Birding Abbott's Bay, Point Reyes National Seashore

Cranky looking California Quail

This morning, bright and early, the Happy Birthday Fairy flew in on gossamer wings, to greet Claire with good wishes! Unfortunately Claire, who hadn't yet had her coffee, smacked the shine off the good Fairy's face. Tsk, tsk. In the wee dawn hours, Claire and her birding buddy headed off to Point Reyes, with hopes of seeing a Buff-breasted and Stilt Sandpipers that were seen there the previous day or two.

It was lovely, cool and foggy as Claire grudgingly headed onto the long trail that headed to Abbott's Lagoon where the target birds had been seen. Along the trail a California Quail sat all puffed up and grouchy as it had its picture taken.


You know Claire doesn't hike unless there is promise of a rare bird, held up like a carrot at the end of the trail. Honestly, she also loves wildflowers, but the wildflower hasn't sprouted that will get her out on a hike.

Monkey Flowers dot the pathway to the Lagoon

Approach to Abbott's Lagoon

Bridge crossing to Abbott's Lagoon

The first view of the Lagoon was promising, loads of basking Gulls, and patches of little shorebirds working the shoreline.

Sanderlings and Least Sandpipers hunting for their breakfast

Alas! No Buff-breasted or Stilt Sandpipers, but there were adorable little Snowy Plovers on the beach. Across the lagoon, aided by my spotting scope, I could even see a couple of Snowy Plover chicks, racing around, keeping their concerned parents on guard. They needed to be on guard! There was a HUMONGOUS Peregrine Falcon patrolling the beach. It sat for a while on a dune keeping a close eye on the nervous shorebirds.

Endangered Snowy Plovers raced along the beach

Red-necked Phalarope swimming loopty-loops

By the time I got to the far edge of Abbott's lagoon, I was starting to feel a bit foot weary. Still, I'd made it that far, might as well climb the last dune and see the ocean, so I could say I'd been there, done that!

Proof I hiked to the Ocean!

Below is one of the lovely Abbott's Lagoon sand dunes, covered with succulent wildflowers, looking soft as a pillow, but offering all the rigours - for tubby Claire - of an elliptical treadmill. *WHEEW!*

Lovely sand dune to you - a laborious treadmill for me

I took my time on the walk back to the parking lot, and along the way saw a beautiful blue striped garter snake that was too quick for me to get in a snapshot. However later this lovely little garter snake was sunning on the pathway. I think it was a red-sided Garter, but it's color was a bit faded - I think it will be shedding that old skin before too long.

Red-sided Garter Snake

There were lots of nice birds along the path, American Goldfinches, White Crowned Sparrows, Common Yellowthroats and many Barn Swallows darted through the air, as if engaged in dogfights with the pretty Dragonflies.

Cardinal Meadowhawk Dragonfly

As I trudged back to the car, I pondered the distance I had hiked: 5 miles? Maybe ten? Uh... not exactly. At the trailhead a sign indicated the distance to the beach and back was about 1.25 each way, so I walked approximately 2.5 miles. Glad I didn't see that sign BEFORE I'd headed out!

For our next stop, we drove to a couple of the dairy farms. We spotted a very large coyote along the way. Didn't find any interesting warblers at the dairy farms but our next stop was Drake's Bay. I requested a Great Horned Owl, and darn if Don didn't pull one out of the air for me! It sat at the top of a pine tree, in plain view and I hadn't noticed it on my own because it looked rather like a giant pine cone.

Great Horned Owl, sunning at Drake's Bay

Don spotted a mess of small birds in the same area as the Owl; Western Bluebirds, Townsend's Warblers, and a surprise, an immature American Redstart! A very lost little birdie I can tell you!

Drake's Bay

I was a bit disappointed the cafe by the beach was unexpectedly closed, because I love their clam chowder. Oh well! We settled in my Honda for sandwiches and home baked ginger snapes which is great because I was post-hike ravenous. All in all, it wasn't a bad way to spend one's birthday.

Good widdle gulls, bask by the Pacific

The Door Shut, but a Window Opened and a Bird Flew In

Today was supposed to be my first day on the Hatteras strip in North Carolina for three days of birding fun on the Gulf Stream. Then an earthquake hit Virginia and Hurricane Irene opted to blow towards the East Coast, which is due to hit Hatteras this weekend. People are evacuating at some locations. Oh dear.

Reluctantly I canceled out of the trip, because 2 of the 3 voyages was canceled and the remaining trip now seems unlikely. Sad, but what's a birder to do? Well, head out to the Davis Water Treatment Plant to see the 3 Ring Circus... I mean, to see the Common Ringed Plover.

I drove out this morning and to my total joy, the bird was not only there, but it was being adorably cooperative. There were loads of birders, many who flew in from other states just to see this bird. Of course the bird, is supposed to be over wintering in Africa, so it flew a long way to be here too.


My best shot of the Common Ringed Plover'
This amazing birdie was discovered last Friday by Todd Easteria, who has found many wonderous vagrant birds in his day, but this one is his best. This is only the 4th record of a Common Ringed Plover in the lower 48 states, and the 1st ever found in California.


The belly band is at least twice as thick
as on the similar looking Semipalmated Plover
Below you can compare the Semipalmated Plover with the Common Ringed Plover. What you can't see is the Semipalmateds have dark legs with semi-webbed toes, while the Common Ringed has no toe webbing at all on its crayola bright legs - orange or flesh colored (when not covered in mud). The Common Ringed is also a little larger than Semipalmateds, and at least in this plumage, more rufous in coloration.


Comparison of Semi-palmated Plovers and the
Common Ringed Plover; photo by Todd 'The MAN' Easteria

Even the Swallows buzzed in for a look a the celebrity Plover

Nice belly shot & view of most of the white on its head

Friends often try to preen my ego by telling my shots are great. No. Sorry, they aren't. I haven't been able to get my newish digital camera and spotting scope to work in unison yet. Here is what all of my shots look like before I trim them down. They are 'vignetted' which is too say they resemble a bullet hole in a black wall.

A seriously vingetted, 'bullet hole' digiscoped photo

I took this last photo to give an idea of how far we were from the Plover. It's nice that no matter how many showed up for gawking, we were too far away for the birds to be bothered by happy birders. The Plover is in the photo below, the lone speck, near center on the mud flat. The speck on the far right is a lump of mud and did not fly all the way over from Eurasia to be here.

Ok, FIND THAT BIRD!
[Management is happy to say Ms. Miller will receive a full refund for her 3 pelagic trips, canceled due to Hurricane Irene. Of course Ms. Miller had nothing to do with Irene blowing in, or at least we think she had nothing to do with it. If you think otherwise, please contact the Coast Guard, but you may wish to have a chat with a good shrink first.]

Happy Hen Summer Camp

Summertime! All good girls get to go to summer camp, and my 2 hens are no exception.
So, when the girls weren't looking, I bundled them up in the old dog carrier and we were off to Das Huhnlager Happy Hen Summer Camp! The girls were a little taken aback when they saw their new summer home - not as posh as they expected.


Holy Mother of Yolks! Where are the Chippendale Roosters
Claire promised? The canoes? The worm dispenser?
Adele and Babette didn't have a room to themselves, they had to share their 'cabin' with Miss Pink - the camp counselor - and ten little foster brats chicks. Counselor Pink runs a tight ship, no slackers here.

Ms. Pink preparing to put her chicks
through their daily calistentics
Now, as I ought to have expected, all newbies at camp can suffer some harassment, and Happy Hen Summer Camp is no exception. However, this was a sorry case, because the one who did all the harassment was the Counselor Pink. She decided she needed to get the upper hand on the two newbies fast, so she proceeded to peck the stuffings out of Adele and Babette.

Now, the girls were pretty upset by the unexpected treatment, and I, their 'hen Mom' was close to hysterical. I tell you, I gave some strong consideration to preparing some nice "Coq Au Pink Vin" for dinner. My girls were upset, and understandably so - they lost a great deal of their neck feathering and suffered numerous beak bite marks.


Maybe if we hide our heads, Commandant Pink won't see us
Next morning, I was still rather frazzled, though not near as frazzled as poor Adele and Babette, who were on the verge of resembling 'turkens'.
NO, that isn't Adele on the left, but I admit, both of the girls were on the verge of looking like the turken hen on the left.

Over the breakfast table a meeting took place on what to do with the de-feathering of my poor girls. Oscar had the winning plan, suggesting giving Commandant Pink and her fledglings their freedom, leaving my hens alone in the pen. The only question was whether or not the rapidly growing chicks were just the right size, or not, to be lightly feathered & seasoned, bite-sized snacks for the local feline and coyote population.

I am pleased to announce, so far, so good. The chicks enjoy full time freedom to roam with the 'grown-up' chickens. They are teen-aged chicks now, and are certain they know a lot more than Miss Pink or any of the other chickens so their freedom came in the nick of time for everyone's nerves. As for Commandant Miss Pink, she is now so frazzled with chick rearing that she often goes to roost at the early hour of 3 PM; anyone who tends to ten rowdy youngsters can relate.


Teen-age Chicks, trying to look innocent
Adele and Babette? Well, they seem set on 'flying the coop', which of course would put them back on the firing line, not just from Commandant Pink, but also the rest of Barbara's chickens, which number in excess of a dozen chickens and 3 large, silly geese. So, against their own wishes, my 2 hens are staying in isolation for a while. They are regularly laying so they probably aren't too fussed.


Barbara's 3 Silly Geese
Yes. It's cruel to abandon one's feathered children while I fly my own coop and go about gathering vacation memories, but in my own defense, uh... well, I'm still working on that...