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from the Count-down Event Over 90 people attended the countdown dinner, raffle, and silent auction event. Perhaps half had participated as birders and the other half were supporting the Monterey Peninsula Audubon Society, and a grant to BSOL that will exceed the proceeds, with their participation fees. The preliminary count shows we raised over $5600 ! |
Territory leaders/participants (partial list at right). The
numbers are linked to the territories shown on the map. Boundaries are
approximate; several key spots were covered by multiple teams at different
times & tides, including all major coastal river mouths.
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1: Rick Fournier; Caroline Rodgers, Mark Paxton,
Inga & Dan LaBeaune, Judy Donaldson, Anne Spence, Rebecca Davis, Nathalie
Ferare, Bonnie Bedford-White
2: R.J. Adams; also led a public walk 3: Brian Weed; Jan Scott, Bob & Eileen DeWeese, Jill & Jim Himonas 4: Steve Rovell; John Luther, Scott & Linda Terrill, Ryan Terrill, Matt Brady, David VanderPluym 5: Rob Fowler; Jonathan Carpenter, Jennifer Curtis, Carole Rose, Judy West 6: Sarah Stock, Jessica Griffiths; BSOL interns and public walk on Sat. morning 7: Steve Bailey 8: Don Roberson; Blake Matheson 9: Jim & Helen Banks; Kellie Morgantini 10: Todd Love 11: Tim Amaral 12: Craig Hohenberger; Bill Hill 13: John Sorensen; Jerry Paul 14: Bruce Gerow; Steve Gerow 15: Roger Wolfe 16: Rita Carratello, Bob Tintle; separate partial days in P.G. & Pebble Beach. Also observers at bird feeders around the county, and Yohn Gideon on Elkhorn Slough Safari boat. |
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We located 248 species during the count period, which ties last
year's total that won Monterey County the title of "America's Birdiest
County."
Highlights of our event follow, then a complete list at the bottom of the page. Many thanks to all participants! |
As Don McLean once sang [in American Pie]:UPDATE [as of 16 May] And while the king was looking downWord comes that San Diego County, taking full advantage of the new 48-hour period and different groups covering the whole county over two full days, reached 267 this year. So we will not retain the crown. Thus |
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Two scarce geese were photographed:
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| We found all the nesting waterfowl. Mallard (female above with brood; Moonglow Dairy) is, of course, very common but others like Wood Duck & Common Merganser are scarce. There were still a number of Blue-winged Teal lingering in the Elkhorn Slough watershed. We missed some wintering ducks — such as Long-tailed & Harlequin — that had been present through mid-April. | Among late waterfowl still present were 3 Green-winged Teal on Moro Cojo (Rick Fournier), Canvasback & Ring-necked Duck near San Lucas (Jim & Helen Banks), Lesser Scaup at Pajaro R. mouth (Caroline Rodgers, Judy Donaldson, Roger Wolfe), White-winged Scoter at Salinas R. mouth (4 flying by; R. Wolfe), 2 Bufflehead at Pajaro R. mouth (R. Wolfe), and a fem. Common Goldeneye off Sand City (Don Roberson). |
| The "best stake-out" of the birdathon was this vagrant Yellow-billed Loon (right) that has been present on Elkhorn Slough since 15 April [photo © Bill Hill; see the full frame photo on Bill's web site]. |
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Because of the "no birds count from boats at sea" rule, some observers
spent hours sea-watching on 30 Apr and/or 1 May. These included Steve Bailey,
Matt Brady, John Luther, Steve Rovell, Ryan Terrill, Scott & Linda
Terrill, David Vander Pluym, and Don Roberson. Among them they saw:
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Other scarce, late, or hard-to-find waterbirds, raptors, and gulls/terns
included:
those from offshore boats are not. So Black Tern is properly added to the count! |
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An amazing 24 White-faced Ibis were at 3 locations on 1 May. This adult (left) was near Soledad (B. Matheson, D. Roberson). Sixteen were at Castroville ponds (R. Fournier) and 7 more flew over Zmudowski (R. Fournier, C. Rodgers +). |
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Many shorebirds, like this Greater Yellowlegs at Salinas River
mouth (left), were showing fine alternate plumage. Highlights among
the waders included:
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| The "best bird" found on the court was this first-winter Laughing Gull (right; beyond the California Gulls) at Marina dump 30 Apr (D. Roberson). It was the rarest species discovered; the 12th MTY record [the Yellow-billed Loon was the 31st MTY record].. |  |
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Among the isolated colonies of Purple Martin in Monterey Co. were a group of 40-50 north of Cone Peak; this dive-bombing female (left; © Blake Matheson) was among them. Birdathon observers also found all our regular owls, including rare Flammulated (Tim Amaral on Junipero Serra Peak), Burrowing (the Banks in Wildhorse Cyn), and Long-eared (Matt Brady, Ryan Terrill, Dave Vander Pluym in Robinson Canyon). |
Late lingering landbirds are one key to a good count. This year these
included:
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Rare or elusive breeders are yet another important component. Among
them this year were:
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In spring birdathons in east Texas, they gloat about 30+ warbler species when conditions are right. Cameron County, Texas, had such a day this year during their ABC event. Here, we are successful if we find a dozen species of warblers — and we did this year. Some nest here, like Black-throated Gray (left; Cone Peak © Blake Matheson), but we hope for rare migrants, like Hermit (right; Cone Peak © D. Roberson). The best warbler was a Black-and-white in Carmel Valley present for 3 weeks (Rod & Peggy McMahan). |
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A key to a successful spring Big Day is finding all, or nearly all, of the breeding birds present. A special effort must be made for each rare or local species. In Monterey County this includes Blue Grosbeak (left). The total county population is just a half-dozen pairs (sometimes less) and they don't arrive until the 3rd or 4th week of April. This male was discovered by Jim & Helen Banks on 20 April during scouting, and they dutifully refound him for the count. By 1 May (when this photo was taken) he had been joined by a female and the two were searching for nest sites. |
| Rick Fournier had been watching Yellow-headed Blackbirds at Moonglow Dairy since 20 April. Thirty or more were still around for the count, presumably including these six females photo'd a few days earlier. They are foraging the cattle feed; note the numerous flies (and the Red-winged Blackbird). |
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| Late sparrows of note were a singing Fox at Packard Ranch (Inga & Dan LaBeaune), a Lincoln's at Big Sur R. mouth (S. Stock), and two White-throateds still at a feeder in Monterey (Alice Yamanishi). |
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Finally, it was a good year for goldfinches, with Lawrence's (left) found at the coast at Moss Landing where American (right; a molting male watched over the week) is common. A complete list is below. |
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| Not counted were California Condor — this is the zoo-raised introduced population along the Big Sur coast. Six were seen during the birdathon. | Pomarine Jaeger was seen from a boat on Monterey Bay (Richard Ternullo). In any other Big Day contest anywhere else in the world, this would count. Only the inexplicably odd ABC rule excludes it here. | Also not counted were Red-crowned Parrot & Eur. Collared-Dove. Their populations do not meet CBRC standards for introduced non-natives. Ironically, these species are likely to be counted by our competitors... |
| 1 Gr. White-fronted Goose
2 Ross's Goose 3 Canada Goose 4 Brant 5 Wood Duck 6 Gadwall 7 American Wigeon 8 Mallard 9 Blue-winged Teal 10 Cinnamon Teal 11 Northern Shoveler 12 Northern Pintail 13 Green-winged Teal 14 Canvasback 15 Ring-necked Duck 16 Lesser Scaup 17 Surf Scoter 18 White-winged Scoter 19 Bufflehead 20 Common Goldeneye 21 Common Merganser 22 Red-breasted Merganser 23 Ruddy Duck 24 Wild Turkey 25 Mountain Quail 26 California Quail 27 Red-throated Loon 28 Pacific Loon 29 Common Loon 30 Yellow-billed Loon 31 Pied-billed Grebe 32 Horned Grebe 33 Red-necked Grebe 34 Eared Grebe 35 Western Grebe 36 Clark's Grebe 37 Black-footed Albatross 38 Northern Fulmar 39 Pink-footed Shearwater 40 Flesh-footed Shearwater 41 Sooty Shearwater 42 American White Pelican 43 Brown Pelican 44 Brandt's Cormorant 45 Double-crested Cormorant 46 Pelagic Cormorant 47 American Bittern 48 Great Blue Heron 49 Great Egret 50 Snowy Egret 51 Green Heron 52 Black-crowned Night-Heron 53 White-faced Ibis 54 Turkey Vulture Calif. Condor (not counted) 55 Osprey 56 White-tailed Kite 57 Bald Eagle 58 Northern Harrier 59 Sharp-shinned Hawk 60 Cooper's Hawk 61 Red-shouldered Hawk 62 Red-tailed Hawk 63 Golden Eagle |
64 American Kestrel
65 Merlin 66 Peregrine Falcon 67 Prairie Falcon 68 Virginia Rail 69 Sora 70 Common Moorhen 71 American Coot 72 Black-bellied Plover 73 Snowy Plover 74 Semipalmated Plover 75 Killdeer 76 Black Oystercatcher 77 Black-necked Stilt 78 American Avocet 79 Greater Yellowlegs 80 Lesser Yellowlegs 81 Willet 82 Wandering Tattler 83 Spotted Sandpiper 84 Whimbrel 85 Long-billed Curlew 86 Marbled Godwit 87 Ruddy Turnstone 88 Black Turnstone 89 Surfbird 90 Red Knot 91 Sanderling 92 Western Sandpiper 93 Least Sandpiper 94 Dunlin 95 Short-billed Dowitcher 96 Long-billed Dowitcher 97 Wilson's Snipe 98 Wilson's Phalarope 99 Red-necked Phalarope 100 Red Phalarope Pomarine Jaeger (seen from boat) 101 Laughing Gull 102 Bonaparte's Gull 103 Heermann's Gull 104 Ring-billed Gull 105 California Gull 106 Herring Gull 107 Thayer's Gull 108 Western Gull 109 Glaucous-winged Gull 110 Black-legged Kittiwake 111 Caspian Tern 112 Elegant Tern 113 Forster's Tern 114 Black Tern 115 Common Murre 116 Pigeon Guillemot 117 Cassin's Auklet 118 Rhinoceros Auklet 119 Rock Pigeon 120 Band-tailed Pigeon Eur. Collared-Dove (not counted) Red-crowned Parrot (not counted) 121 Mourning Dove 122 Greater Roadrunner 123 Barn Owl |
124 Flammulated Owl
125 Western Screech-Owl 126 Great Horned Owl 127 Northern Pygmy-Owl 128 Burrowing Owl 129 Spotted Owl 130 Long-eared Owl 131 Northern Saw-whet Owl 132 Lesser Nighthawk 133 Common Poorwill 134 Vaux's Swift 135 White-throated Swift 136 Black-chinned Hummingbird 137 Anna's Hummingbird 138 Costa's Hummingbird 139 Calliope Hummingbird 140 Rufous Hummingbird 141 Allen's Hummingbird 142 Belted Kingfisher 143 Acorn Woodpecker 144 Nuttall's Woodpecker 145 Downy Woodpecker 146 Hairy Woodpecker 147 Northern Flicker 148 Olive-sided Flycatcher 149 Western Wood-Pewee 150 Dusky Flycatcher 151 Pacific-slope Flycatcher 152 Black Phoebe 153 Say's Phoebe 154 Ash-throated Flycatcher 155 Cassin's Kingbird 156 Western Kingbird 157 Loggerhead Shrike 158 Cassin's Vireo 159 Hutton's Vireo 160 Warbling Vireo 161 Steller's Jay 162 Western Scrub-Jay 163 Yellow-billed Magpie 164 American Crow 165 Common Raven 166 Horned Lark 167 Purple Martin 168 Tree Swallow 169 Violet-green Swallow 170 N. Rough-winged Swallow 171 Bank Swallow 172 Cliff Swallow 173 Barn Swallow 174 Chestnut-backed Chickadee 175 Oak Titmouse 176 Bushtit 177 Red-breasted Nuthatch 178 White-breasted Nuthatch 179 Pygmy Nuthatch 180 Brown Creeper 181 Rock Wren 182 Canyon Wren 183 Bewick's Wren 184 House Wren 185 Winter Wren 186 Marsh Wren |
187 American Dipper
188 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 189 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 190 Western Bluebird 191 Swainson's Thrush 192 Hermit Thrush 193 American Robin 194 Wrentit 195 Northern Mockingbird 196 California Thrasher 197 European Starling 198 American Pipit 199 Cedar Waxwing 200 Phainopepla 201 Orange-crowned Warbler 202 Nashville Warbler 203 Yellow Warbler 204 Yellow-rumped Warbler 205 Black-throated Gray Warbler 206 Townsend's Warbler 207 Hermit Warbler 208 Black-and-white Warbler 209 MacGillivray's Warbler 210 Common Yellowthroat 211 Wilson's Warbler 212 Yellow-breasted Chat 213 Western Tanager 214 Spotted Towhee 215 California Towhee 216 Rufous-crowned Sparrow 217 Chipping Sparrow 218 Black-chinned Sparrow 219 Lark Sparrow 220 Sage Sparrow 221 Savannah Sparrow 222 Grasshopper Sparrow 223 Fox Sparrow 224 Song Sparrow 225 Lincoln's Sparrow 226 White-throated Sparrow 227 White-crowned Sparrow 228 Golden-crowned Sparrow 229 Dark-eyed Junco 230 Black-headed Grosbeak 231 Blue Grosbeak 232 Lazuli Bunting 233 Red-winged Blackbird 234 Tricolored Blackbird 235 Western Meadowlark 236 Yellow-headed Blackbird 237 Brewer's Blackbird 238 Great-tailed Grackle 239 Brown-headed Cowbird 240 Hooded Oriole 241 Bullock's Oriole 242 Purple Finch 243 House Finch 244 Pine Siskin 245 Lesser Goldfinch 246 Lawrence's Goldfinch 247 American Goldfinch 248 House Sparrow |
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& stories from the Event, including shots from the count-down dinner |
