Willet and Whimbrel (California)

During a far-too-short trip to the San Francisco Bay Area for a reunion this past weekend, Dave and I went out looking for shorebirds in the aptly named Shorebird Park near the Berkeley marina. We saw a nice variety of species we don't see often or at all in Minnesota. Two of these were the willet and the whimbrel, both seen picking their way along next to shellfish-encrusted rocks at the edge of a wide, flat beach.

Willet

The willet is a large, straight-billed shorebird, mostly gray in its winter plumage and a more mottled brown in summer. It's an elegant bird, to my mind, and is most often seen alone. We have seen them in Minnesota, but not often.

Whimbrel 

Here's the whimbrel. Look at that bill! How would you like to go through life with that on the front of your face?  It's well-suited to its job, though: apparently the curve of the whimbrel's bill exactly fits the shape of the fiddler crab's burrow, perfect for reaching in and pulling the crab out.

The Cornell Lab says about the whimbrel (which has also been known as the Hudsonian curlew):

One of the most wide-ranging shorebirds in the world, the Whimbrel breeds in the Arctic in the eastern and western hemispheres, and migrates to South America, Africa, south Asia, and Australia. It uses its long, down-curved bill to probe deep in the sand of beaches for invertebrates, but also feeds on berries and insects.

The only other time I've seen a whimbrel was along the rocky northern California coast in March 2009.

Whimbrel (front) and Willet

Here they are together. While you can't see the full bill of the willet in this photo, you can get an idea of their relative size and coloration. Both are considered large shorebirds, weighing roughly between half a pound and a pound, but the whimbrel is the larger of the two.

Berkeley Burrowing Owl (Lifer!) and a White-tailed Kite

I saw my first-ever burrowing owl last weekend, finally, in Berkeley, California, while visiting my family there. There is a popular bayside park where a few come each winter, even though they are just a few yards from where people and dogs regularly walk and run.

The area is chained off from visitors during owl season (I believe it's roughly October to April). Signs advise viewers not to watch too long, which stresses the owls, nor to point at them, which might alert raptors. The area is riddled with ground squirrel burrows, which are just what burrowing owls like, though they are also apparently quite capable of digging their own holes.

The photo below shows the setting. It's not really what you'd expect, is it? -- although actually, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, burrowing owls are notorious for showing up on golf courses, air fields, college campuses and other open grassy areas quite close to human activity. One even tried to take up residence on a cruise ship's mini-golf course a couple of years ago.

The little owl (they stand only about 8 to 9 inches high) is barely visible as a pale speck in front of a boulder close to dead center in the photo above. Can you see it? (Click on it to see it bigger.)

At the same park, we saw a beautiful white-tailed kite, which I've seen here before, perhaps the very same bird, as described as a highlight of the birds I saw in 2011:

My first white-tailed kite, seen hovering over dunes in a Berkeley, CA, bayside park in August -- a beautiful, medium-sized white hawk that at first I took to be yet another gull but whose hovering behavior caught my eye as something very different. This is a coastal bird, in the U.S. generally only to be seen along the west coast, the southern Texas gulf coast and the tip of Florida.

I wish these cropped photos were clearer, but though hovering the bird was still moving. The first time I saw it (presuming it's the same bird as in 2011, which of course it might not be), the dark tips to the wings and its raptor head helped me identify it. There is also a distinctive black spot near the bend in each wing, visible above.

The Cornell Lab describes the kite's distinctive hovering:

While hunting, the White-tailed Kite characteristically hovers up to 80 feet off the ground and then drops straight down onto prey items [almost entirely small mammals]. This ability to hold a stationary position in midair without flapping is accomplished by facing into the wind, and is so characteristic of these birds that it has come to be called kiting. White-tailed Kites also perform ritualized courtship displays in which a male offers prey to a female prior to egg laying. In an often spectacular aerial exchange, the female flies up to meet the male, turns upside-down, and grasps the prey.

The word kite, which nonbirders mostly associate with the colorful toys we fly on the end of long strings, was used for the bird first; the toy very likely got its name from the way it hovers like a kite. (See, e.g., http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=kite.)

I came to this park in August 2011 with my son, both of us keen to see the burrowing owls we had read were to be found here. (They can be found in a few places in the western prairies of Minnesota, at the eastern edge of their range except for some outliers in Florida, but they are a state endangered species according to the Minnesota DNR.) Sadly, we learned that we were there at the wrong season; we had no chance of seeing a burrowing owl in Berkeley in August. So when I had an opportunity to go again last week, I had to see if I could finally see my lifer burrowing owl. I hope my son gets to see his before too long.

The Year in Birds: 2011

See also The Year in Birds: 2011 (Part 2).

I've just caught up with our official 2011 bird list, which I forgot to keep updated in the final months of the year. We have 137 birds on the list this year, including birds seen in California. That's up from only 95 last year, but we didn't have a western trip last year.

Our birding highlights of 2011 included:

• Rare whooping cranes in Rice County in the fall (also spotted by others in the spring):

• My first sight of a large gathering of sandhill cranes at the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge in early November.
• My first white-tailed kite, seen hovering over dunes in a Berkeley, CA, bayside park in August -- a beautiful, medium-sized white hawk that at first I took to be yet another gull but whose hovering behavior caught my eye as something very different. This is a coastal bird, in the U.S. generally only to be seen along the west coast, the southern Texas gulf coast and the tip of Florida.
• My first scarlet tanagers, seen on the same mid-May day as 10 or so species of migrating spring warblers at the Cannon River Wilderness Area; the bay-breasted warbler became a new favorite for me the same day.

• A March trip to California that included shorebird- and waterfowl-watching in fairly industrialized East Bay locations and a very enjoyable outing to the Las Gallinas Wildlife Ponds (a.k.a. sewage ponds) in Marin County. Birds included marbled godwit, black-necked stilt, dunlin, pectoral sandpiper, American avocet, willet, American wigeon, northern mockingbird, black-crowned night-heron, black-bellied plover, western grebe, surf scoter, black turnstone and snowy egret. (Addendum, Jan. 8: I've been reminded to add violet-green swallow and cinnamon teal to this trip report.)
• An August trip to California with my then-almost-12-year-old son, where we saw the above-mentioned white-tailed kite and hiked up into the Sunol Wilderness Area in the southern East Bay hills to see golden eagles soaring around the hilltops. This was by our terms a substantial hike (about three hours fairly steeply uphill and down again, in very dry conditions), which challenged and rewarded both of us. I came away from it with an enhanced sense of power to push myself physically and an appreciation for my son's stamina. I'll close with this image of that trail: leading onward and upward to new discoveries about ourselves and the world. 

Wishing you adventures in 2012.

California Birding

Dave and I spent the past week visiting my family in Berkeley, Calif. While there we found a good spot for shorebirds in the crowded, industrial Oakland/Alameda bayshore, and also had a couple of terrific outings  in Marin County. Here are a few shots from the trip.

Black-crowned Night-Heron

Double-crested cormorants

Willet

American Avocet, Black-bellied Plover

Western Grebes

Surf Scoters (females)

Northern Mockingbird (gorgeous singing - we don't get them in Minn.)

Black-necked Stilt (a first for me - such a cool bird!)

Black Turnstone

Snowy Egret

Perfect Roses

Taken at the Berkeley (Calif.) Rose Garden last week. Click on the photos to experience the full perfection.

Sandpipers en Masse

Large groups of animals moving rapidly in unison are amazing to watch, whether they are bats, fish, or birds. How do they coordinate their movements so well? Perhaps all it takes is each creature being aware of the two or three immediately around it, but the overall effect of synchronized motion can be breathtaking. These photos capture a large flock of sandpipers, quite possibly including western sandpipers and slightly larger dunlins, on the Pacific coast near Arcata, CA, in February. The photo above shows them on the beach, where they made us laugh by running back and forth as the waves moved in and out.

The photos below show the flock in flight over the waves. Click on the photos for better detail.

Shorebirds like these winter along the coasts and in the far southern U.S. and Mexico, breed in far northern Canada and Alaska, and can be seen in migration through the Midwest (though only a few types in southeastern Minnesota).

The Sounds of Humboldt Bay NWR

I took this short video clip mainly to capture the constant bird sounds we were hearing -- Canada and Cackling Geese (a smaller subspecies) in particular -- at the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge Complex. It was a beautiful place. We saw many marbled godwits, gulls, herons, and a gorgeous northern harrier (aka marsh hawk) flying low over the saltmarsh. At a distance across a field away from the marshes, we also saw to our amazement something that we concluded must have been a bobcat.

River Otter Eating a Fish

The photos below show a river otter eating a fish on a creekbank along the Shorebird Loop Trail at the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge Complex south of Eureka, CA, at the end of February. The refuge is situated on an estuary, where freshwater streams meet ocean waters in a slough. We had hoped throughout our northern California trip to see an otter, and it was on our last day in the north that we were alerted to the presence of this one by a friendly wildlife biology student from Humboldt State. Alas, my camera battery was just about out of power, with the backup back at the car, so these were the best I was able to get in the few shots I had left. We followed the otter's bubbles as it swam underwater to a couple of other spots nearby, and were utterly delighted to have such an extended opportunity to observe this charming animal. For someone raised on The Wind in the Willows (which, in case you don't know, is about so much more than the adventures of Mr. Toad), it was an especially nice treat.

A Garble of Marbled Godwits

While we were at the Woodley Island marina near Eureka, CA, which I wrote about in my last post, we were awed to see a good-sized flock of Marbled Godwits. Little did we know that in the next couple of days it would become so commonplace to see these handsome shorebirds that we went from exclaiming over them to essentially saying, "Oh look, another 400 Marbled Godwits." Nearby Arcata, CA, home to the renowned Arcata Marsh & Wildlife Sanctuary, celebrates them with an annual three-day festival called Godwit Days, which is held at the peak of spring migration for many species and offers small group field trips, lectures, workshops, boating excursions, and other activities. We're thinking we'll have to go, some year.

The long, slightly upturned bills of these birds are notable for being dark at the tip and pink for the rest of their length. They breed on the northern plains, including the Dakotas and even far western Minnesota, but they winter along the east and west coasts as far south as the tip of Mexico. My resident birding expert has seen them in Minnesota, but only in ones and twos, never in the flocks we saw in California, which ranged from several dozen to literally several hundred. The photo sequence below captures the first flock we saw as they transferred from one gathering spot to another right in front of us.



Look closely (click on the photos for more detail) and you'll see the group of birds that had come to rest on the grass at the water's edge.

Want to See Loons? Go to California.

Although the Common Loon is the state bird of Minnesota, here in southern Minnesota we generally see loons only in migration; a pair was spotted on a Northfield pond last spring. However, several species of loons winter along the Pacific coast, among other places. On our recent birdwatching trip in northern California, we saw loons (Common, Pacific, or Red-Throated) most days, in protected salt-water harbors and at Clear Lake.

The bird below is probably a Common Loon transitioning to its black-and-white breeding plumage. Its sturdy bill helps distinguish it from the very similar Pacific Loon. We spotted it in the harbor at Woodley Island, just north of Eureka, along with a number of grebes and a large group of Marbled Godwits. One of the tell-tale signs of a loon is its low position in the water.

Harbor Seals Basking in Adorableness

Harbor seals and cormorants were all over these rocks near Fort Bragg, CA. The photos below were taken through the spotting scope from the same vantage point, so you get the idea of how powerful the zoom is. Click on any of the photos for more detail.

What a beauty!

Note the tip of the tongue showing in the photo above. Have you ever seen a seal's tongue before?

Ah, asleep at last.

Birds on the Rocks

The rocky shoreline at MacKerricher State Park near Fort Bragg, CA, was rich in bird life during our visit almost two weeks ago; I suspect that is usually the case.

Not far from where we saw the Black Oystercatchers I wrote about the other day, cormorants were preening themselves on a large rock. We think these were Pelagic Cormorants, judging by the white patches visible under one tail and by the uniformly dark throats; these markers distinguish them from the larger Brandt's Cormorants.

This beauty with the "decurved" bill is a Whimbrel, about which the Cornell Lab of Ornithology says:

One of the most wide-ranging shorebirds in the world, the Whimbrel breeds in the Arctic in the eastern and western hemispheres, and migrates to South America, Africa, south Asia, and Australia. It uses its long, down-curved bill to probe deep in the sand of beaches for invertebrates, but also feeds on berries and insects. ... Some migrating Whimbrels make a nonstop flight of 4,000 km (2,500 miles) from southern Canada or New England to South America.

We spotted her (or him) picking her (or his) way through a tidepool on a large outcropping of rock.

On the much smaller rock above is a Black Turnstone, a mid-sized shorebird that winters all along the Pacific coast from Alaska to Baja. Its limited breeding ground in western Alaska puts it at serious risk from oil spills.