California Dreaming: San Jose 4-11th December 2011

Working at an engineering company in West Yorkshire isn't the best place to see exotic wildlife. So when that company asks you to go and work for a week at their site in San Jose ("the capital of Silicon Valley") in California, well you don't say no. And so on 4th December I arrived in California, further west than I'd been before.

I had a few hours at San Francisco airport before my colleague arrived, so I did what came naturally: I drank beer and went birding. Bird watching in airports, in and around the terminal, is practically pointless – there’s not much to see but gulls and crows. Of course, the good news is if you’re new to the territory as I was, the gulls and crows are all new birds for you. So it was, my first life-tick of the trip was a California Gull (Larus Californicus), which was stood on a bus shelter outside the domestic departure area.

Smaller than a Herring Gull, with a more streaked head and neck, yellow legs, pointier wings with blacker tips, and the most obvious ID feature: a red and black spot on the gonydeal angle.

California Gull - San Francisco Airport, Sunday 4th December 2011

Unfortunately, because I was working during this trip, and because of the restricted hours of daylight in winter, I wasn’t going to be able to give all the birds here such a good grilling as that gull.

San Jose and Milpitas
I was staying in downtown San Jose and working in Milpitas to the northeast. Both were quite built-up areas, with sparse vegetation. Time was limited too, because at this time of year the sun didn’t rise until about 07:30 and set before 17:00.

I got out into downtown San Jose only a couple of times during daylight, and was pleasantly surprised to find Acorn Woodpeckers in the park off the main Market Street.

I didn’t get much chance to go birding around the office area in Milpitas; I was working indoors all day, away from windows. I did see one or two birds here: Black Phoebe - a very confiding bird – and lots of the ubiquitous American Crow. The other birds around the office eluded my novice identification skills.

Black Phoebe - San Jose, Tuesday 6th December 2011

On the way to work each morning we passed a scruffy area on the CA-87 freeway and every morning I saw a Northern Mockingbird (Mimus Polyglottos) stood on a prominent post, right at eye-level. After the first sighting, I was ready with my bins each morning, helping me clinch the identification. Also in the same area was Western Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma [californica] californica), probably of the coastal californica subspecies. A beautiful, exotic looking bird – although no more exotic looking than the Eurasian Jay (Garrulus glandarius) that I get in my garden I guess. Further along on the freeway each morning there was a huge flock of feral pigeons on the overhead wires – hundreds of them favouring just one section of wires. They may have been staying together for warmth – it was colder here than I anticipated…

The most surprising and welcome bird on the morning commutes was a Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) on some rough ground by the Lowes store at the junction of the i880 and Brokaw Road. I managed to pick it out four mornings from five, and get good views as we queued in traffic. This is a bird I’d travel long distances to see in the UK. It was an absolute peach, but it was a little weird to see such a “rarity" (in UK terms) stood in the car park of a hardware store.

Guadalupe River Park

Northern Mockingbird (sat on the sign) - Guadalupe River Park, San Jose, Tuesday 6th December 2011

A couple of blocks west of the hotel I was staying at (the De Anza), and just under the CA-87 Guadeloupe Parkway, was Guadeloupe River Park. It was around here I went birding most mornings, getting 45 minutes in before setting off to the office.

Black Phoebe was the most conspicuous bird here, calling constantly as it picked its way around the concrete structures and homeless people (downtown San Jose certainly had plenty of these).

Mallard and American Coot were on the river itself, and the trees on the riverbank had loads of American Robin and Starling every morning. Lots of the ubiquitous American Crow and Feral Pigeon around too. On the Tuesday morning I caught sight of a pair of American Kestrel high on some overhead wires. After five minutes or so they mated, which seemed odd given it was early December.

The bird that got me most excited was the chunky warbler-type with the yellow flashes, flitting around the smaller trees. It took me ages looking through Sibley’s and National Geographic bird guides before I finally settled on Yellow-rumped Warbler. Then there was the Cedar Waxwing flock, the small group of House Finch, and the really confiding Northern Mockingbird. Probably really boring stuff for most Yank birders, but all very new and compelling to me. These photos aren't great: I'm no photographer - all these photos were taken with a £95 Canon Ixus...

Northern Mockingbird - Guadalupe River Park, San Jose, Tuesday 6th December 2011

House Finch - Guadalupe River Park, San Jose, Thursday 8th December 2011

Cedar Waxwing - Guadalupe River Park, San Jose, Thursday 8th December 2011

 

Cedar Waxwing - Guadalupe River Park, San Jose, Thursday 8th December 2011

City of Sunnyvale Landfill 
On Wednesday lunchtime, I sneaked away from work for a couple of hours and drove up to Sunnyvale, and joined the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society on one of their monthly trips around the Donald M. Somers Water Pollution Control Plant. This was an inspired idea, even if I say so myself. I spent an hour or more in the company of some knowledgeable and extremely helpful local birders, plus around 30 beginner birders, seeing a mass of birds mostly new to me. The site is part of a working landfill and water treatment site, but the area we toured was a former landfill heap that gave us a great lookout over lagoons, drains, settlement beds, and southern San Francisco Bay.

I could barely keep up with all the new birds I was seeing and new information I was hearing. Here's a list of the birds I saw at the landfill (there were more, but like I said, I just couldn't take them all in during the time I had): Canada Goose, Snow Goose, Pintail, American Wigeon, Shoveler, Ruddy Duck, Pied-billed Grebe, Double-crested Cormorant, Snowy Egret, Great Egret, Green Heron, Turkey Vulture, Red-tailed Hawk, American Kestrel, American Coot, Moorhen, Least Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowitcher, American Avocet, Black-necked Stilt, Lesser Yellowlegs, Burrowing Owl, Belted Kingfisher, Black Phoebe, American Crow, Hermit Thrush, Starling, American Pipit, Orange-crowned Warbler, and Yellow-rumped Warbler.

Borrowing Owl - Sunnyvale landfill, Wednesday 7th December 2011


Belted Kingfisher - Sunnyvale landfill, Wednesday 7th December 2011

Turkey Vulture - Sunnyvale landfill, Wednesday 7th December 2011
 

Hermit Thrush - Sunnyvale landfill, Wednesday 7th December 2011

Half Moon Bay
I was cheeky enough to take Friday afternoon off and head across the San Andreas fault to Half Moon Bay. My colleague was mostly interested in driving along Highway One, whereas I wanted to see more wildlife and, for the first time in my life, dip my toe in the Pacific Ocean.

El Granada, Half Moon Bay, California, Friday 9th December 2011

On Wednesday night we'd had a takeaway curry (a really good one, surprisingly) at the home of an Apple executive (an old school friend of my colleague). While they didn't divulge any Apple secrets, they did recommend this place. And it really is a lovely, quiet, beautiful place (although I suspect it's very busy in summer).

On the wide sandy shores of the Half Moon Bay State Beach were some very tame Sanderling, and groups of loafing California, Western, and Ring-billed Gull. We travelled up Highway One to El Granada at the northern end of the bay, seeing Red-winged Blackbirds and possibly Mourning Doves on the roadside wires. In the picturesque harbour at El Granada, I watched a Great Blue Heron stalking the shallows, while Pied-billed and Western Grebes dived nearby. Lots of ducks here (you can see them behind the Great Blue Heron in the photo above), but I couldn't get a decent vantage point to get a positive ID - just one of many that got away.

(One-legged) Western Gull - Half Moon Bay, Friday 9th December 2011

(Two-legged) Western Gull - Half Moon Bay, Friday 9th December 2011

San Francisco
The last full day in California, and where else to go than San Francisco? Well, I had a few other ideas, but my companions (we were joined by another co-worker) opted for SF. What an absolutely brilliant city. Didn't do much birding here - I just enjoyed actually being here.

We did do the tourist boat trip out to the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz Island, seeing Double-crested Cormorants and California See Lions at the quayside, and Heermann's Gull following the boat at close quarters.

 Heermann's Gull - San Francisco, Saturday 10th December 2011

 

 Heermann's Gull and Alcatraz - San Francisco, Saturday 10th December 2011

We had a good look around SF later in the afternoon, and bumped into a few Santas before stumbling upon a thousand of them in a park. A great day out to round off a brilliant trip. It was hard work (I was working long days in between all this birding, honest!), but well worth it. Here's hoping for more foreign trips - the company I work for has sites at Manaus in Brazil, and Tierra del Fuego in Argentina... Better get back to work. 

Santa Con - San Francisco, Saturday 10th December 2011

Deserted Desert Wheatear - 30th December 2011

Desert Wheatear - Bempton Cliffs RSPB, East Yorkshire, 30 December 2011

No birding so far this Christmas holiday has made indiebirder a dull boy. So when I got the chance to have a morning out on my own, I jumped at the chance to get to the east coast at RSPB Bempton Cliffs for a bracing walk and, with luck, a gander at the long-staying Desert Wheatear.

There are few birds round Bempton in winter, compared to the overcrowded cliffs and overwhelming smell that accompanies the auks, gannets, kittiwakes, and fulmar in summer. Not many birders here in winter either – the place felt deserted when I arrived at 09:00. But still, there were loads of Tree Sparrow around the visitor centre and Linnets in the fields on the day I was there. A few Skylark and Meadow Pipits in the fields, Jackdaw and Carrion Crow, and the plentiful Feral Pigeon/Rock Dove population made up the full avifauna. Oh, and a Desert Wheatear.

Desert Wheatear - Bempton Cliffs RSPB, East Yorkshire, 30 December 2011

 Desert Wheatear - Bempton Cliffs RSPB, East Yorkshire, 30 December 2011

 Desert Wheatear - Bempton Cliffs RSPB, East Yorkshire, 30 December 2011

It took a while to locate, giving me time to take the sea air; but once it was out in the open it showed very well. A peach of a bird – much more clearly marked than I imagined. As a birder pointed out to me, it looked exactly like the pictures in the guide books.

I failed big style on the music front on this trip. My wife had cleared the car of CDs recently, after my daughter had developed a healthy (in my view) appetite for early Black Sabbath and insisted on playing Masters of Reality during every journey. The radio let me down badly. On Radio 2 there was Richard Madeley describing a Steely Dan track as “preeeeeety good” in a whispered mid-Atlantic accent during the song’s outro; and then there was a documentary on Carole King’s brilliant Tapestry album, but the inane questions from Johnnie Walker, and the defensive answers from Carole, detracted from the actual tracks. Rubbish. Then the Hagen String Quartet played Beethoven’s Quartet in B flat major Op.130 for strings, with Grosse Fuge finale. It nearly gave me an epileptic fit in the frantic middle bit, but not in a good way. Not the best twitching music I’d heard, but I’m off to No Hands at the Bradford Polish Club tonight. Always a treat.

Feeding Frenzy

Winter must be nearly here - the bird feeders in our new garden (new-ish: we only moved here in March) were very busy this weekend. On Saturday the were twelve species feeding on the seeds from just one feeder, all at the same time: Great Tit, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Robin, Dunnock, Blackbird, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Collard Dove, and Wood Pigeon - either on the feeder or on the ground below.

Also in the garden at the same time were: Starling, Mistle Thrush, Wren, and Magpie, with Carrion Crow and Jackdaw on the roof opposite, and Black-headed Gull overhead. All this from just a couple of minutes looking through the kitchen window while the kettle boiled: 19 species in all. We struggled to get that many in a whole year in the garden of our last house! The garden list stands at 30 species now, after the flock of 15+ Fieldfare that flew over on 9th November.

Seeing so many birds on our feeder reminded me of my trip to Dumfries and Galloway with the family during the cold January of 2009. We had a week in a cottage on the edge of a farm near Kirkcudbright. During our stay I put a feeder up on one of the farm buildings near the drive, and recorded the birds that came to it.

Before the feeder was up (Sunday 18th) I’d seen a maximum of 2 Chaffinches in the drive area (I didn’t record any other seed-eaters). On the first morning after the feeder was up (Tuesday 20th), there were 6 Chaffinch, 1 Greenfinch, and 1 House Sparrow on/below the feeder. On Wednesday 21st, there were 8 Chaffinch, 1 Great Tit, 1 Blue Tit, and 5 House Sparrow. By Thursday 22nd: 17+ Chaffinches, 10+ House Sparrows, plus Blue and Great Tits present (no numbers recorded).

It’s interesting (well, to me anyway) how, after the feeder is first put up, the Chaffinch and House Sparrow numbers practically doubled from one day to the next. It’s also interesting that the Greenfinch numbers didn’t increase – perhaps the seeds were not suitable. Also the Tit numbers didn’t increase significantly (not that I recorded anyway); maybe the larger finches and sparrows intimidated them. Unfortunately, we didn’t stay long enough to see when the bird numbers levelled off.

Looking back at my notes from the time, I noticed that I didn’t record the birds on the feeder on the last morning. This is because I left before dawn to go birding at Loch Ken - nearly putting the car in a ditch on very icy roads in the process. It was that morning I found probably the rarest bird I’ll ever find: a Snow Goose. It was with a very flighty Greylag flock on the banks or the River Dee at Glenlochar. I managed to photograph it through my scope before they all took flight.

Snow Goose - Glenlochar, Dumfries and Galloway, 24th January 2009

I did plenty of research into this bird after I got back, to find out if this was known locally as an escape (it wasn't). I also discussed it with Chris Baines on the Dumfries and Birding Yahoo Group, before I was happy it was the real deal. Local birders seemed happy it was genuine, and the sighting even got a mention in Bird Watching magazine - it certainly was the high point of that holiday.

November WeBS counts

This Sunday, 20th November, was the monthly BTO WeBS count day, and I duly arrived at Rodley Nature Reserve at 07:45. It’s been a mild month, but the reserve thermometer read 4C, and the fog was very, very thick (just like last November).

Still, we managed to pick out some goodies, including a new reserve record of 64 Gadwall, with 58 on the main lagoon (Stop press: now up to 72 by 23rd November). The annual winter Linnet flock must total 300 at the moment, though it breaks up occasionally and is very mobile, making it difficult to count. Up to a couple of hundred were in the trees near the manager’s garden at one point, and the clamorous twittering sounded very evocative on a misty November morning.

58 Gadwall are on that water, somewhere – Rodley NR, 20th November 2011

Other highlights were three Snipe on the duck marsh, a lovely male Goosander on the Lagoon, a Willow Tit by the visitor centre, six Siskin near the car park, and a few sightings of Roe Deer, and some very red Blushing Bracket Fungus.

Blushing Bracket (Daedaleopsis confragosa) – Rodley NR, 20th November 2011

Later, I spent the afternoon with my children in a misty Northcliffe Woods. Plenty of Nuthatch about, and Wood Pigeon, Jay and Carrion Crow. Not much else, despite my kids keeping a diligent lookout.

Northcliffe Woods, Bradford – 20th November 2011

Unfortunately, I couldn’t do my other WeBS count, on a section of the River Aire where I work, until Tuesday – a day later than usual. The WeBS species seen were: 62 Mallard (35 males; 27 females). 2 Kingfisher (good to see numbers holding steady), 2 Goosander (female/imm), 5 Moorhen, and 65 Black-headed Gull. No Dipper, unfortunately. My friend surveys the section immediately upstream, and he had three Dipper the day before.

The other highlights were 18 Pied Wagtail on the house roof opposite Dowley Gap sewage works, with at least another 10 on the filter beds; circa 20 Siskin in beach tree near the Bradford Rowing Club; 2 calling Great Spotted Woodpecker; plus Nuthatch, Treecreeper, and around ten Goldfinch.

The most productive area was in (and under) just one London Plane tree between the bowling green and river at Salts Sports, Saltaire. In this tree were: 10 Redwing, 1 Fieldfare, 2 Mistle Thrush, 6 Blackbird, 1 Jay, 2 Bullfinch, 2 Treecreeper, 4 Wood Pigeon, 1 Chaffinch, 1 Robin, plus a mixed Tit flock of Long-tailed, Great, Blue and Coal Tit. There may have been more, but I just couldn't keep up with them all…

Greater Yellowlegs, Hauxley Nature Reserve - Saturday 19th November 2011

Greater Yellowlegs, Hauxley Nature Reserve - 19th November 2011

I had a drive up the A1 through the foggy darkness this Saturday morning, to see a lovely American rarity: a Greater Yellowlegs.

This was one I really didn’t want to miss; not only is it a beautiful bird (think a more graceful Greenshank), but they don’t get over this side of the pond very often. In fact, this year has already had one, for three day in Cornwall in September, but I was never in a position to get to see it. Another had been reported earlier, but this had turned out to be a Greenshank. I think a lot of birders learnt a lot about “Greaterlegs” (and Greenshanks) during that episode, even the ones like me that didn’t go and see it.

This one was the real deal, a juvenile that had been watched and photographed by many people since first being identified a week earlier. It then spent the week commuting between three reserves at the northern end of Druridge Bay: Hauxley Nature Reserve, Druridge Bay Country Park, and East Chevington NWT Reserve.

I arrived at Druridge Bay CP at first light, where it had been last seen the evening before, only to get a message that it was being watched from Eric’s Hide at Hauxley. Two minutes’ drive and two minutes’ jog later I was at Eric’s. As I entered, the bird then flew up calling, going north to the hide I’d just passed. After some comedy running by ungainly blokes in wellies carrying unwieldy tripods, scopes and cameras, we all raced into the spacious Wader Hide.

Before long bird ambled nonchalantly around the corner. A slightly slender Greenshank with a finer bill; perhaps with a jerkier gait, and lots of head bobbing and tail flicking, And its legs were so yellow in the early morning sun! Cue lots of good-natured pushing to get a good view (everyone got one), and lots of mummers of appreciation between the camera clicks. The bird flew a couple of time while I was on site, giving good views of its reduced white rump (cf. the massive white triangle on a Greenshank).

No missing those legs.

The bird was finding plenty to eat.

The Greaterlegs seemed oblivious to other birds and birders.

The bird was seen in the area again today at Cresswell Pond NWT, but flew south early afternoon. Maybe the fog, which I guessed was keeping it around longer than most had predicted, had cleared enough. Hopefully it’ll be found further south in the country, so more people can get a look at this beauty.

Here's some video I took of the bird. It's not the best video of this bird (not by a long shot), as it was filmed with a Canon Ixus compact camera. Hopefully it shows how good the views were for the birders present, and gives a flavour of the atmosphere in the hide (lots of cameras going off). It was a beautiful morning. In the last few seconds the bird flies off, calling as it sets off.



I had an hour or more in the hide, during which there was quite a turnover of viewers. I remain surprised by the brief views many people seemed happy with; then they were off to Holy Island to see the Eastern Black Redstart I guess.

I drove south for a mile and parked up at on the coast at Hadston Links, from where I spent a lovely 90 minutes of lazy seawatching: two Red-throated Divers, a small flock of 15 Common Scoter, lots of Common Eider, another diver heading north, Shag going south, plenty of gulls, the odd Guillemot (that could have been Razorbills) going in all directions, the odd Oystercatcher flying south, plus Redshank and Sanderling on the beach.

A brilliant morning of birding in fantastic part of the country; rounded off with a journey down a sunny A1, listening to the excellent Wire Tapper 27 thinking how lucky I am.

Hume's Leaf Warbler - South Gare, Cleveland, Saturday 12th November

Teesmouth from South Gare, Cleveland - 12th November 2011

I’d been itching to try out my new binoculars all week last week. They’d arrived on Monday 7th and I’d not been able to look at anything more than the birds on my garden feeders in the early morning gloom before going top work.

Next weekend – Sunday 20th – is the monthly WeBS count day, so I knew I’d be getting some good patch birding in then. But this weekend I had the second half of Saturday to go birding and break them in. So what better than to use my new bins on an east coast Phylloscopus leaf warbler on autumn passage? Phylloscopus humei to be precise: Hume’s Leaf Warbler. That’s exactly what these Minox 8.5x42 HG APO binoculars were made for!

A Hume’s had been reported on Friday 11th in a gully at the end of South Gare, Cleveland. It was still around on Saturday morning, and I arrived early afternoon. I was lucky – I didn’t have to wait more then five minutes for it to fly up from a bush right in front of me.

The bird showed really well for the 90 minutes I watched. It gave a birder like me - with no previous experience of this species - an easy lesson in identification. It looked like slightly chubbier than a Yellow-browed Warbler, less sleek and perhaps smaller. The bill looked smaller, but this could have been due to the plump-looking body. The supercillium looked paler, perhaps ending sooner behind the eye with a slight upwards point. The upper parts were certainly greyer than on a Yellow-brow, and there was only one clear white wing-bar, rather than two. The under parts were a shade darker, though the bird looked quite bright when in the harsh bright sunlight.

It moved spritely through the bushes in the little ravine, with the birder having a great view from above as it popped up into the late afternoon sunlight. I spent half my time fielding questions about the bird from passers-by and dog-walkers – maybe I looked the most approachable...

There were no other birds in the ravine, but there were some great birds nearby – all of which I missed. A Black Redstart had apparently been frightened off by birders/photographers/dogs (take your pick) before I arrived, and I couldn’t refind it. A look across the water didn’t turn up the reported Black Guillemot, and the Long-eared Owl that had apparently dropped in by the road back inland kept hidden from me and the others looking for it.

It was a great little bird to see – and the new bins performed beautifully (going to have to get better at focussing them quickly though). Nice little trip – regardless of missing all the supporting cast.

Birding Leeds Damnation Festival? Err, no.

But I did get over to Spurn to see an Isabelline Wheatear, before then heading off to Leeds to enjoy the delights of beer and grindcore at Damnation Fest…

Damnation is a one-day festival of heavier metal held each year at Leeds University Union, this year on Saturday 5th November. My plan for the day had been to go birding first thing with the local bird group, the Bradford Ornithology Group, but after some mix-up with the car, I couldn’t get there for the start time.

But, as luck would have it, an Isabelline Wheatear had turned up at Spurn late the previous day. So by the time my wife had brought my daughter back from her violin lesson in the car, I was all ready to set off to the east coast.

I arrived at the Narrows on Spurn at 12:30 and in no time at all I was on to the bird: flew past me northwards in a gently undulating way, landing maybe 15 metres away. A pale, upright wheatear, the colour of the damp sand it stood on, looking long-legged and quite graceful. It wagged its tailed as it ran around the flotsam on the western beach, occasionally stooping to pick at insects. In flight you could see the extra white on the rump and tail (as opposed to the common-in-these-parts-in-Autumn Northern Wheatear), with the black looking like more of a band than a full inverted T.

I checked the other ID features (admittedly, many of which I’d only learnt that morning, but that’s the point of twitching – seeing, and learning about, something new). The wing coverts were the same colour as the mantle, there was a clear dark line through the eye (the supercilium was feint), and then there were those longer legs, short tail, and upright stance. A lovely bird.

Since the bird landed near me around 50 other birders had come up the track to join me from where they’d been watching it earlier. The bird had been getting people running up and down the beach, and occasionally over to the eastern beach, all morning. I stuck around the same area, getting great views each time it came back; the best being as I was leaving – it landed not five metres from me.

Waiting for the Isabelline Wheatear to fly back -
Spurn Point, East Yorkshire, 5th November 2011

This was an impulsive, smash-and-grab twitching job, but made up for missing the local bird walk in the morning. Anyway, Isabelline Wheatears tend not to stick around more than a day, so to me it was a no-brainer for me to twitch it.

I headed back just as the first bands were coming on stage back in Leeds, and I arrived at Leeds University Union about 16:00. And immediately got lost. The place has certainly changed in the, ahem, 20 years since I left the Uni. It took me ages to get my bearings and find all the stages and my friends, and the bar, etc.

Damnation is an interesting festival, with a relatively low-key line-up this year. I guess I enjoyed meeting friends and have a laugh as much as seeing the bands, but the ones that stuck out were Doom (sounding more powerful with their old-school crust than many of the younger bands on show), and Godflesh (always going to be my favourite band, even though this performance wasn’t a patch on the one at Supersonic last year. JKB left the stage at the end looking unhappy, most likely because of a technical glitch mid-set threw their focus - word of advice Justin: get a decent roadie. I'll do it for free if you want. But great to see them all the same). Here's a picture of them, sort of, from the mosh pit:

Godflesh, Damnation Festival, Leeds - 5th November 2011

It was good to meet up with some old friends and see some bands I haven’t seen in years. Plus seeing the Izzy Wheatear gave me an excuse for a few extra (too many) beers…