Higbee Beach birding

Today was a nice fall day to go birding at Higbee Beach -lots of White-throated Sparrows, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers which was a new lifer for me, Common Yellowthroats, Downy Woodpeckers and more.

More yard birds

Eastern Phoebe

Eastern Phoebe (above)

Palm Warbler (above) - another new yard bird

Yellow-rumped Warbler (above)

  Cardinal (above)

Black-throated Blue Warbler

New life bird today- Black-throated Blue Warbler - Beth's Patch

An great day - 4 new yard birds

Pine Warbler (above)

Scarlet Tanager (above)

Red-breasted Nuthatch  (above)

Song Sparrow

San Francisco - Strybing Arboretum - Take 2

Today we rectuctantly drove back to San Francisco to return our rental car for tomorrow we leave to return home.  Our brother, Jeff picked us up at the airport and after a short detour we returned to his house.  As he needed to do some work from home we decided to visit the arbortum again.  I was hoping to see more hummingbirds but was open to any birds, flowers or whatever else would pop up on us.  This afternoon we saw about 10 Monarch butterflies which was really the first we'd seen a number of them all trip.

The best afternoon of our trip - Pajaro River Dunes

Today's predicted temperatures in the Watsonville area are going to be about 100 so I decided not to stay too long at Moss Landing. After going back to the hotel to pick up my sister and her hubby, we decided we would first go to the Pinto Lake County Park as this had been recomended as another good place to see birds as had the Pajaro River Dunes.

Off to the lake where we saw Western Scrub-Jay, Oak Titmouse (lifer), Chestnut-backed Chickadee(lifer), Downy Woodpecker, Bushtits (lifer). We also saw groups of gals and guys playing Frisbee Golf which really looked like fun.  By that time the day had gotten pretty hot so off we went to 2 communities along the beach.  Along the way we saw a White-tailed Kite(lifer) hoovering over one of the strawberry fields that dotted the landscape.

Both of the communities are gated but if yoiu ask nicely you're allowed inside to walk around the nature areas.  The first we'd visited in 2010 where we walked around the ponds.  Today, there was not much going on.  We ate lunch under the shade of the large oak trees then went to the Pajara River Dunes. This is where we hit paydirt. First, when going down onto the beach we saw a Long-billed Curlew foraging along the beach. When looking down farther & the beach we could see the mouth of the river along with lots specks that we were sure were more birds. So off we went... First we found some intact sand dollars, then we found little birds - Western Sandpipers (lifer), Snowy Plovers (lifers), Sanderlings and more, next came another Long-billed Curlew roosting, a group of Brown Pelicans along the water's edge, more Long-billed Curlews, plus Marbled Godwits, Elegant Terns and more. It was a smorgasboard of birds that I normally don't get to see here in my area. We were there several hours and I would have gladly stayed longer or come back again but vacation time is running out so until another visit I'll have to be happy with the time I had seeing and photographing all the different species of birds.

Sunrise over Jetty Landing Road

Today I decided to get up early and go to Moss Landing to be there for sunrise.  I thought that watching the sunrise come up over the beach lighting up the Pacific Ocean with the full moon over the ocean would be beautiful.  Also, I thought that the light would be good for getting some pictures of the shore birds.  There are Marbled Godwits, Western Willets, Long-billed Curlews, Dowitchers, Yellow Legs, Whimbrels and lots of little sandpipers to see and photograph. 

The sunrise was magnificant!  The birds were delightful to watch.  It was fun to talk with another photgrapher who lives in the area while watching the birds.