Rock on

Fresh this morning out on the tip of Bodega Head, it wasn't long before I picked up the Rock Sandpiper amongst a small group of Surfbirds and Black Turnstones. A very rare winter visitor this far south, I was well pleased to see this 'Purple Sand of the Pacific' as it was a new bird for me. Thanks to a bit of ingenuity and guts from JJ, I scrambled down the eroding cliff face to get some proper views as it fed on rockpools just above the crashing waves.

Rock Sandpiper Bodega Head, California 18th Feb 2013

And here is one of the Surfbirds it chose to keep company with: -

So, heading back to the town itself, we were able to quickly locate the overwintering Nashville and Wilson's Warblers, as well as a couple of Orange-crowned and Townsend's Warblers, below Diekmann's Store. Yellow-rumped Warblers were absolutely everywhere - present in their 100s. But, with our eyes firmly fixed on the gull action, only a Swamp Sparrow near Salmon Creek could get in our way before heading off to Lucchesi Park in Petaluma. I'll keep it brief here, but totally mindblowing views of loads of Thayer's Gulls of all ages, lots of other interesting gulls including hybrids, including a real dopy looking Glaucous-winged x Glaucous (my first of this concoction). Just a couple of the 800 or so shots; I'll save some of the others for another time!

presumed juvenile Glaucous-winged x Glaucous Gull

juvenile Thayer's Gull up close and personal

adult Thayer's Gull

presumed adult American Herring x Glaucous-winged Gull

Last hour of light spent at Shollenberger - nice groups of American Avocets, a large flock of distant Canvasbacks, a couple of Cinnamon and Green-winged Teals while numerous Red-winged Blackbirds, White-crowned and Golden-crowned Sparrows present. The day was rounded off with a Dennys, our third night of crap American food.

California intro

Today (Sunday) was the first full day of being in California, with just an hour or so down Half Moon Bay after the flight from London spent birding yesterday. First oddity was sunshine, and there's been plenty of it throughout the weekend. Birds have been plentiful too and it has been a typically relaxing, stress free trip so far. However, those gulls predictably are as hard and frustrating as I thought - loads of Western x Glaucous-wingeds and also smaller numbers of American Herring x Glaucous-winged. Needless to say though, we've plucked out over 50 Thayer's already with some giving themselves up like the two below: -

adult Thayer's Gull Jenner 17 Feb 2013

adult Thayer's Gull Salmon Creek 17 Feb 2013

It certainly has already been an education, with thayeri just totally variable - the males long-billed and snouty, females more subdued features; many more pale irises that I was led to believe (most adults had varying degrees of paleness) while primary colouration also variable from nearly black to slate-grey. So perhaps the adult was really one overall!

Varied Thrush Point Arena 17 Feb 2013

Ruby-crowned Kinglet Point Arena 17 Feb 2013

Anyway, plenty of other things to look at too today - a couple of lovely Varied Thrushes, Townsend's Warblers and Golden-crowed Sparrows to name but a few. Birds such as Yellow-rumped Warblers and White-crowned Sparrows are common, and to boot, we've ended the day with six species of sparrow! All of these birds seen in spectacular scenery too.

Western Willet Bodega Bay 17 Feb 2013

Preparing for Pacific gulling

I'm excited. No, I haven't just signed up to Baggers' dancing birder thing on Sky One. But on Saturday morning, I'm heading off to California to get stuck into a load of tricky larids with a couple of other gull watching mates. Throw into the mix a load of good west coast birds and a week away from cold, grey London should give the old bones a bit of a shake out too.

This trip was hatched out of my semi-birding visit last summer, as well as trip reports from Steve A and info from Chris G. So the target is to come back knowing a bit more about what Thayer's Gulls actually look like in range, as well as shots of Glaucous-winged and Western Gulls (as well as the inbetweeners), Mew and Heermann's Gulls as well as west coast American Herring Gulls, all with full sets of wings!

1st-summer California Gull with quills for coverts

near-adult Glaucous-winged Gull mid-moult

presumably there's a Western Gull in there somewhere?

Some people have described Heermann's Gulls as beautiful. This one wasn't

These are of course extreme examples, but northern hemisphere gulls generally aren't at their best in the summer post-breeding months. So bring on this February trip.

Pelican brief

Coincidentally, just a week before I'm about to return to the west coast of the US, I get an email from the North American Bird Banding Program on Friday about this young chap that I spotted at Brookings, Oregon, on 2nd August 2012: -

Brown Pelican M77

It had been ringed a week or so earlier, on 25th July, in San Francisco, California. As with the ringed Caspian Tern from last summer, once again I got a certificate of appreciation!

It's all getting me warmed up nicely for the return visit! There'll be plenty of gulls to look through, and this time they'll have all their primaries intact. I suppose it'll be rude to not have a look at a few other species too. Six more sleeps to go.

Bonaparte's Gull in Eastbourne

I headed down to Eastbourne for a leisurely few hours by the seaside with David B. We ditched a car at Dartford where, coincidentally, there were 8 Waxwings and the showy Slavonian Grebe continued its residence on its favoured pool. It was late morning by the time we arrived at Princes Park, and there had been no sign despite all the long lenses. Within five minutes, I found the Bonaparte's Gull and this quality little, tree-nesting yank gull put on a show for the next few hours and often, I targ: -

As you can see, it proved rather obliging and its high-pitched call could be heard at times, taking me back to the flocks I saw in Canada last December here. It does have extensive black feathering in the inner primaries (to P3) - a feature potentially of a second-cycle (so third calendar year) bird; however its primary coverts and alula were unmarked so probably best to age it as an adult. Not much else about, and getting back to London with a couple of hours of light left produced little of note; just one NTGG ringed Herring Gull at Crayford. Grim weather forecast tomorrow but I'll still be getting amongst it - last day of British birding as I'm off to California next Saturday for some serious yank gullage.

one and a half Casps

I was on the tip on Saturday, rudely interrupted by news of that big brute of a finch. It didn't however dent my enjoyment of the gulls and after seeing a 2nd-winter Caspian Gull (the same bird that has been regular at Wat Tyler CP recently), the other Caspian-esque Gull was this individual, which I firmly believe comes from that hybrid swarm in/near Poland where cachinnans mixes with argentatus Herring Gulls. So for now I'm going to call this near adult (presumably 5cy) bird a hybrid.

Note the Caspian Gull like stance and structure, clean head, spindly tepid-coloured legs and slim parallel-sided bill. Chris Gibbins' landmark BB paper however states 'a clearly pale eye in a near-adult gull is not good for cachinnans but a dark eye does not automatically rule out Herring Gull'.

Nice remnant necklace. Note the Caspian Gull-like white tip to P10, also shared by argentatus Herring. The pale tongue on the underside of this feather looks atypically dark, while P9 is within range for Caspian Gull showing a banded white tip.

Note the extensive dark retained in the primary coverts. Although the grey tongues bleeding into the black on P7-P10 are obvious here, is there too much black in the wing or is this due to immaturity? Anyway, there is just a delicate and indistinct black line on P5 - too feint for a pure cachinnans?

Interestingly, to throw even more into the mix, a Polish-ringed bird that was seen as a first-winter several winters ago - where it looked like a decent 1st-winter Caspian Gull - was seen again on the tip as a near adult, where it looked decidedly like a Herring Gull. Interesting stuff, and it leaves one to wonder what all these 1st-winter Casps we see in Britain will actually mature into. The couple of adult Med Gulls whacking about were slightly easier to identify!

Pine Grosbeak on Shetland

It was predicted to happen last November, and it did despite not knowing it at the time. And though news trickled out rather belatedly and indirectly, there was thankfully still time to connect as this big bruiser of a finch had found North Mainland, Shetland to its liking. I'd previously dipped on Pine Grosbeak a couple of times in Britain (got as far as Inverness for a bird on Shetland in 2000 and spent time searching Easington in vain in 2004), and with the Herts/Essex bird quite rightly festering in the abyss, it was time to rectify things.

And so with news breaking mid morning on Saturday, the plan was eventually mapped out with scheduled flights on and off from Aberdeen on Sunday 3rd Feb. An overnight drive with Alan L and Simon K was properly efficient, with a load of snow in Lanarkshire the only thing slowing us down. And after meeting up with another 10 or so birders in the airport, the flight left on time, but the journey was bumpy to say the least. As we were coming down into Sumburgh, blown like a leaf, there was all of a sudden a real crackle/light when a bolt of lightning hit the left hand wing of the plane! S**t the bed, and with land in sight the poor air hostess came on the radio announcing that fact but, within just a couple of minutes, we'd thankfully landed at Sumburgh safely. Rather reminiscent of a similar grim incident at the same location, where I was in a plane where the undercarriage wouldn't come out... but again, it all ended happily.

Anyway, it was now late morning and with limited light, the drive across a windy Shetland was done at breakneck speed. Arriving by the small pine-filled garden overlooking the pier at North Collafirth, the Pine Grosbeak, probably a 1st-winter male, was immediately on show munching away on the abundant food source. Twitching's not everyone's cup of tea - especially when extreme travelling distances like this are involved - but this was a proper decent bird. A real one for all the punters, and despite having seen them in Finland previously, it really didn't matter as it was such a quality bird. A real shower too, at one point coming down to drink beside the crowd. It fed typically lethargically, just chewing away and on a couple of occasions flew in undulating fashion between the pines.

The last hour of daylight was spent at Scalloway where a juvenile Iceland Gull showed fine in the harbour there, while the usual chippy in Lerwick was visited before we flew out of Sumburgh mid evening. After a gruelling overnight drive back from Aberdeen, I arrived back in London just in time for school. Happy days!

Pine Grosbeak twitch, North Collafirth, Shetland Feb 2013