Luke Cole, shown here holding a Crested Auklet in Alaska (photo © David W. Nelson) was an amazing guy. He was a top birder, a incomparable wit, a good friend, a connoisseur of the weird and unusual, and a world traveler. We treasure his last postcard to us from Madagascar, telling of yet another search for the Red Owl (inset).

Luke was tragically killed in an auto accident in Uganda in June 2009. The web page and the event described is in his honor.

Luke was also a brilliant lawyer and founder of the Center for Race, Poverty, and the Environment, an organization that strives for environmental justice by, among other things, taking legal action against polluters. His organization has suffered a severe loss with his death.

To celebrate Luke's life and contributions, a group of his closest birding friends organized a statewide birding event over the weekend of 26-27 September. The idea was to send birders to all corners of the State and try to find as many species as possible that weekend. It was organized county by county. Those wishing to pledge support can do so at this web site. This sort of Statewide 'birdathon' has not been done before.

What follows is the story of the Luke Cole Memorial effort in Monterey County. We had great weather over the weekend and a clear night on Saturday night that brought a change-over in migrants the next day. We were fortunate to have four different pelagic trips over the weekend (one each day from Monterey Seabirds and from Shearwater Journeys), so we got excellent seabird coverage, and the dates coincided with the Monterey Bay Bird Festival.

Thanks to organizer Clay Kempf and the field trip leaders (Tim Amaral, Kumaran Arul, Rita Carratello, Bill Hill, Yohn Gideon, Bob & Bernadette Ramer), we were able to obtain their observations within the county over the weekend, including an owling trip (Steve Rovell). Birders who signed up to do portions of the county were R.J. Adams, Robert Horn, Scott & Linda Terrill, Chris Tenney, Mike Tyner, Brian Weed, and Don Roberson. We also benefited from the independent weekend birding efforts of Chuck Bancroft, Pat & Phil Gordon, Chris Hartzell, Oscar Johnson, Brian Sullivan, Kent Van Vuren, and those who contributed sightings to eBird.

We understand that the effort went well throughout California, with 48 of 58 counties participating, and with a Statewide group total will be approximately 380. The Statewide organizers were Steve Glover, Mark Eaton, Alan Hopkins, and Brent Plater; many thanks for their efforts.

For the past 7 years, Monterey Audubon has organized a spring birdathon to support various causes, and we chose the weekend closest to the April/May divide as the “best” date for such a countywide effort. Results have ranged from 230 to 252 species. I find it remarkable that we got 232 species during a fall weekend. The Luke Cole Event was not nearly as highly organized as the spring efforts, and depended much more on a good migration day and many more pelagics than we do in spring, but it did have the advantage of being a two-day effort, rather than one-day events in the spring. Still, 232 species is impressive.

We did well in a variety categories. Raptors, for example, were strong: best was a Broad-winged Hawk at Big Sur R. mouth on Sunday (S&L Terrill) but also impressive were at least 4 Osprey, 4 Peregrine (above, one scatters gulls at the Salinas River mouth on 26 Sep), 3 Merlin, 2 Prairie Falcon, 2 Golden Eagle, and a Bald Eagle. Mike Tyner, who works for Ventana Wildlife Society, got to see two wild-fledged California Condor.

Pelagics. It was a good weekend for offshore seabirds. Highlights included Manx Shearwater, numbers of Black-vented Shearwater, a Wilson’s Storm-Petrel, South Polar Skuas and Sabine’s Gulls, plus jaegers (Pomarine Jaeger, right, 27 Sep © Tom Grey) and Xantus’s Murrelet (reports from Roger Wolfe, Debi Shearwater, the Terrills et al.).

Alas, a couple Tufted Puffin and a Flesh-footed Shearwater were at the SCZ side of Monterey Bay [but they help in the Santa Cruz County effort ! ]

Western landbird migrants. We did very well in this category. Particularly unexpected were Red-breasted Sapsucker (M. Tyner) and Vesper Sparrow (D. Roberson) at Big Sur R. mouth; another early Vesper Sparrow was near Parkfield on Sunday (C. Tenney). There were single Black-chinned Hummingbirds near Salinas (D. Roberson) and in Pacific Grove (O. Johnson), and a female-type Purple Martin near Salinas (B. Sullivan). More expected but scarce species included Vaux’s Swift (K. Van Vuren) and a late Cliff Swallow near Salinas (B. Sullivan, 1-2 migrant Western Kingbird (B. Sullivan, the Terrills), an Ash-throated Flycatcher (D. Roberson at Wagon Caves), Bank Swallow and Yellow-headed Blackbird (K. Arul at Salinas R. mouth), Cassin’s Vireo on south side Pajaro River (the Gordons), Hermit Warbler and Lawrence’s Goldfinch in Pacific Grove (O. Johnson), Western Tanagers near Parkfield (C. Tenney) and at Moonglow (B & B Ramer); there was also a Hooded Oriole there (D. Weidemann). A young male Lazuli Bunting (left) was at a Pacific Grove feeder (R. Carratello, ph D. Roberson).

Waterfowl and waders. A flock of 43 Gr. White-fronted Geese flew over a site near Salinas (O. Johnson), which also hosted at least 52 (!) Pectoral Sandpiper, 5 Baird’s Sandpiper, a Solitary Sandpiper, and a Pacific Golden-Plover (ad adult in molt; right © D. Roberson). There were Brant at Big Sur & Salinas R. mouths. Unexpected Wood Ducks were over Monterey harbor (D. Shearwater) and near Bradley (C. Tenney). The summering Bufflehead at Jetty Road remained (m.ob.). R.J. Adams had a flock of 4 Greater Scaup on L. San Antonio; an imm. male was photographed at Pt. Lobos (Chuck Bancroft). A White-faced Ibis was seen from the Elkhorn Slough Safari pontoon boat (m.ob.). A major surprise inland was a Brown Pelican among the many Am. White Pelicans on L. San Antonio (R.J. Adams).

Winter arrivals. A summering Red-throated Loon was still at Moss Landing, but the weekend saw arriving loons of all three regular species. Gulls were also arriving, with a small smattering of Glaucous-winged, an adult Herring offshore (R. Wolfe), and single Mews at Big Sur R. mouth & Pt. Pinos (D. Roberson). The weekend also saw the first arriving Ruby-crowned Kinglets, American Pipits, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Lincoln’s & Golden-crowned Sparrows, and one Fox Sparrow (R. Carratello at Carmel R. mouth).

Residents. Finally, local birders made efforts to search out and locate – sometimes at the cost of long journeys in 101 degree weather in south county — for such scarce residents as Burrowing Owl, Phainopepla, Rock & Canyon Wren, and Rufous-crowned & Sage Sparrow. On the Big Sur coast, an American Dipper was rounded up (M. Tyner). Red Crossbill bred in Pebble Beach this summer, and one was recorded on the count (B. Sullivan). A nice combination of all these categories of birds accounts for a successful event.