San Diego Pelagic and California target birding
Last Sunday I drove to San Diego to head out on a 48 hour pelagic trip to the continental shelf. The trip's itinerary took us about as far south and
west as one can go staying within ABA waters. All in all, it was an amazing experience, in terms of both birds and whales.
Posted below is my long-winded report of what I saw along the way.
On the trip to San Diego I aimed to do a little target birding on the south side of the Salton Sea and nearby parts of the Imperial Valley. I drove
from Flag to Blythe, CA and then angled southwest to Brawley on CA-78. This road takes a rather spectacular route across the Algodones Dunes, and I
stopped on the eastern slope of these to explore a bit of the Colorado Desert Microphyll Woodland IBA. This forest abuts the dunes just north of
CA-78 and I was hoping to dig up LeConte's Thrasher here. Of course, its August and I arrived in 108 degree weather at 2pm, so the odds weren't
exactly in my favor. I braved the heat and actually did some enjoyable exploration on foot. I struck out on the thrasher, but did flush a pair of
Lesser Nighthawks. Checking my notes when I got home I realized I've seen these birds several times before in Mexico, but never actually ticked them
off in the ABA area. So, this was ABA/lifer #1 for the trip.
I continued from the dunes on to the southeast shore of the Salton Sea, working from the Red Hill Marina, to Obsidian Butte, and then along the
seawall that proceeds south for several miles. My target was the yellow-footed gull, which was easy to pick up in several locations (ABA/lifer #2).
At this point he thermometer read 111 degrees, and it was humid and pretty smelly. I passed several very large aggregations of shorebirds, but just
didn't have it in me to sort through them all in the heat. Some of the more interesting birds I did see from the car included black brant, black
skimmer, and a northern harrier. I'm sure I missed some great birds...
My last stop on the way to San Diego was Finney Lake, which is just south of Calipatria, CA in the Imperial Valley. My target here was Least Bittern,
which has been a long-time nemesis of mine. By this time the weather had cooled a bit, and the cattails around the lake produced two LEBIs in short
order (ABA/lifer #3). One froze in the open and provided great scope views, which was really cool.
From there I drove on to San Diego in the dark. The only event of note was that something I drove through in the Salton Sea area piqued the interest
of the drug dog at the I-8 border patrol checkpoint. So, my car was subject to a surly and obnoxious complete search (which involved letting the dog
loose inside the car to sniff the whole place out). Fun stuff, and no, I was not transporting any drugs.
The pelagic trip left at 7 AM and we spent the full day birding at several of the offshore banks. Pelagic birds on day #1 included:
Pink-footed shearwater (ABA/lifer #4)
Sooty Shearwater
Brown booby (ABA/lifer #5)
Black storm-petrel (ABA/lifer #6)
Least storm-petrel (ABA/lifer #7)
Ashy storm-petrel (ABA/lifer #8)
Leach's storm-petrel (ABA/lifer #9)
Cassin's Auklet
Red-necked phalarope
Red phalarope (ABA/lifer #10)
Common tern
Arctic tern (ABA/lifer #11)
Pomarine jaeger (ABA/lifer #12)
Long-tailed jaeger (ABA/lifer #13)
Day two on the pelagic headed out to really deep water, where Cook's petrel was the main target of most on board. On this, we dipped, which I think
was a disappointment to some folks. Highlights from day two included many of the same birds as Day 1, and also:
Sabines gull (ABA/lifer #14)
South Polar Skua (ABA/lifer #15) - including a very nice look at one perched on a kelp raft
Black-footed albatross (ABA/lifer #16)
Red-billed tropicbird (ABA/lifer #17) - two birds, one adult who sat patiently on the water for 5 minutes about 100 meters off the boat, and a second
juvenile who did about seven leisurely laps of the boat in flight!
For me, the bird that got away was a Buller's shearwater - one individual was called, but I didn't get on it fast enough to actually see it.
Mammals on the trip were outstanding. We saw several pods of Baird's beaked whales, including one where whales were completely breaching. It was
really astounding. Several pods of fin whales showed up. The highlight was probably a pair of blue whales who surfaced about 200 meters from the
boat and put on a great show. Dolphins (common and pacific white-sided) and fur seals (Guadelupe and Northern) were common.
All in all, the pelagic trip was a fantastic experience. The boat (the Grande) was comfortable, and the spotters outstanding. And, of course, the
birds were fantastic.
On the trip home I made one birding stop at Kitchen Creek, which is high up in the coast ranges in Cleveland National Forest and easily accessible
from I-8 (exit 54, about an hour from San Diego). I'd picked this place pretty randomly as a convenient-looking spot to pick up chaparral
specialists, and it turned out to be a fantastic place. About two miles north of I-8 on Kitchen Creek Road there was an intersection with the Pacific
Crest Trail. I got out and walked west here and within 400 yards had picked up my two target species: Mountain Quail (ABA/lifer #18) and California
thrasher (ABA/lifer #19).
From Kitchen Creek, I made a beeline back to Flag - a great, albeit exhausting, trip.
Jason
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