks at the numerous roosting shorebirds on the westernmost island of Klopp Lake (mostly MARBLED GODWITS, with some WILLETS):

Our last bird of the day was enjoying nice close looks at 2 male SURF SCOTERS that were successfully diving for clams:

It was a very productive morning of birding and, though birding at a relaxed pace we compiled a list of 76 species! Here's a link to the eBird list from the trip and full species list below:

Species total: 76 (+ 2 other taxa)

Gadwall  10
Eurasian Wigeon  3
American Wigeon  600
Eurasian x American Wigeon (hybrid)  1     one continuing bird seen in Hauser Marsh.
Mallard  10
Blue-winged Teal  5     All female types seen in Hauser Marsh.
Blue-winged/Cinnamon Teal  1
Northern Shoveler  10
Northern Pintail  1     One female seen in Klopp Lake.
Green-winged Teal (American)  20
Greater Scaup  1     One female in Klopp Lk.
Surf Scoter  2     Two adult males in Klopp.
Hooded Merganser  2     Two seemingly immature birds flew right into Butcher Slough in front of us from the bridge over the slough.
Pied-billed Grebe  4
Eared Grebe  3
Double-crested Cormorant  30     flock of about 25 seen flying south over Humboldt Bay and 5 seen on the west island at Klopp Lake.
Brown Pelican  2
American Bittern  1
Great Blue Heron  1
Great Egret  3
Snowy Egret  5
Green Heron  1     one juvenile seen in the willows in the northwestern corner on Klopp Lake.
Black-crowned Night-Heron  5
Turkey Vulture  6
White-tailed Kite  7     most seen to the west of Gearheart Marsh and Brackish Ponds and 1 seen perched just north of Klopp.
Northern Harrier  4
Red-shouldered Hawk (California)  2   
Red-tailed Hawk (Western)  1
Virginia Rail  4     Two seen well along the northeast edge of Klopp Lake.
American Coot  300
American Avocet  30     seen mostly around the mouth of Butcher Slough.
Black-bellied Plover  80
Semipalmated Plover  X     heard but not seen. Didn't really call it out since they were calling from a distance away.
Greater Yellowlegs  2
Willet  60
Marbled Godwit  400    
Black Turnstone  3
Red Knot  4
Dunlin  3
Least Sandpiper  30
Long-billed Dowitcher  35
Ring-billed Gull  10
Western Gull  5
Glaucous-winged Gull  1     seen briefly as it flew to the northwest from Klopp.
Forster's Tern  1     One seen on some floating debris to the south of the Klopp parking lot.
Anna's Hummingbird  1
Belted Kingfisher  2    
Downy Woodpecker  1     one heard from the western end of Mt. Trashmore.
Black Phoebe  3   
Common Raven  1
Black-capped Chickadee  3
Chestnut-backed Chickadee  2
Pacific Wren  3     heard at least 3 calling along "sparrow alley."
Marsh Wren  3
Golden-crowned Kinglet  4
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  3
Hermit Thrush  2     one nicely seen bird at the southwest end of Klopp Lake.
European Starling  3
American Pipit  1     one flyover.
Northern Waterthrush  1     one bird continuing at the southwest corner of Allen Marsh calling and seen briefly.
Orange-crowned Warbler  1
Common Yellowthroat  2
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)  5
Townsend's Warbler  1     One calling from Mt. Trashmore.
Savannah Sparrow  3
Fox Sparrow (Sooty)  10
Song Sparrow  15
Lincoln's Sparrow  1
Swamp Sparrow  1     seen nicely by Jane and I.
White-crowned Sparrow (Puget Sound)  10
Golden-crowned Sparrow  25
Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon)  1
Western Tanager  1     heard one calling from Mount Trashmore while we were looking at shorebirds on the east side of Klopp Lake.
Red-winged Blackbird  5
Western Meadowlark  1     heard one calling and singing on the south side of Mt. Trashmore while we were looking at shorebirds on the east side of Klopp Lake.
Brewer's Blackbird  5
House Finch  1
American Goldfinch  1

Last Friday I was hired by Florida birder, John Erickson, for some "Power Birding" (John's words). He first contacted me by finding my name on the Redwood Region Audubon website (www.RRAS.org) since I am the field trip coordinator for that organization. John first asked if I knew of anybody that might be willing to bird with him while he was in Humboldt County for a couple of days and I said I did know of some local birders that might be available, and also mentioned that I was a guide. Long-story-short, he hired me for a half day of birding, hoping to see as many lifers possible in five hours. Since John had never been birding on the West Coast he had a lenghty list of potential lifer western birds. The night before I made a list of the his potential lifers we could see along the coastal slope around the north Humboldt Bay region and came up with a list of 45 species! It's always SOOOO fun to be able to potentially help a birder get so many lifers that has never visited the West Coast before.

I met John around 8:30 at his bed & breakfast in Arcata, The Lady Anne. We made the short drive to one of my favorite birding patches, Shay Park, and started our "Power Birding" session. The first lifer for John was a GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW, which we saw almost immediately after getting out of his rental car. Second lifer was a SPOTTED TOWHEE while still standing by the car! After birding around the entrance to the park a bit we headed east along the railroad tracks to try and find the chickadee flock that has had some Townsend's and Black-throated Gray Warblers. On the way we ran into John's lifer WESTERN TANAGER and were amazed by the number of White-crowned Sparrows (pugetensis subspecies) present in weedy areas adjacent to the park = a lot of migrants! Right when we stopped and I said, "in this area I usually see some Lesser Goldfinches," John was looking at his lifer pair of LESSER GOLDFINCHES seconds later! We then located the chickadee flock at the east end of the park and quickly started racking up more lifers for John. WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE (unexpected), WARBLING VIREO, TOWNSEND'S and MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER (also unexpected) were all new birds for John. Bonus was a hatch-year female CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER that had been present off and on in the park for over a week! It was pretty funny to see John pay little attention to that bird as that's always a decent, but expected, eastern vagrant warbler for us California birders in the fall season. Western lifers were the motivation of the day and we were racking them up. On our way out of the park we ran into another local birder, Paul Rousch, who had attracted another mixed flock and in it was John's lifer BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER! Amazingly we missed Hutton's Vireo here as I've had one here almost every visit to the park during the whole of 2013.

Some of the birds from Shay on this day:

    After Shay Park John and I ventured to a portion of Janes Creek in Arcata where a Lazuli Bunting was hanging out, which is a rather rare bird in the fall along the coast here but is a common to abundant breeder in the summer. We didn't have any luck with that bird and moved on pretty quickly.
    On our way out to the north spit of Humboldt Bay we briefly drove through the Arcata Bottoms. Of note was the large mixed flock of VAUX'S SWIFT and VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS, maybe a combined total of 300-450 birds (very rought estimate). Our destination on the north spit was the north jetty of Humboldt Bay which is the most convenient spot to pick up the West Coast rocky shorebirds and various nearshore seabirds.
    Before the north jetty, though, we made a brief stop to look at the Coast Guard breakwater to make sure no Blue-footed Boobies were roosting with the numerous Brown Pelicans and Heermann's Gulls (John had got his lifer Heermann's earlier in this current trip). Blue-footed Boobies have been staging an unprecedented invasion into California and all of us Northwestern California birders have been keeping an eye out for Humboldt Counties first record ever, which was almost (hopefully?!) bound to happen sooner or later. We didn't find a booby but John did pick up his lifer WESTERN GREBE.
    After our brief stop to scope the breakwater we stopped at the "Cypress Patch" to look for potential migrants. Here we had the first flock of migrant MYRTLE and AUDUBON'S YELLOW-RUMPED WARLBERS that I had seen this fall, plus a TOWNSEND'S, and another BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER.   
    We then made our way out to the jetty to find John's lifer rocky shorebirds and seabirds. John's first lifer here was an adult GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL on the beach adjacent to the jetty. Walking out onto the jetty it quickly became apparent that the most noticeable bird around the jetty today were the numerous SURF SCOTERS, including some gaudy males. We soon hooked up with John's lifer SURFBIRDS and BLACK TURNSTONES, enjoying leisurely views of both of them as they were feeding along the rocks during the falling tide. While seawatching from the tip of the jetty we picked up John's lifer PACIFIC LOON, an adult flying by with some larger COMMON LOONS. The jetty was overall pretty slow, however, and was probably due to the overall calm and sunny conditions. On the walk out we picked up a WANDERING TATTLER which was pretty skittish and kept flying further north along the jetty whenever we tried to approach it.

Some photos from the jetty:

    After the jetty we made one last stop at the "Horse Pasture" willow patch to try and find a Hutton's Vireo for John. We had no luck with finding this bird (one was here last week) and it was pretty slow overall with just a small flock of BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES. One ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER (probably of the orestera subspecies), of which I got a digiscope of while it was putting a decent-sized caterpillar out of it's misery. I took a minute to show John the spectacular "Golden Pond" at the north end of the patch, which was named for the GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLERS that were found here in September, 1975. After showing John the only fall water source in the patch we decided to call it a day as John still had to drive down to Shelter Cove in southern Humboldt County to continue on his trip.
Photos from the "Horse Pasture":

All told John ended the day with 16 new life birds and was a very happy man, I'm sure, while driving on his way down south to Shelter Cove. John did post something on his morning with me on his travel blog.

Below are the eBird lists from the morning and the full species list.

eBird lists:
Shay Park
Janes Creek--Zehdnter and Q Street
Arcata Bottoms--s. of Lanphere Rd.
North Spit--Cypress Patch
Humboldt Bay--north spit jetty

Species list: 66 total species
Cackling Goose 10
Canada Goose 30
Surf Scoter 50
White-winged Scoter 10
Red-throated Loon 15
Pacific Loon 1
Common Loon 10
Eared Grebe 1
Western Grebe 10
Pelagic Cormorant 6
Brown Pelican --
Turkey Vulture 6
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Wandering Tattler 1
Black Turnstone 6
Surfbird 10
Common Murre 1
Heermann's Gull 5
Ring-billed Gull 1
Western Gull 10
Glaucous-winged Gull 1
Eurasian Collared-Dove 6
Vaux's Swift 205
Anna's Hummingbird 3
Downy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 2
Western Wood-Pewee 1
Willow Flycatcher 1
Black Phoebe 5
Warbling Vireo 2
Steller's Jay 2
American Crow 1
Common Raven 3
Violet-green Swallow 210
Barn Swallow 13
Black-capped Chickadee 18
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 3
Pacific Wren 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Swainson's Thrush 1
European Starling 170
Cedar Waxwing 5
Orang-crowned Warbler 1
MacGillivray's Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 2
Yellow Warbler 8
Chestnut-sided Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 7
Black-throated Gray Warbler 3
Townsend's Warbler 5
Wilson's Warbler 1
Spotted Towhee 1
Savannah Sparrow 2
Fox Sparrow 11
Song Sparrow 10
Lincoln's Sparrow 1
White-crowned Sparrow 40
Golden-crowned Sparrow 11
Western Tanager 2
Red-winged Blackbird --
Brewer's Blackbird --
Brown-headed Cowbird 3
House Finch 5
Lesser Goldfinch 3
American Goldfinch 25
House Sparrow --

Last Friday, 20 September, I had the opportunity to show Judy and Terry (from Chicago, IL) around the north spit of Humboldt Bay for a 1/2 day of birding. We got started around 9:00 a.m. and drove out to the north jetty of Humboldt Bay, one of the best locations in Humboldt County to do seawatches and see the West Coast rocky shorebirds like Black Turnstone, Wandering Tattler, and Surfbird. We also visited some of the famed migrant traps on the north spit of Humboldt Bay in an effort to find landbirds of interest.
    We arrived at the jetty around 9:40 a.m. and, due to the first major fall storm set to arrive shortly, the ocean swell was pretty big (around 7-9 ft) and the whole jetty and the waters east of it were full of surfers hoping to catch one of the big waves that were coming in. I told Terry and Judy that these were the most surfers I had ever seen at this spot as the whole parking area was full from the 30-40 of them present here! High tide was scheduled around 12:50 and we walked out quickly to reach the tip while taking a couple of minutes to enjoy some SURF SCOTERS, PELAGIC CORMORANTS and our first BLACK TURNSTONE (lifer for Judy) of the morning. Since the tide was coming up most of the rocky shorebirds were already in roost mode and were grouped together at the north end of the jetty. Here we had perfect looks at more BLACK TURNSTONES, Judy's lifer SURFBIRDS and WANDERING TATTLERS.

At the tip of the jetty we had decent numbers of BROWN PELICANS flying by in groups of 5-10 heading south,  some HEERMANN'S GULLS also flying south, and larger groups of SURF SCOTERS, and a flock of 10 WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS heading north. We also had some perfect looks at about 6 different PARASITIC JAEGERS (most of them juveniles), that were busy harassing some small groups of ELEGANT TERNS that were coming into Humboldt Bay to roost. We had some nice scope views of some RED-THROATED LOONS right off the tip of the jetty that were still in alternate plumage. 
    After leaving the jetty we headed to the famed cypress patch that is right at the southeastern tip of the north spit and is a famed migrant trap that have turned up such rarities such as Yellow-green Vireo and numerous "eastern" warbler species. Here we had a group of BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES, some migrant YELLOW WARBLERS, and some WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS but otherwise the patch was somewhat quiet. We walked out to the breakwater east of the patch and found some roosting shorebirds which included 21 BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS, 2 juvenile SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS, and 3 WESTERN SANDPIPERS. Here we also enjoyed large groups of roosting BROWN PELICANS and HEERMANN'S GULLS and a juvenile COMMON MURRE outside of the breakwater in the bay. I also pointed out the city of Eureka, King Salmon and Field's Landing on the opposite side of Humboldt Bay.

After the Cypress Patch we stopped off at the most famed migrant trap on the north spit of Humboldt Bay, the "Horse Pasture." This location is famous for the myriad of eastern vagrant flycatchers, vireos, warblers that have been found here since being first discovered by the late Rich Stallcup in the late-1960's. The day before a VIRGINIA'S WARBLER was found here but we and others had no luck in finding that bird today. It must have flown out in anticipation of this storm that was going to touch down at any moment. We may not have found the Virginia's but we did have nice looks at a HUTTON'S VIREO, which was a new species for Judy, and also got brief looks at a migrant WILSON'S WARBLER. We also got some ok looks at a TOWNSEND'S WARBLER which was also new for Judy.
    By time we had covered the Horse Pasture it was around 1:00 p.m. and the dark clouds were really starting to arrive on he coast and rain was imminent at any moment. We decided to drive back towards Arcata and drive through the Arcata Bottoms on the way to our morning spot where we met up and while we did the rain started coming down in first small drops and, by the time we had arrived by to my car, it was coming down in sheets! We called it quits at 1:30 and Judy and Terry went to go visit a friends art gallery in Arcata and I went back towards home. It was a short but productive morning with some very nice and enthusiastic birders from the Midwest!
Below are some photos of the rocky shorebirds encountered on the north jetty:

eBird lists from the morning:

Humboldt Bay--North Spit jetty
North Spit--cypress patch
North Spit--Horse Pasture Willows

Full species list plus numbers: 36 total species
Surf Scoter 340
White-winged Scoter 10
Red-throated Loon 20
Western Grebe 10
Brandt's Cormorant 3
Double-crested Cormorant 2
Pelagic Cormorant 10
Brown Pelican 85
Great Egret 1
White-tailed Kite 1
Killdeer 15
Black-bellied Plover 21
Wandering Tattler 3
Black Turnstone 12
Surfbird 8
Western Sandpiper 3
Short-billed Dowitcher 2
Parasitic Jaeger 6
Common Murre 6
Heermann's Gull 50
Western Gull 15
California Gull 2
Elegant Tern 50
Downy Woodpecker 1
Hutton's Vireo 1
Black-capped Chickadee 11
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 1
Pacific Wren 2
American Robin 1
American Pipit 3
Yellow Warbler 5
Townsend's Warbler 1
Wilson's Warbler 1
Savannah Sparrow 3
Fox Sparrow 2
White-crowned Sparrow 4

    This past Wednesday I had another opportunity to share some of Humboldt Counties' diverse montane birdlife to another out of state birder, New York resident, Doug Happ. Doug was traveling to California to go on some of Debi Shearwater's pelagics and was planning to visit a friend in Fort Bragg in between his 3 scheduled Shearwater trips. He had never birded in Northwestern California before and noted some species on my website and my various web postings that he hadn't seen before so he contacted me and set up a date to take him out and show him some new birds and a new area of California. Like some of my other recent clients from back east he wanted to see species like Sooty Grouse, Red-breasted Sapsucker, White-headed Woodpecker, Hammond's and Pacific-slope Flycatchers, MacGillivray's Warbler, and other "Western Specialties." With these species in mind it was only right to head back up to the Horse and Grouse Mountain area, THE most accessible location for all these species and more. The base of Titlow Hill Road is only 28 miles from the Highway 101/299 intersection and is just a little more than a 1/2 hour drive to get into serious montane birding from the foggy coastal zone.

    Now, late-July up in the Horse/Grouse Mountain area is VERY different from the prime breeding season centered around the month of June (see my June trip reports from the area here and here). Almost all bird song has ceased besides an occasional Lazuli Bunting or Thick-billed Fox Sparrow breaking the silence and most of the breeding activity is finished up or getting really closed to finishing. Also, a lot of upslope postbreeding movement is happening with species that breed in the lower altitudes. Late July is also the best time of year to come across such desirable and often hard-to-see species like Sooty Grouse and Mountain Quail as they are more easily found along the roadsides with their young. This day was an eye opening experience for me and we had a few unexpected surprises that really made the day a memorable and exciting one! Most surprising was finding a really good bird that was new for me in Humboldt County (more on that find further down..)!
    Bruce and I met up at Espresso 101 at 6 a.m. and picked up some bagels and coffee (shade grown Thanksgiving Coffee!!) and headed out. We arrived at the base of Titlow Hill Road around 6:40 a.m. and started slowly driving up the road in an effort to find Sooty Grouse or Mountain Quail hanging by the roadside. At around 2 miles up we drove right up to a male MOUNTAIN QUAIL right along the road and we got to within 15 feet of it and watched it with leisure for about a minute before it lazily sauntered off into grass off the road! GREAT START!
    We made a couple of other stops along the road and picked up our only CHESTNUT-BACKED CHICKADEES of the day (heard only) but didn't pick up a single Sooty Grouse before we got to Horse Mountain. Right before arriving to the Horse Mountain saddle we made a stop along a pullout and got into a nice mixed flock right along the road that consisted of 1 CASSIN'S VIREO, 2 DUSKY FLYCATCHERS, 3 MOUNTAIN CHICKADEES, 1 BROWN CREEPER, 4 HERMIT WARBLERS, 3 AUDUBON'S YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS, and 1 or 2 WILSON'S WARBLERS. We got nice looks of every species in the flock! Satisfied, we moved on to the Horse Mountain saddle where I introduced Doug to some of the conifer species [i.e., Port Orford Cedar (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana) and Jeffrey Pine (Pinus jeffreyi)] that make up the interesting serpentine habitat here. The whole Horse Mountain area is a specially designated "botanical area."
    After the short stop at the saddle we continued south along Titlow Hill Rd. At a location informally named "Meteor Hill" I spotted 4 SOOTY GROUSE along the road about 80 yards ahead! Two males and two females were foraging right along the road and slowly walked into the forest on the east side of the road and out of sight. SUCCESS!!! Even though late-July is a really good time to look for Sooty Grouse in inland Northwestern California you are never guaranteed to find one so finding 4 at once was exceptional! At this location there were also nice flocks of CHIPPING SPARROWS mixed with some LAZULI BUNTINGS, and OREGON JUNCOS.
    After "Meteor Hill" we made a brief stop at Cold Springs to walk out to the overlook there. Not much birdwise happening here but we got very nice looks at a family group of GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS that came down to the spring there.
    Next stop was the regenerating clearcut just south of Cold Springs where, if you've read my other recent blog posts, might remember the WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKER nest that I found here earlier this summer (photos). No luck on any White-headeds this time but we did find a good diversity of species with the highlights being Doug's lifer RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKERS (juvenile and adult), OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER, decent looks at our first MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLERS of the day (another lifer for Doug), a heard only WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH, and nice looks at a single male LESSER GOLDFINCH, which is pretty uncommon in the montane habitats here. White-breasted Nuthatch was very interesting to find as it is a very local resident in Humboldt County and only breeds at 3-4 known locations in the county within scattered oak habitat. This was the first surprise of the day as I know they have been seen up here in the past but it was the first time I had ever found one. Also of interest was a flock of about 30 VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS which were obvious post-breeding visitors (they don't breed anywhere in the immediate area). Of mammal interest was nice looks at a BLACK-TAILED JACKRABBIT. Here's a couple of photos below

    Since we dipped on WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKER at the clearcut we stopped at another location where I recently saw one, which is about 4.7 miles south of the Horse Mountain saddle. It was starting to warm up a bit and some butterflies were starting to fly about and we had nice looks at some male GREAT SPANGLED FRITILLARYS and took in the beautiful views of the mountain ranges to the east (see Doug's panorama at the top of this post) but had no luck with the White-headeds. We did have another WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH and this time I was ready and called it in. The bird came right in and we had excellent looks! Second time's a charm! Maybe White-breasted Nuthatch is a regular, though rare, post-breeding visitor to this area?

    After finishing up at the White-breasted Nuthatch spot we moved on further south along Titlow Hill Road and switched our search to looking for GREEN-TAILED TOWHEE and THICK-BILLED FOX SPARROW, the latter bird Doug had never seen before. We made a stop at one regenerating clearcut where I had had both species of interest many times this summer. As we were walking along the road I spotted a sparrow foraging on the road under the shade of a shrub  and I told Doug, "there's your Fox Sparrow," assuming that's what it was. Then, the more we looked at it, Doug commented something to the effect of "that bill is kind of small, isn't it?" After looking at the bird all of a sudden the correct id hit me: SAGE SPARROW!!!! WHOA!
    Now, Sage Sparrow is an "Uber Rarity" in Northwestern California with only 3-4 records in Humboldt County, and 1 record in Del Norte County the latter being the most recent record (11 March 2007). All previous Humboldt records are from August and ALL are from the coast and involve single birds [2 August 1987, 26 August 1974, and 28 August-4 September 1981; Harris (2005)].  There was one record noted in American Birds (31:372) from 13 February 1977 but with no details (Harris, 2005). The Del Norte County bird was the only one that was photographed and was clearly the inland model (Artemisiospiza belli nevadensis). I am not sure if the other Humboldt birds were identified to subspecies but it seems unlikely that nevadensis would move from their breeding grounds (closet breeding being in Northeastern California) and arrive in coastal Humboldt County by August? According to the Birds of North America Sage Sparrow account (Martin and Carlson, 1998), the northernmost population of the coastal race of Sage Sparrow (Artemisiospiza belli belli) IS MIGRATORY, whereas the rest of the population is resident.
    The bird we found, an obvious juvenile due to it's streaky underparts, was pretty dark overall, has a well-defined dark malar. On nevadensis the malar is less distinct and more muted. Here's some very poor photos I got of the bird to help illustrate what we saw in the field. Compared to the photos the bird in the field was a bit darker overall.

This bird was an especially interesting record not only due to it's rarity in Northwestern California but also because the Sage Sparrow complex is going to be split (or IS already split as I type) into 2 species in the upcoming AOU supplement, coming out any day now (you can read Rick Wright's analysis of the 54th AOU suplement on his blog)! So all the belli and canescens (canescens is found in Southern California east to western Arizona and is intermediate in plumage between belli and nevadensis) are going to become "Bell's" Sparrow and nevadensis is going to become the Sagebrush Sparrow. Further research is needed on the canescens race as it might also warrant species status. So, with our bird, hopefully somebody gets better quality photos of this individual to help solidify the id of this "Sage" Sparrow. I think, though, due to the overall darkness of this birds' plumage and the timing of the record, this bird is most likely a BELL'S SPARROW. Until I get some other opinions and maybe better photos are taken of the bird, I'm happy just calling it a SAGE SPARROW.
    After our exciting find Doug and I continued on our search for Thick-billed Fox Sparrow but we never did get a look at one and only heard a couple calling! It was just about 1 p.m., though, and things were getting pretty quiet. We did get some decent looks at some GREEN-TAILED TOWHEES, though, and were also treated to nice looks at WESTERN BLUEBIRDS, another MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER a nice male BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK, and some WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS (our local pugetensis race).
    After birding the area a bit more we decided it was lunch time and took a break to refuel. After discussing some other bird possibilities we decided to head back to the coast and go try and find Doug a Pacific-slope Flycatcher. We got back to the Arcata area around 3 p.m. and, after a couple of brief stops, went to Shay Park, one of the standard locations where Pacific-slope flycatcher is easily found. We walked into the spot and within 2 minutes we had found a group of 3 recently fledged PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHERS! It's so nice when a target bird is soooooo easy to find! It was now approaching 4 p.m. and Doug had decided he had gotten enough lifers for the day so we called it day. Another superb day of birding in Humboldt County!
    Oh, and the Sage Sparrow was my 388th non-introduced Humboldt County Bird! 

eBird lists from the day:
base of Titlow Hill to Horse Mountain saddle
Titlow Hill Rd.--Meteor Hill
Cold Springs
Titlow Hill Rd.--Russ Ranch clearcut
Titlow Hill Rd.--pullout 4.7 miles south of Horse Mountain
Titlow Hill Rd.--new clearcut
Shay Park

Full species list: 46 total
Mountain Quail 1
Sooty Grouse 4
Turkey Vulture 2
Anna's Hummingbird 1
Rufous/Allen's Hummingbird 4
Red-breasted Sapsucker 3
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 2
Olive-sided Flycatcher 1
Western Wood-Pewee 2
Dusky Flycatcher 7
Pacific-slope Flycatcher 3
Cassin's Vireo 2
Hutton's Vireo 1
Steller's Jay 5
Common Raven 1
Violet-green Swallow 39
Black-capped Chickadee 2
Mountain Chickadee 13
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 8
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
Brown Creeper 1
House Wren 1
Bewick's Wren 3
Golden-crowned Kinglet 4
Western Bluebird 5
American Robin 4
Orange-crowned Warbler 10
MacGillivray's Warbler 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler 9
Hermit Warbler 5
Wilson's Warbler 5
Green-tailed Towhee 2
Chipping Sparrow 17
Sage Sparrow 1
Fox Sparrow 2
Song Sparrow 2
White-crowned Sparrow 4
Dark-eyed Junco 45
Western Tanager 2
Black-headed Grosbeak 2
Lazuli Bunting 21
Purple Finch 4
Pine Siskin 1
Lesser Goldfinch 1

Literature Cited:
Harris, Stanley W. 2005. Northwestern California Birds. Living Gold Press, Klamath River, CA.

Martin, John W. and Barbara A. Carlson. 1998. Sage Sparrow (Artemisiospiza belli), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/326

This past Sunday, 16 June, I had a full and productive day of birding with Robyn Puffenbarger and Bill Benish from Virginia. We were out for 12 hours and tallied 82 species without even hitting the coastal slope! The day was pleasant with very mild temperatures, mostly clear skies, and little wind. About 8 hours of the day were spent exploring the high country of the Horse to Grouse Mountain areas along Titlow Hill Rd./Forest Service Route 1 and the remaining time was spent birding the Mad River Hatchery near the town of Blue Lake. Highlights of the day were great looks at the following species: MOUNTAIN QUAIL (always hard to see), WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKERS (attending a nest), RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER, HAMMOND'S, DUSKY, and WILLOW FLYCATCHERS, CASSIN'S VIREO, HERMIT WARBLER, YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT, GREEN-TAILED TOWHEE, and THICK-BILLED FOX SPARROW. LAZULI BUNTING was the abundant bird of the day and was seen at almost every stop we made in the Horse/Grouse mountain area. The rarity of the day was an adult male INDIGO BUNTING (INBU), which may have followed the Puffenbargers from Virginia somehow! ;) (This was the 3rd INBU to be found within the past 2 weeks in Humboldt County and all of them have been adult males!)

    I met Robyn and Bill at 0600 and we started our journey east on Highway 299 to the Horse/Grouse Mountain area. We arrived at the base of Titlow Hill Rd. at around 0640 and the sun had not yet started peeking over the mountains a chill was still in the air. Our first bird getting out of the car was LAZULI BUNTING and we started the bird list with a singing WESTERN TANAGER, a couple more singing Lazulis and a wayward BARN SWALLOW, which is unexpected in the area here. We made another couple of stops along the road on the way to Horse Mountain picking up ACORN WOODPECKER (only one spot along the whole road to pick this species up), getting a nice look at a male WESTERN TANAGER, seeing some WESTERN SCRUB-JAYS, hearing some CHESTNUT-BACKED CHICKADEES, a PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHER, and a singing BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK.

    Our first really productive spot was the overlook that looks over the mountain brush field that had the shrubs with the showy white flowers, which is some kind of Ceanothus sp. When we arrived at this location the sun was just starting to come up over the mountains and was just starting to hit the vegetation. Once it really hit the veg. the birds just lit up in song! We stayed at this stop for pretty much an hour, which is the longest time I've spent at this stop. (You can see a picture of this location from my RRAS Horse Mountain trip report). Usually I stop here for five minutes but today the activity warranted our full attention and a longer stay. Once again, the Lazuli Buntings were the first birds we got looks at, but we also had killer looks at RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER, NASHVILLE WARBLER, HERMIT WARBLER, MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER, SPOTTED TOWHEE. It was a rare occasion to be able to watch the sapsucker make at least 4-5 trips back and forth across the valley below us to  supposed foraging and nesting locations. We also heard at least 3 MOUNTAIN QUAIL, a HUTTON'S VIREO, and a TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE here. One of the quail was really close by so we walked up the road to investigate. After minutes of looking for the bird we had it come out in the open and had confiding looks at it from less than 50 feet away!

    After thoroughly enjoying the stop at this pullout we made our way up to Horse Mountain where we stopped at the saddle area and got Robyn and Bill their lifer looks at DUSKY FLYCATCHER. We then walked a short trail south to an overlook and found both male and female AUDUBON'S YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS that were carrying food to a nest location in a old Jefferey pine. Lately this has been a good spot for TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE but we dipped on getting looks at this species here today.
    From here, we drove 3-4 miles down the road and made a couple of brief stops along the road, encountering our first MOUNTAIN CHICKADEES (carrying food to a nest), CHIPPING SPARROWS, more looks at NASHVILLE WARBLER, and Robyn and Bill's lifer HAMMOND'S FLYCATCHER.
    After the couple of stops we made along the road we ventured to the location ("Russ Ranch clearcut" is what I call it) where I had the nesting WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKERS on the RRAS Horse Mountain trip, which would have been a new bird for Robyn and Bill. We walked right down to the area and the male flew out of nest hole on onto a snag downslope of the nest, affording us perfect "lifer looks!" We walked past the nest and positioned ourselves far enough away to where we wouldn't disturb the birds and had the female come in and drop off some fat, juicy-looking, grubs to some of the nestlings inside. We spent a couple of minutes waiting for another food drop off but didn't want to stay in the area long and Robyn and Bill were satisfied with the looks they got so we moved on.

    Soon after the White-headeds we walked a bit down from the nest and heard some heavy tapping and investigated and found a pair of HAIRY WOODPECKERS working a dead pine and obviously being very successful finding grubs and whatever else was there embedded in that snag. Right then the male WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKER flew into the vicinity and gave us nice, prolonged views. After walking up to the road we had nice looks at a singing OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER, and noted that it had some yellowish coloration in between the breast, a plumage feature not really shown in the popular field guides of the day. We then ventured across the road to look for GREEN-TAILED TOWHEE and found at least a couple of them while having to almost swat the overly-abundant Lazuli Buntings from us.
    After an amazing lunch along the road provided by the Puffenbargers which included fresh baked sourdough from Oregon, some delicious herbed cheese curds from Oregon, strawberries and peaches, and some San Pellegrino Limonata to wash it down, we headed further south to look for one of our last target birds, THICK-BILLED FOX SPARROW. We ended up tracking one male singing from a couple of prominent perches in the open, along with another 1-2 GREEN-TAILED TOWHEES, more DUSKY "FLYKES," and our first and only WESTERN BLUEBIRD of the day.

After soaking in the Fox Sparrow we drove to Grouse Mountain and took the gravel road that goes to the peak of the mountain and then heads downslope. We didn't pick up any other new birds driving down this road and, after this last portion of the high country, we decided to head back towards the coast and finish the day at the Mad River Fish Hatchery. On the way back we did stop off at Cold Springs to get our water bottles filled with some cold and clean spring water! REFRESHING! There was an Earth First weekend-long workshop event going on here and after chatting with a couple of them we made out way to the Mad River Fish Hatchery.
    It was a bit warmer at the hatchery since we were back down almost to sea level elevation and, since it was a Sunday AND Father's Day, lot's of people were out enjoying the perfect late-spring weather. The birds were also enjoying the warm weather with lot's of species out and about and singing constantly. We birded here for almost 2 hours and tallied 51 species during that time with the highlights being great looks at OSPREY, PEREGRINE FALCON, ALLEN'S HUMMINGBIRD, WRENTIT, CEDAR WAXWINGS, numerous singing YELLOW-BREASTED CHATS, some juvenile ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLERS, ,a couple of BULLOCK'S ORIOLES, and one of our target birds, WILLOW FLYCATCHER.
    For the past 6-7 years a male Willow Flycatcher has been present in the same area singing away for most of the summer. Last summer breeding was documented for the first time here with an adult seen feeding a fledgeling a large dragonfly and 2 Willows interacting with each other before that! This is the only current location in Humboldt County where Willow Flycatchers breed and there are only a handful of past breeding records for the county so it was very exciting for us to see at least TWO Willow "Flykes" interacting with each other! There may have been another Willow in the area, as we saw 2 birds interacting with each other while one Willow was calling from another area, but we only got on one of them enough to confirm it's identity. Hopefully they will successfully breed here again this year! 

    In addition to the other birds noted, we had a wayward PILEATED WOODPECKER, which is rare for this location in the spring/summer. By the time we had gotten to the fish hatchery the light was getting to be really nice for photography and some of the bird posed rather nicely, like the AMERICAN ROBIN and WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE seen below. We tallied a bunch of other species and got nice looks at some like PEREGRINE FALCON, BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON, NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW, and CALIFORNIA QUAIL.

It was starting to get late and the 12 hours of birding was starting to sink in and we decided to call it quits. On the way out from the fish hatchery I spotted a WHITE-THROATED SWIFT and we turned the car around and parked by the Hatchery Rd. bridge really quick and got some nice looks at about 4 of these birds, our last new species for the day! Robyn and Bill dropped me off at my car and we then parted ways after I suggested they go have some pizza and beer at Big Pete's in Arcata. It was another full and productive day of birding in Humboldt County.

Here's the eBird lists from the day and below them the full day list:

eBird lists:
base of Titlow Hill to Horse Mountain saddle
Horse/Grouse Mountain area
Mad River Fish Hatchery
Mad River--Hatchery Rd. bridge

Cumulative species list:
Number of Species: 82
Mountain Quail 5
California Quail 3
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Black-crowned Night-Heron 1
Turkey Vulture 12
Osprey 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Band-tailed Pigeon 18
Mourning Dove 1
White-throated Swift 4
Anna's Hummingbird 3
Allen's Hummingbird 1
Rufous/Allen's Hummingbird 8
hummingbird sp. 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Acorn Woodpecker 1
Red-breasted Sapsucker 9
Downy Woodpecker 2
Hairy Woodpecker 2
White-headed Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 6
Pileated Woodpecker 1
Peregrine Falcon 1
Olive-sided Flycatcher 2
Western Wood-Pewee 4
Willow Flycatcher (Northwestern) 2
Hammond's Flycatcher 4
Dusky Flycatcher 6
Pacific-slope Flycatcher 4
Black Phoebe 1
Cassin's Vireo 3
Hutton's Vireo 1
Warbling Vireo 1
Steller's Jay 3
Western Scrub-Jay 5
American Crow 15
Common Raven 3
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 4
Tree Swallow 5
Violet-green Swallow 3
Barn Swallow 10
Cliff Swallow 5
Black-capped Chickadee 5
Mountain Chickadee 6
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 2
Bushtit 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 6
Bewick's Wren 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 5
Wrentit 4
Western Bluebird 1
Townsend's Solitaire 2 (heard only).
Swainson's Thrush 5
American Robin 13
European Starling 20
Cedar Waxwing 4
Orange-crowned Warbler 5
Nashville Warbler 10
MacGillivray's Warbler 9
Yellow-rumped Warbler ("Audubon's") 9
Hermit Warbler 15
Wilson's Warbler 4
Yellow-breasted Chat 3
Green-tailed Towhee 3
Spotted Towhee 5
Chipping Sparrow 10
Thick-billed Fox Sparrow 3
Song Sparrow 3
White-crowned Sparrow 2
Dark-eyed Junco 20
Western Tanager 13
Black-headed Grosbeak 4
Lazuli Bunting 36
Indigo Bunting 1
Brown-headed Cowbird 1
Bullock's Oriole 4
Purple Finch 2
Pine Siskin 10
Lesser Goldfinch 2 (heard only)
American Goldfinch 5
House Sparrow 2