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These highlights chronicle the year 2007. Created incrementally as new photos were available, the year runs generally "backwards" on this page. |
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Two juv Ruff present 1–3 Sep (above; Tim Amaral et al., photo © Brian L. Sullivan); an adult White-rumped Sandpiper 1–9 Sep (right; found by B.L. Sullivan, photo © Jeff Poklen); and a juv Hudsonian Godwit 8–20 Sep (below, with Red-necked Phalarope; first identified by Bud Fox, photo © D. Roberson). The White-rumped Sandpiper is the third MTY record, and the second adult in fall. The prior record was 14–18 Sep 1985 at two locations in the lower Salinas Valley. The Hudsonian Godwit was the second MTY record. The first moved between the Carmel and Salinas River mouths from 28 Aug–3 Oct 1988. |
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On the late afternoon of that very same 11 June, Rich Trissel was playing golf on Spanish Bay with Steve Donahue. They had just finished the 8th hole (right) and were setting up on the 9th tee adjacent to the marsh shown (... this is a picture of the marsh, not a picture of Rich ....), when a Black Rail began to vocalize incessantly keek-ka-do . . . keek-ka-do . . . keek-ka-do. Rich got the word out immediately and many local birders heard it that day or week — indeed, it was still singing at the end of July. This was just the second county record of Black Rail, and it appears to also be summering locally. If by fate it should attract a mate, local breeding is even possible. We presume it is the same bird that was reported in this exact spot in this same marsh on the golf course by visiting birder Don Merit way back on 31 March 2006. Although he wrote a fine description of the song, that 2006 report was not confirmed by others and was considered hypothetical until the current summering bird. MTY's only prior record was a youngster that was found dead on a Pacific Grove street on 29 Sep 1967. That specimen is now mounted and on display at the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History. |
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The most important nesting was that by California Condor. Two wild nests were discovered, each initiated by zoo-bred birds released back into the wild over the past decade. These were monitored by Ventana Wildlife Society (VWS) biologists. One was in a cave — climber Joseph Brandt took this incredible photo of the wild mother looking in at her egg in April (© Joseph Brandt, used with permission of VWS). The second nest was in the stump of a huge redwood — the same spot where a pair in 2006 looked to be nesting, a false alarm back then. This year, pairs at both sites laid a single egg each, and each egg hatched a chick in the wild. The chick in the cliff nest, named "Centennia," fledged on 26 Sep. This is the first condor from a wild nests in Monterey County in 102 years. This is a fabulous step forward in the hopes that a native self-sustaining population of condors will be flying safe and free here on the central California coast, where there were first described to science back in 1792. |
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The abbreviation "MTY" means
"Monterey County"
in the text throughout. Text by Don Roberson. Photos on this
page
are copyrighted by the photographers to whom they are
attributed, and may not be reproduced in any form (including
other web sites) without the express consent of the photographer.
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| More highlights will be posted as they arise and
are
documented with
photos.
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The Sunday-Monday tandem of 30 Sep–1 Oct
brought a very impressive set of vagrants to the willow patch at the
east end of Laguna Grande Park in Seaside. It started
with Tim Amaral's report of possible Old World flycatcher on Sunday
morning. A dozen birders hustled in to search for it, but without
success. The description sounded reasonably good for Mugimaki
Flycatcher Ficedula mugimaki, a long distance migrant that
has reached the Aleutians. 
On the late afternoon on 11 June, Rita Carratello watched
a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak in her backyard
birdbath. It would remain in the neighborhood, singing each morning,
until she left for a vacation back East the next week. On 29 July,
presumably the same male Rose-breast — now just beginning pre-basic
molt (above © D. Roberson ) — was at the same birdbath, and
appears to be summering locally.
Summer is the breeding season. In late May
and June, a brood of Common Merganser was right on
the coast at the Odello Lagoon portion of Carmel River mouth. The
female was accompanied by nine (9) fledglings, each of which you can
count in the evocative shot above (© Blake Matheson). It is only
about a decade ago when the first Common Merganser breeding on the
Carmel River was confirmed, well upstream of the mouth.