The Backyard & Beyond  - September 2002

Arden's work schedule has been pretty hectic this summer so we did not get to go birding very much at all. Luckily, we were able to take a vacation in mid May and headed off to lower California with Glenn & Mary Ann Teague. Arden & my main goal was to see the Island Scrub-Jay which can only be found on Santa Cruz Island just out of Ventura, CA. The Teague's had a nice list of possible life birds. And of course I was after photos & California birds as was Arden. One of our stops was at the Kern River Preserve area which was quite diverse between the riparian areas of the river and lake and the dry desert hills. We found the most productive area to be the dry hillside. Arden & I got to see our first rattlesnake (a Mojave) when Mary Ann walked a little too close to a "live" bush that started to rattle. We even found a Hermit Warbler out there with very few trees around.

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Among some of the species that Teague's added to their life lists were LeConte's and California Thrashers and close up views of Yellow-billed Magpies.

We discovered a great place to bird at La Cumbre Peak in the Los Padre Forest. There were Wrentits in almost ever other bush singing along with all the other birds of the area. We went back to this area again for the Black-chinned Sparrow that we missed the first time.

We checked out the Island Packers before heading to the motel and were told that the boat ride to the island that day had been canceled due to gale force winds. Yiks. Would our trip to the island be canceled? He thought the weather would be ok the next day and when I called for the report at 5:30 AM… it was a go! Yea… the trip out included other marine life including a mother and a yound humpback whale, along with Risso Dolphin Whales and on the way back we added the rarer Blue Whale for 3 species. Arden & I had hoped for the Xantus Murrelet on the boat trip and sure enough we saw several. A couple unexpected birds were, Buller's Shearwater (lifer for Teagues) and the tiny Ashy Storm-Petrel (a lifer for all of us). On the island we headed up the dry canyon and even more dry creek bed and our first glimpse of the jay was a ways off. We took looks through the scope but before long the Island Scrub-Jay came down to investigate and came right up to us, posed for a bunch of photos and then backed off. Arden & I were very happy to have picked up 3 lifers on the boat trip and that would be it for the entire week. That put us both at 664 ABA (North of Mexico) life birds.

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We went to Crystal Cove St. Pk the next day for California Gnatcatcher for a lifer for Teagues and photos for me. Next we searched for the Spotted Dove  for a lifer for them and photos for me which should be easy to find according to locals but it took awhile and a turn down an alley trying to get to another spot put us right next to one on a wire.

We finally got to see Big Sur. It was always closed due to slides in past attempts. We spent hours looking for the California Condor in the ranger station area but unfortunately most of them had flown to the area we had just come from!!! The condors had their first successful breeding season since they were returned to the wild.

We had 178 species on the trip. Besides my 3 life birds, I added 10 more photos to my collection for 585 species recorded on film in the ABA area. For my 2000 Plus list (the life list I started over on January 1, 2000), I added 11 species for a total of 575 species. Arden and I had gotten exactly 500 species in the year 2000, so I am now slowly adding to that list. Question is, when will I catch the 626 that I had on my original list when I started?
                                                      Sherry Hagen