Welcomed Home by Snow and Whales

We got home from our trip south just as the worst of the winter weather system hit - bye bye California sunshine, hello Washington snow! The local birds at least were very happy we made it back when we did.

We were home a few days, dealing with icy roads and bone-chilling winds, when Jason and I turned to each other and said, "Why do we live here again?" As if on cue, that very afternoon (February 24th) some transient killer whales turned up in San Juan Channel and we were lucky enough to be able to hop out with Maya's Legacy Charters to go see them. Oh yeah, this is one big reason why we live here!

It turned out to be the T124As, a group of five whales including calf T124A6 born in 2016, a little one who would pop his/her head up high on every surfacing!

Successful mama T124A, with the closest I've seen to an open saddle patch on a transient

Head high and eyes wide open for calf T124A6, shown here between mom T124A (left) and sibling T124A3 (right)

They were slowly cruising up San Juan Channel and then, just before turning into Upright Channel, they suddenly made what was presumably a harbor seal kill. They stopped, milled, and moved on so quickly it was amazing they had time to eat whatever they had taken down, but all the bird activity at the surface left no doubt as to their success.

They're efficient hunters but the life of a transient can't always be easy given that their prey has teeth and can and will fight back. When you look closely many whales show their battle scars, like these deep scratches on the dorsal fin of T124A4.

T124A4 with scarring on dorsal fin (click to see a larger view)

After moving on from their first kill and heading north into Upright Channel, the group quickly made their second kill, with a little more theatrics at the surface this time:

If I thought a lot of birds came in before, the number of birds this time was incredible! There were hundreds of gulls trying to take advantage of the work these Ts did.

So many gulls flying around the whales!

A mew gull looks for a morsel at the surface

The light just got amazing then as the sun sank lower into the sky. Look at that lumpy head on T124A, which was really visible from both sides. My friend Sara thinks they're fat rolls - she certainly looked like a robust whale, quite a feat for a mom who may still be nursing!

T124A

As we got into the chop where the channels met, the apparently hungry whales made another kill - three one right after another! This time I got a glimpse of the seal at the surface to confirm what they were eating. Not a good day to be a harbor seal in the San Juan Islands.

T124A3

T124A

We left the whales to the third course of their dinner and headed home to get ours under a beautiful winter sunset.

To San Diego in Pursuit of More Birds

After four nights in Mexico it was time to head back to the US, and we decided to make a day of driving out of it and head east to San Diego. Even on our "travel" days, however, we always looked out for a stop or two to break up the day and hopefully provide some new birds. Jason did some research and found a gem in Yuma West Wetlands, a park right on the California-Arizona border. While we didn't see any burrowing owls in their designated habitat similar to the one we saw at Zanjero Park in Gilbert, AZ, we did see more than 20 species including several we hadn't see anywhere else.

The small common ground-dove, a species I had only ever seen once before on a different trip to Mexico

Our first confirmed Costa's hummingbird - we had likely seen some before but had had trouble confirming due to difficult lighting. I love how they can look so cute and so angry at the same time!

It's so much fun visiting these local parks that are oases for both people and birds alike. Many of the species there are probably very common to local birders, but so exciting for us out-of-towners to see. 

Northern mockingbirds are as common as robins in much of the southern US, but they're a rare treat for us to see from the Pacific Northwest

This park featured a fishing hole for both its human and avian visitors. This great egret was hoping for an easy bite, but after the fisherman wasn't getting any bites the egret moved along and had better success on his own.

When we got to San Diego that evening, Jason returned to eBird to research what we might have a chance of seeing the next day. Two of our most hoped-for species on the trip to Mexico had been the blue-footed and brown boobies that are regularly seen there. We searched hard for them, but didn't have any luck. With the relatively low numbers of terns and pelicans also around, my guess is there wasn't enough fish for them in the northern most reaches of the Sea of Cortez. (I remember seeing similar things in San Ignacio Lagoon - some years the fish-eating birds were abundant, and others scarce, depending on the fish.) That's the way it is with wildlife of course; there are never any guarantees. But when Jason found the rare bird alert for the pair of Nazca boobies that have been in San Diego Bay since mid-December, well, we simply had to give it a shot!

I had never heard of a Nazca booby before, and that's because they are a recent split from the masked booby. Their primary breeding colonies are in the Galapagos Islands but they are also seen in other parts of the eastern tropical Pacific in southern Mexico and northern South America. They are considered a "mega-rarity" to the United States.

From reports from other birders, we knew the views from land were usually distant. The boobies tend to sit on the Number 34 buoy in the bay, near a Naval base, where the only viewing is from the far side of the bay. When they're flying around foraging, some have been lucky enough to get closer looks from land, but these sounded rare. The best views and photos were coming from those who got on a boat to go see them closer. We decided to start on land and make sure the birds were even present before deciding what to do next. From the shore-based lookout, we could barely make out a white speck on the buoy across the water - if it hadn't been for so many reports from others, I wouldn't have even been confident there was a bird on the buoy, let alone that it was a booby.

Do you see the Nazca booby? Do you even see the buoy it's on?

We did, however, see the white speck, and another birder with a scope said it was the booby. With having missed the boobies in Mexico, having this one so close, and being on vacation, we decided, "What the heck. Let's splurge and rent a boat and go see it." So we did just that! Loew's Action Sport Rentals was just down the road (and the booby has apparently been good for business!)

If the booby won't come to us, let's go to the booby!

We headed out for the Number 34 buoy and found....nothing.

Just our luck! The bird that had been sitting there had apparently taken off to forage, meaning it could be anywhere in the bay. We had less than an hour and counting to try and find it.

Finding a booby in a bay aka finding a needle in a haystack

We started cruising around at higher speed, stopping for any black and white bird soaring around.

Nope, not a Nazca booby - but a royal tern, that's cool too!

Then something caught my eye that was most definitely a different shape. We found one!!!

Plunge-diving Nazca booby

At first it was flying around at high speed and we only got distant looks. It would dive, and briefly sit on the water, but every time we got closer it would take off and resume foraging. 

But then it turned and flew right over us!

Wow! Success!

On our way back to the harbor we swung by the Number 34 buoy again, and this time we got lucky - the second bird had returned and let us get a great look.

We had definitely been concerned we were going to be skunked once we got out there, but it turned out to be well worth it! As we slowly motored back to port, I felt like we were being watched - and it turns out that we were, by this osprey:

On a roll, we decided to check out  the near by San Diego River estuary for some other great bird sightings that had been reported there in recent days. We found one of them - a little blue heron, a bird far more likely to be seen in the southeastern US than in the southwest.

Little blue heron - another great find!

By this point, however, us island dwellers had had enough of downtown, so we headed north out of the city and made a stop at one of my all-time favorite birding spots: Batiquitos Lagoon. I used to go here regularly when my grandpa lived in Oceanside and is one of the places that gets credit for getting young me excited about birding. I can't go through the San Diego area without making at least one short stop here. It's still basically in the city but regardless of time of year is home to an astounding amount of bird life.

Yay! Batiquitos Lagoon!

It didn't take long to start adding more year birds.

California towhee

While looking up for a possible great horned owl near a nest in the middle of the park, I spotted a merlin feeding on a vole or other small rodent. Their color is so much lighter here than the darker morphs back home that it took me a moment to recognize what it was!

I stopped at a pipe outlet where the water creates a dark puddle in the bushes. On a visit here with my dad probably about 20 years ago we had stopped here and seen a sora emerge from the reeds, still the only time I have ever seen that species. As I was telling Jason this story I couldn't believe my eyes when another elusive bird emerged from the grasses: a Virginia rail! I was trying so hard all of last year to get a chance to photograph this species and now I got a golden opportunity, right where I had seen a sora. Birding is so fascinating this way - how often you can go to the same little place and see the same type of thing even decades apart.

My first time photographing a Virginia rail!

Our trip was already winding down, but we still had a couple days in California, and we had plans to both soak up as much sunshine as possible and see as many birds as we could before heading back north! I'll wrap up our road trip story in the next blog post.

Madera Canyon: A Birder's Paradise

My parents have always spoken fondly of Madera Canyon, a region in southeast Arizona known as one of the best bird-watching locations in the country and where they made several trips back in the 1970s. Ever since I became a bird watcher, I've been dreaming of making a visit there; more than 250 species have been documented there, and thanks to its proximity to Mexico, for many of them it's one of the only places they can be seen in the United States. When we were talking about where to go when we decided to road trip south this winter, Madera Canyon became a focal point of the trip. Specifically, the Santa Rita Lodge, which for decades has been home to rustic cabins and a host of bird feeders drawing in a whole host of birds for great photo opportunities.

When we arrived, I couldn't even make it from the car to the door of the office to check in before seeing my first life bird: a Mexican jay.

I made it another two steps before noticing the coati roaming the property; I had been tracking recent sightings at the lodge and had read coati were making a daily appearance, and was really hoping to see these bizarre mammals that primarily live in South American but also just cross the border into the United States here.

Also known as coatimundi, or specifically white-nosed coatimundi, it turns out they would be a constant presence during our visit. The owner of the property, who suspects they're coming in during daylight hours because of a lack of food elsewhere, is in the middle of a constant battle trying to outwit these tenacious animals from their attempts to reach the feeders. Like raccoons, to whom they are related, they are wily and don't give up easily!

But they are so darn cute and fun to watch!

After finally succeeding with check in, and already realizing that two nights would not be long enough, we spent the last hour of daylight at the feeders, and I amassed an incredible seven life birds in that time. I haven't experienced birding like this since my early days when I was still seeing common species for the first time: it felt like every other bird I looked at it was completely new to me! Later that night we would go out owling and I would hear my eighth: the whiskered screech-owl. If these species names sound unusual, again, it's because many of them don't occur elsewhere in the United States!

Yellow-eyed junco

Bridled titmouse

We had one full day in the canyon, and it was hard to leave the lodge. We did explore a few other short trails, and while the few birds we did see were also "good" ones, it was hard to beat the constant activity at the lodge feeders.

The hanging bird feeders were suspended from free-standing poles and numbered from 1 to 12 so observers can more easily describe to each other where to look, as in, "An Arizona woodpecker just flew in to #3!"

Arizona woodpecker, one of my most hoped-for species to see in Madera Canyon

Female hepatic tanager

The coati weren't the only innovative feeder visitors - I never thought I would see a wild turkey at a tray feeder, let alone one about 8 feet off the ground!

I was determined on this trip to play closer attention to sparrows. One of the notoriously difficult bird groups to identify, we actually have a pretty low and comparatively easy diversity of sparrows back home. Here, without the extra attention to detail, I easily could have missed another lifer, the rufous-winged sparrow, which is incredibly similar to the chipping sparrow.

Chipping sparrow

Rufous-winged sparrow

Madera Canyon can record up to an astounding 15 different hummingbird species a year; by comparison, we are only likely to see two species on San Juan Island. We were a bit early for hummingbird migration so there weren't many around yet, but they had a couple birds over-winter. Luckily for us, these included two more life birds for me: the Rivoli's (formerly magnificent) and broad-billed hummingbird.

Rivoli's hummingbird: small bird, large hummingbird!

I could have easily spent a few more days at Santa Rita Lodge and Madera Canyon, but all too soon it was time to pack up and head onwards. Before leaving, we made one more hike along another short trail where a rare elegant trogon had been regularly seen. We came across two other birders looking for it, and while they also hadn't found it, they tipped us off to where they had just seen what to me was an equally exciting species: the montezuma quail. If they hadn't told us where to look we never would have spotted these slow-moving, well-camouflaged ground birds among the grass. My dad, who can be credited with getting me into birding, has MANY more specices on his North American life list than I do, but not this one - it's always pretty special to get one he hasn't seen! (Sorry dad!)

Montezuma quail!

All in all I added 11 lifers in our ~36 hours in Madera Canyon which blew my expectations out of the water. I will definitely have to go back, hopefully at a slightly different time of year, and hopefully for a longer visit! While this was the first place I was truly sad to leave, our trip was far from over. Instead, we were heading further south into Mexico to see what other birds we could find!

Kicking off the 2018 Year List

It's hard to believe we're already nearly three weeks into 2018! I've been busy birding - at least when the weather allows - and so far am up to 84 species on the "traditional" year list and 70 species on my photo year list. First bird of the year was an Anna's hummingbird at our feeder. They've been overwintering for about a decade now but this is the first time I've had them in the winter.

Anna's hummingbird - I don't know how they do it this time of year

Second bird of the year, a red-breasted nuthatch, is also still in the lead for cutest photo of 2018:

A little puff ball of a red-breasted nuthatch

It's been a treat having three woodpecker species regularly come to the feeders (downy, hairy, and northern flicker). I'm still waiting for a red-breasted sapsucker to show up, but no complaints about getting to watch these guys up close on a daily basis.

Female hairy woodpecker

Thankfully on January 1st, for my traditional day of birding, we even got some sunshine! One of the best birds of the day was this snow goose in with the Canada geese near Roche Harbor.

On January 3rd the birding was briefly interrupted for my first orcas of 2018. I've only seen killer whales once in the month of January before, so this was a pretty special treat! While J-Pod is still occasionally coming through the area, this was actually transients: the T100s, T124As, and T124C.

T124C off the west side of San Juan Island on January 3

As great as the birding is in the San Juans this time of year, especially with sea birds, there are a lot of species on the nearby mainland that just don't frequently visit. During the first weekend of the year, we headed for a day trip off island. First up was a quick pass through Skagit Flats. Sadly we heard but did not see the rare blue jay that is still hanging out near Bow, but we did quickly locate the also-unusual prairie falcon nearby.

Prairie falcon in Skagit Flats

The main goal of the day was to visit Semiahmoo, a spit near Blaine, Washington that I've never visited before. We had recently seen some amazing photos from there, including one a day or two before we visited where literally thousands of dunlin covered the whole spit. It was a pretty gray day and there were no dunlin in sight, but we still added lots of new species including sanderling.

I also got an unexpected photo op of a Pacific wren. I heard something in a bush and "pished" at it, and he or she immediately jumped out into the open to investigate me as the source of the sound. This is probably the best photo I've ever taken of a Pacific wren, as they are usually fast-moving and buried behind branches.

While we didn't see a huge abundance of birds at Semiahmoo (although there were a lot of white-winged scoters, more than I've ever seen in once place before), we did get a good variety. A couple of the best looks were at this female long-tailed duck, and while watching her, a common loon popped up very close.

Female long-tailed duck

Common loon

Last weekend remained gray, but that didn't stop us from trying to add a few more. The best add for me was this Hutton's vireo, an uncommon year-round resident, but one I didn't manage to photograph in all of 2017.

Hutton's vireo! A 2017 nemesis bird checked off early in 2018

Then we were treated to a much-needed couple days of beautiful winter sunshine. Even though our couple of hikes didn't turn up much in the way of birds, it felt great to soak up some light.

Beautiful afternoon at Granny's Cove

Thanks to a tip from a friend, we were able to locate one short-eared owl at American Camp, on the opposite side of the prairie where I used to see them in years past. For whatever reason it doesn't seem like there are as many of them down there as there used to be. This one was being harassed by a northern harrier. That's the harrier up top and the short-eared owl beneath. The owl had been perched, and after doing this barrel roll fell about halfway down the tree before catching another branch to perch on.

Harrier harasses short-eared owl at American Camp

There's been a lot of aerial acrobatics lately - today I caught this pair of bald eagles in what I presume was courtship behavior.

Bald eagle barrel rolls

There was supposed to be a break in the weather today; maybe it was, since it didn't rain and the wind wasn't blowing gale force. It was still pretty dark but with a major storm system coming we took the opportunity to make a quick jaunt over to Orcas Island. While waiting for the ferry we spotted this very cooperative juvenile Cooper's hawk at the Port of Friday Harbor.

This is not a bird that would come to mind when I think of beautiful birds, but seeing it up close, the detailing on the feathers was just remarkable, particularly those little teardrop streaks on the breast.

While birding from the ferry I was shocked to spot a turkey vulture flying over Shaw Island. This species is common here in the summer, and while I've heard about a couple of birds that regularly overwinter on Lopez, I've never seen one here off-season. This was a hastily shot proof of presence photo through the window of the ferry, but enough to document this surprising find.

Turkey vulture in the San Juans in January!

There's been a lot of reports of early arrivals such as barn swallows all throughout the region so I wonder if it will prove to be an early spring or if climate shifts are to blame for more individuals turning up at unexpected times of year. We shall see!

The most hoped-for species on Orcas was an American dipper, a bird I've searched for many times over there. We don't have the right habitat for them on San Juan, but a new Land Bank property called Coho Preserve recently opened up a public access along a creek where they've been reported. I had a good feeling about today and it paid off, as we found not one but two of them at the preserve! It was so dark in the forest it was impossible to get sharp photos, but I was pleased just to see them as it was a new county life bird for me and this photo is plenty good enough for the photo year list.

American dipper! A San Juan County life bird for me

Since this is a 365 day challenge, I decided to do less "post a photo of everything" and more "wait until I get a good shot of common species". This has me at a current mark of having photographed 83% of the species on my total year list to date, but I know that number will rise. I had seen and heard some distant oystercatchers before today but finally got a decent shot of one at Buck Bay on Orcas Island today.

Nearly-silhouetted black oystercatcher

It will definitely be a hunker-down day tomorrow with gale-force winds and more than an inch of rain in the forecast, but we'll see what the rest of the month brings. Then in the beginning of February it's time for a two-week road trip south where the bird reports from our destinations have me eagerly anticipating some life birds and many others I haven't seen in years. Oh, and hopefully some warmth and sunshine, too!