| These highlights chronicle the year 2009. Created
incrementally as new photos were available, the year runs generally
"backwards" on this page. |
| The abbreviation "MTY" means "Monterey County"
in the text below. 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. |
|
 Undoubtedly the most unexpected bird of the year so far was this female Snow Bunting
at Pt. Pinos 23-26 May (above, photo 26 May © D. Roberson). Found
by visiting birder Daniel Gilman on the beach across from Crespi Pond,
it remained at its favored spot near tideline for many happy birders
until it left on the first clear night after its discovery. This was
the 3rd record for MTY and is the latest spring record for California,
where there are now three records in May. One of those was in San Diego
the first week of May this year. [A year later, Peter Pyle & Brian Sullivan [Western Birds
41: 261-265 + back cover, 2010] published a comparison of close-up
photos of the San Diego and Pt. Pinos bunting, and determined they were
of the same bird! ]
A backyard treat on 28 May was this female Hooded Warbler
in Pacific Grove (right © D. Roberson). Rita Carratello spotted it
at the bird bath in the hour before dusk. Amazingly, this is the 4th
Hooded Warbler in this small yard in the past 16 years: singing males
were previously present 3 June 1983, 2 June 1992, and 12 June 1993. |
|
 Another unexpected backyard was this Cassin's Kingbird
in Marina on 25 May (photo right © Steve Rovell). Any Cassin's is
quite rare near the coast, but amazingly this was the third Cassin's in
the Rovell yard this May.
A few other good birds
appeared at Big Sur R. mouth at the end of May, including a Franklin's
Gull (Rovell & the Roses), Summer Tanager (three different birds,
including two singing males), and a couple Rose-breasted Grosbeak (one
banded). Also a male Northern Parula provided the first record for
Fremont Peak when spotted on the MTY side of the peak on 23 May (David
& Jan Styer, Larry & Carole Rose). |
 |
Monterey Seabirds
had an amazing pelagic trip on 23 May. They encountered four Laysan
Albatross, one of which was carrying a tracking device; it proved to be
one of 12 breeding adults from Guadalupe Island.
They also had a Manx Shearwater, two Franklin's Gull, and best of all,
two Murphy's Petrel. One of them (left; photo ©
Jeff Poklen; more photos on his web site) was on the MTY side of the Bay; the other was in Santa
Cruz Co. These are the first records of Murphy's Petrel inside Monterey
Bay. Some 86 Murphy's were seen well offshore MTY & SCZ on a
research cruise 7-10 Apr 1991 (Roberson 2002). |
| An impromptu 31 May "chase trip" put together by Roger Wolfe did not find Pterodroma petrels, but did have the spring record of Long-tailed Jaeger
for the county (right, photo © Dan Singer), as well as Xantus's
Murrelet in Santa Cruz Co. waters at mid-Bay. More photos on Jeff Poklen's site. |
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This year's MTY birdathon, a fundraiser for Monterey Peninsula Audubon Soc., was 1–2 May.
Full results and photos at this link.
Common Moorhen 2 May at Laguna Grande
© Steve Rovell
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| The MTY coast saw some very high winds during late March. Gales during the night of 21-22 March pushed thousands of Black-legged Kittiwakes
into the Bay, which could be seen streaming past Pt. Pinos the next
morning (above). Brian Sullivan estimated 7500 during his 2.5 hour
seawatch that date. A small first-cycle Larus at the Big Sur
R. mouth 21 Mar (below left) showed many characters of "Kumlien's"
Iceland Gull, including partially barred tertials, but appeared to be
in the zone of gradation between Iceland and Thayer's Gulls, and was
left unidentified. A few first-cycle Glaucous Gull were about (like this one at Roberts Lake 1 Mar, below right. All these gull photos © D. Roberson). |
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| Long-eared
Owl is pretty much a mystery bird locally. It is believed to nest
regular in the canyons around the Santa Lucia Range, and can
occasionally be found at a winter roost almost anywhere in the county.
But such roosts are rarely located and are very unpredictable. Art Muto
found this Long-eared Owl (above; photos 11 Mar
© D. Roberson ) at Pt. Lobos in early March. From the number of
pellets under the roost, it seemed to be successfully hunting rodents
in the reserve. Bill Hill has some wonderful shots on his web site. The owl vanished by mid-April. |
|
 Brian
Sullivan found an interesting first cycle gull at Moss Landing on 1
March (left, with Western Gull © Brian L. Sullivan) that shows
characters of first cycle Slaty-backed Gull. Expert
opinion has been positive, but this is one of the more difficult
identification problems in West Coast gulls. More photos on Brian Sullivan's web site.
Brian was the one to find MTY's first record of Slaty-backed in Feb
2007, but that was an easier to identify second-cycle bird (photo at bottom of 2007 highlights page).
What
we presume was the same bird was found off-and-on in the gull/pelican
roost at Moss Landing (above; © Dan Singer) on various days over
the next week.
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| The
first couple months of 2009 were rather slow. January had few birds of
note and February was very rainy. One set of interesting birds, though,
were these three geese near Salinas on 17 Jan (below © D.
Roberson). Study of the photos and expert review revealed them to be,
right to left: Aleutian Cackling Goose B. h. leucopareia, Lesser Canada Goose B. c. parvipes, and Ridgway's Cackling Goose B. h. minima.
The two subspecies of Cackling Goose are regular in small numbers
(indeed, an Aleutian is wintering with a Snow Goose on Crespi Pond),
but Lesser Canada Goose may never have been documented in the county.
We presume it was regular in occurrence many years ago, but the
wintering range has moved northwards. Its discovery led to the creation
of a two-page identification set for central coast birders; see it for many more details and references to important literature. |
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