Trip
Information
Date: September
10 – 20, 2010
Leader:
Richard Knapton
Limit: 12
people
Cost: $3475
US, $3750 CDN; Single supplement $775 US, $840 CDN
Tours starts and ends in San Francisco
Highlights:
• Relatively
easy and productive birding among the most scenically impressive and
diverse of areas
• Exciting and productive pelagic, with potential for exceptional sightings
• Lots of mammals, from Sea Otters and Orcas to Tule Elk and Sea-lions!
Featured birds:
• Yellow-billed Magpie
•
White-headed Woodpecker
•
California Condor
•
Wrentit
•
California Thrasher
•
California Towhee
•
Black-footed Albatross
•
Pink-footed Shearwater
•
Greater Sage-Grouse
•
Tricolored Blackbird
•
Oak Titmouse
•
Sea Otter
•
Tule Elk
Trip Summary:
• Easy to moderate walking
•
Highly variable weather, cool along coast and high elevations
•
Good quality accommodation
•
One pelagic trip into Monterey Bay and beyond
•
Breakfasts and lunches included; evening meals not included
•
Good quality roads; short to moderate driving distances
•
4-8 participants with one leader, 9-12 participants with two leaders
•
One or two 15-passenger vans
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California
is a delightfully varied state, from world-class pelagic birding to rocky
ocean shorelines, towering coast redwoods, productive marshes and mudflats,
and amazing high elevation vistas of the Coast Range. We sample parts
of Central California from the Pacific coastline inland to the magnificent
high mountain  scenery of the Sierra Nevada. Pelagic boatrides out into
Monterey Bay are among the most exciting in the world, for the cool California
Current brings nutrient rich waters close to land and provide feeding
grounds for many North Pacific species and large numbers of migrants
from the Southern Hemisphere. Add to this a rich landbird fauna, including
several endemics and great numbers of shorebirds migrating south from
northern breeding grounds, at Point Reyes National Seashore, Mono Lake
and world-famous Yosemite National Park, plus the chance to see once
again a California Condor soaring majestically in the wild, and we have
a superb and spectacular tour. Central California also hosts a remarkable
array of mammals, from sea otters to Tule Elk. Travelling in California
is made especially pleasurable by excellent roads and fine accommodations.
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Itinerary
Day 1 - Arrival and transfer to Inverness
Arrival in San Francisco and transfer north over the Golden Gate Bridge
to Inverness for a two night stay, perhaps stopping at Bolinas Lagoon
en route to look for our first shorebirds, gulls and terns. Overnight
in Inverness.
Day 2 - Point Reyes National Seashore
Point Reyes National Seashore is a superb area supporting a variety of
pristine habitats of riparian willow and oak thickets, dry chaparral,
lagoons and estuaries. The peninsula sticks out into the Pacific Ocean,
allowing ready viewing of spectacular shearwater concentrations off the
Central California coast, and in waters close to shore Pacific and Common
Loons, Surf Scoters, and Western and Clark’s Grebes occur. Brackish
lagoons and small estuaries attract thousands of shorebirds - Western
and Least Sandpipers, Red-necked Phalarope, Marbled Godwit, Long-billed
Curlew, Short-billed Dowitcher, Willet and Whimbrel - many of these can
be approached quite closely and hence afford good photographic opportunities.
Elegant and Caspian Terns can be found alongside Western, Heermann’s
and California Gulls along beaches, and Snowy and Semipalmated Plovers
and Black Turnstones forage along sandbars and rocky promontories. Oak
and conifer woodlands and riparian thickets provide shelter for resident
and migrating landbirds – Anna’s Hummingbird, Nuttall’s
and Acorn Woodpeckers, Steller’s Jay, Chestnut-backed Chickadee,
Bushtit - and we look especially for warblers, including Hermit, Townsend’s
and Wilson’s. California Quails scurry across clearings, White-tailed
Kites hover overhead and several species of woodpeckers should be present.
In drier chaparral, another distinctive group of birds occurs - the elusive
Wrentit, plus California Towhee, Bewick’s Wren and Western Scrub-Jay.
Harbour Seals and Tule Elk, an elk subspecies, occur here as well. Night
in Inverness.
Day 3 - Transfer to Sierra Nevada
We spend the morning at Point Reyes, concentrating on species we may
not yet have found, then we travel inland across the Sacramento Valley
to the foothills of the imposing Sierra Nevada, through the spectacular
Carson Pass and down to Lee Vining, making several birding stops along
the way. Night in Lee Vining.
Day 4 - Mono Lake
Mono Lake is the oldest body of freshwater in North America. It is shrinking
in size, revealing unique calcified rock formations along the shoreline.
The lake holds large numbers of Eared Grebes, and in September migrant
Wilson’s and Red-necked Phalaropes. Ospreys are frequent visitors.
We look for sagebrush specialists - Sage Thrasher, Sage and Brewer’s
Sparrows, and with luck Greater Sage-Grouse. Coniferous forests support
Pinyon Jay, Pygmy Nuthatch, Townsend’s Solitaire, Mountain Bluebird,
Green-tailed Towhee and the unwoodpecker-like Lewis’s Woodpecker.
During the afternoon we cross Tioga Pass to Yosemite National Park for
a three nights stay. Night in Yosemite.
Days 5 & 6 - Yosemite
Yosemite National Park has some of the most spectacular scenery anywhere,
a vast wilderness with huge waterfalls, deep valleys, grand meadows,
ancient giant Sequoias and high altitude montane forest covering elevational
changes from 2,000 up to13,000 feet. This superb park contains five major
vegetation zones: chaparral/oak woodlands, lower montane, upper montane,
subalpine and alpine. Breathtaking vistas are a feature, as are natural
wonders such as Bridalveil Falls, Half and Sentinel Domes and Cathedral
Rocks. Woodpeckers are particularly well represented, including Red-naped,
Red-breasted and Williamson’s Sapsuckers, and Nuttall’s,
White-headed and Black-backed Woodpeckers. Golden Eagles and White-throated
Swifts soar overhead, and passerines include Orange-crowned, Yellow-rumped,
Black-throated Gray, Nashville and MacGillivray’s Warblers, American
Dippers are along fast-flowing rivers, and Rufous Hummingbird, Clark’s
Nutcracker, Mountain Chickadee, Brown Creeper, Western Bluebird and Cassin’s
Vireo can be found. With luck we’ll encounter Mountain Quail and
Sooty Grouse, as well as Great Grey Owl. Nights in Yosemite.
Day 7 - Transfer to Monterey
Today we drive to Monterey, crossing flat open basins where Prairie Falcons
hunt and foothill woodland and oak savannah that supports Yellow-billed
Magpie, Greater Roadrunner, Lewis’s and Acorn Woodpeckers, Oak
Titmouse, Say’s Phoebe, Western Bluebird and Phainopepla. Night
in Monterey area.
Days 8 – 10 - Transfer to Monterey
The Monterey peninsula will be our base for the next three nights. During
our stay we take a pelagic boat trip for seabirds and cetaceans, into
famous Monterey Bay and beyond. Monterey Bay is particularly attractive
to marine life because of the close proximity to shore of the continental
shelf and deep underwater canyons over 3,000 m deep. Upwellings of nutrient-rich
water attract a wide variety of pelagic seabirds. Black-footed Albatross,
shearwaters, jaegers, Sabine’s Gull, auklets, auks, murrelets,
Ashy and Black Storm-Petrels – the list seems endless. We should
encounter great whales such as Gray or Blue Whales, and sheltered waters
hold dolphins and Dall’s Porpoise, and sometimes Killer Whale (Orcas).
The Monterey peninsula supports groves of Coastal Redwoods and cypresses,
rocky and sandy shores, and mudflats. Rocky shores are frequented by
Brandt’s and Pelagic Cormorants, Black Oystercatcher, maybe an
early Wandering Tattler or Surfbird. On offshore rocky outcrops, California
Sealions loaf, and nearby among the kelpbeds are Sea Otters. Oak and
conifer woods and chaparral have Acorn Woodpecker, Wild Turkey, Bushtit,
Bewick’s Wren, Western Tanager and Purple Finch. Range-restricted
Tricolored Blackbirds can be found in small marshy areas. One day we
travel to Pinnacles National Monument, an area of riparian woodland,
canyons and chaparral, with towering sandstone rock formations that resemble
pinnacles. Here, we look for the endemic Yellow-billed Magpie, as well
as Prairie Falcon, Say’s Phoebe, Oak Titmouse, California Thrasher
and Lawrence’s Goldfinch. Pinnacles NM is where the re-introduction
of California Condors is being undertaken, and we should see some soaring
over the canyons – an exhilarating spectacle. Nights in Monterey.
Day 11 - Return to San Francisco
We leave Monterey, and time permitting, we visit the Northern Elephant
Seal colony at Año Nuevo State Park, a splendid marine wildlife
sanctuary. We then continue back to San Francisco for our flights home.
What to Expect
Temperatures
vary on our tour. At San Francisco and along the coast, we can expect
lows in the mid-50s and highs in the mid-70s,
with frequent coastal fog. At higher elevations in the mountains, morning
temperatures may be as low as mid-40s, and at lower elevations away from
the coast, it will be warm, with highs in the upper 80s. Rain is a possibility
along the coast and at higher elevations, hence raingear is advised. Walking
will be easy to moderate. At Año Nuevo, if we walk out to the point
and back, the total distance round trip is perhaps 3 km, some of which
is over sand. At Andrew Molera State Park, an easy walk of about 3 km is
involved. Most birding locations will involve much shorter forays away
from the van. Our tour includes a daylong boat trip. It is best to prepare
seasickness remedies. Plan to wear sneakers or boat shoes and minimally
a rain jacket on these boat trips; a rain suit may be desirable to protect
from wind and spray. It may be quite cool on the water, so dress in layers.
Boat trips are occasionally cancelled due to weather; if so, we bird alternative
locations.
You can expect some early morning, before-breakfast walks as we search
out migrating passerines, as well as late evening viewing. The tour cost
includes continental breakfasts and lunches. Picnic lunches will be supplied
on most days, and box lunches will be provided for the pelagic trip. Other
meals will be at restaurants. In the evening, we usually arrange to go
to a local restaurant. During this time we discuss the day’s activities
and review the list of birds seen and heard, and make plans for the next
day.
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