Gualala Birds

Late last month, I reached my 200th lifetime bird – the Mute Swan. Not a lot of fan-fare, but a solid number for me.

From the Gualala Point Park, I nabbed bird #198, the Heermans Gull. It’s actually quite a beautiful gull; the dark coloring body with bright white head could almost make one mistake it for a Bald Eagle from a distance.

Life #198 – Heerman’s Gull

Before going back to the bay area for business, I managed to finally see my first petite-nemesis bird, the Olive Sided Flycatcher. This bird was making noises all around our home for a solid two weeks. I’d spend 30 minutes sitting in a single spot — the bird continuously making sound and I could not see him. To add insult, the description of the bird is “almost always sitting in plain view.” OH. MY. GOD. Before I rage-quit on the bird, I finally saw him perched up — in plain view. Phew.

Lifer #199 – Olive Sided Flycatcher

I spent two weeks back in the back area where I added the Mute Swan as bird #200. This was a short birding trip I did with my step-daughter where we got good views of the Swans, along with great views of Common Gallinules and Western Kingbirds.

Lifer #200 – Mute Swan

Closer to home, I checked back in on the Cooper’s Hawks nest and found 4 ( maybe 5 ) fledglings getting quite large. I managed a few photos and a video of the mom coming in to feed them.

Lastly, closer to Gualala home, I had a fantastic experience watching the Humpback Whales from the Gualala Bluff Trail. They were still pretty far out from shore, but with a lot of zoom and a little luck, I managed some nice photos and a pretty good video.

Let’s start with the important bit – our trip to Texas to see my grandson was great.

He is incredibly cute and already showing signs of superior intelligence 🙂

For a 16-month old, he has incredible walking/running endurance and I look forward to hiking with him in nature in the future.

Driving 3,900 miles was not without birding. DeeDee and I knocked off two more national parks on our trip, including Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona and Guadalupe National Park in Texas.

During our trip there, I saw a few “not in my backyard” birds – including the seemingly common Great-tailed Grackle. These Grackles, in my mind, are as numerous as California Scrub Jays – just sorta everywhere. But I don’t see them in the Bay Area nor in Gualala ! And man are they vocal.

Great-tailed Grackle

My first lifer of the trip showed up at Petrified Forest NP

#179 – Green-tailed Towhee

Waking up the next morning to continue our trip to my daughters, I found another lifer in the motel parking lot

#180 – Western Kingbird

When we arrived at my daughters house, I saw a few of the unique birds to the area I saw for the first time last year, including the Blue-jay and Northern Cardinal.

I also caught two more lifers in my daughters front-yard

#181 – Chimney Swift

#182 – Carolina Chickadee

On our way home, DeeDee graciously allowed me to visit one of New Mexico’s biggest birding spots – Bosque-del-apache. Unfortunately, the way the driving went we arrived at 4pm – and it was hot and bright outside. Not usually the best time for birding – but the visitor center ( closed when we arrived by 5 minutes !) was clearly setup for birders. Numerous feeders were setup in the visitor center which kept some birds around. I honestly could have spent the entire 3 hours we stayed at just the visitor center birding – but we did manage to do a drive around the south loop of the park. I will have to come back next year at a better time of day and to do both loops.

I generated exactly 10 new lifers – and those are birds I actually photographed as new. I was running the Merlin Bird ID app – I could have added at least another 10 birds had I been able to see / photograph them.

#183 – Lesser Nighthawk

#184 – Franklin’s Gull

#185 – Curved-bill Thrasher

#186 – Phainopepla

#187 – Yellow-breasted Chat

#188 – Hooded Oriole

#189 – Lucy’s Warbler

#190 – *Wild Turkey

I’ve clearly had Wild Turkeys captured in the past, but somehow never counted. The image was taken in the Bay Area the week before my trip – however, we did see two females on the Bosque del Apache south loop.

#191 – Wilson’s Phalarope

#192 – *Yellow-headed Blackbird

I’m not sure if this counts – I didn’t actually see the bird while birding, but rather saw it as I was reviewing my photos from the trip. He was out by some egrets. Let me know if you would count him as a lifer.

Overall, we had a great trip seeing my grandson. Lots of driving – this is the second year we’ve driven and I think next year we may fly. 🙂

Every 1-2 months, DeeDee and I come back to the bay area to do certain up keeping – haircuts, dental appointments etc. This time we’re getting ready to spend a week on the road going to Dallas to see our grandson, Odin.

I’ve had a few days to do some birding in the area and have managed a few lifers locally.

I also went to my first birding festival with my step-daughter. Unfortunately for us, the festival activities filled up fast; we were “relegated” to a mostly marine-mammal activity with some birding.

Well, within a minute of entering Point Reyes for the festival, we were greeted by a Great-Horned Owl; it’s been a couple of years since I’ve seen any owl and it was an incredibly exciting welcome to the park. I think if he was all we saw all day, I would have been satisfied.

We reached the lighthouse where our group started. Our leader Chris quickly took us to an overlook to see an uncommon visitor – a Steller Sea Lion. We saw at least three individuals, and these were BIG BOYS.

While our leader, Chris, was a good birder … the rest of the group seemed pretty quiet. Luckily, I have a lot of recent Gualala California birding experience and I started naming out species at the lookout.

We saw Pigeon Guillemots, Double-breasted and Brandt cormorants, numerous gulls ( Western Gull was my only positive i.d. ) and … at our first location, a few dozen Common Murres. Jessica helped spot White-crowned, Golden-crowned, Song and Savannah Sparrows along with calling out our first Northern Harrier and Red-tailed Hawk.

We moved closer to the lighthouse where we saw an absolutely epic colony of Common Murres. I mean, it was RIDICULOUS.

Around the corner from the Murres, we saw a nesting Peregrine Falcon. My supposition is that the falcon chose his location next to the supermarket of Murres.

We continued to see various marine mammals when Jessica quietly said, “Whale.”

Then louder… “WHALE !”

Right below our feet, a humpback calf and her mother leisurely swam below. Wow!

The 4 hours with our group quickly came and went – it was a good time. We saw some more marine mammals and a few more bird species. The group as a total came up with just shy of 20 species.

Jessica and I wanted more bird species, so we agreed after leaving the group to do some more exploring in the park.

At our next stop, we found Elephant Seal babies and a lifer for me,

#174 Common Yellowthroat

We made one more stop in the park, and found a second Great Horned Owl !

We ended the day with exactly 40 unique species ( 2 new lifers for Jessica and the 1 for me.)

Closer to home, I’ve added two more lifers.

#173 – Lazuli Bunting

I have not got a great photo of this bird, but it is beautiful. I just need better light.

#175 – Ash-throated Flycatcher

The last few-weeks have been good to me birding; I’ve been afraid that I’ve actually been over-birding. I’m going out 6 nights a week, every week the last couple of months. The results seem slow on the day-to-day, but the broader view is very good for this year.

Looking forward to seeing Odin ( and seeing some eastern birds !)

The park where I live has had some residents return with vigor; at least a few Allen’s Hummingbirds, numerous swallows ( barn and violet green) as well as the California Quail. 🙂

The under-rated Cedar Waxwings frequently come in-and-out in flocks of 20 or more birds.

The last two weeks have also proven to be pretty good regarding lifers as I present to you my most recent.

#169 – Spotted Sandpiper

The wife and I did a walk from Sea Ranch to the Del Mar Landing State Marine Reserve – another beautiful coastal walk along a bluff. While there, we spotted numerous gulls, oyster catchers, cormorants and brown pelicans. I also spotted a bird that seemed out of place to me – where “out of place” means I had not seen them along the bluff trail before. Sure enough, he turned out to be a lifer for me, the Spotted Sandpiper.

#170 – Pacific Loon

Loons… and specifically the common vs red-breasted variety… have gotten me busted by the eBird police twice. But this new lifer is distinct enough that it stands on its own.

#171 – Brant

#172 – Common Murre

Both of these seabirds were seen together. They’re both fairly far off-shore; when seen with the naked eye they look like far-off birds. With my camera, I’m able to get a better visual on them.

They were both seen on ( what I call ) the southern end of the Gualala Regional Park trail – the part that goes into Sea Ranch. And this is where “the chase” begun.

Last spring and summer, we had daily Osprey fly-overs for the park, frequently with an Osprey carrying a fish. It never became boring seeing an Osprey carrying a fish, but it made me want to catch a photo of them fishing – or, more specifically, catching a fish.

Since the Osprey come back in mid-March, I’ve been seeing them sporadically at both the Gualala State Park and over our home park. Infrequently I’ve caught an individual with a fish.

More specifically, when inside the Gualala State Park, they almost always seem to be emanating from the south.

So, yesterday I decided to buck my normal walk of the “grand loop” of the Gualala State park, and venture south into Sea Ranch.

And sure enough, I found my first Osprey fishing. I say this like I’m some sort of authority on being able to suss out what an Osprey is doing, but in this case it seemed reasonable. He was fishing near a particular inlet in the ocean, continuously hovering over a couple of spots – looking intently down. Twice I saw his talons come out and he started a dive… and then aborted. Unfortunately, he moved back up the coast ( north !?! ) and I would never catch back up. But now I have at least a location where I’ve seen him fish. With any luck this year I’ll finally get a photo of an Osprey pulling a fish out of the ocean.

Am I a wildlife photographer or a birder?

I find myself falling into the trap of comparing myself to what I see online and feeling like I’m neither.

I post many “photos” of birds with my eBird reports; when viewing other eBirder reports, it seems like most people don’t add photos. I know what scrub jays and yellow-breasted warblers look like now, why am I compelled to add a boring photo to my reports? I think I’m adding photos to my reports as a form of reinforcement. A definite case I feel like adding a photo is when I have any doubt – I think it’s a ( for example ) pelagic cormorant – and eBird might agree – but the eBird police might see the photo and determine it is some other cormorant variant.

So, I continue to add photos to many of my common bird sightings and question my birding ability. (One thing I do is rate my purely ID photos 1-star in hope of ensuring they are skipped from other people viewing them.)

And then there’s the whole “wildlife photographer” issue – it seems like there are a multitude of fantastic wildlife photographers online. I compare their shots to most of my drab photos and question my abilities. But I do recognize a few things that can separate the best wildlife photographers and myself – they often spend hours in the field at a single location waiting for a photo. I am always moving. They tend to shoot early in the morning – my 5-6pm birding is just not as conducive to the best light or subjects. At least this is the story I’m telling myself.

Regardless, April has started out OK – I’ve recently added two new lifers and have had some nice encounters. The encounters are always on the other side of the field I’m standing in, but one day I’ll be on the right side and get a killer shot. (The photos of the encounters are heavily-cropped )

#168 – Red-necked Duck

#167 – Pigeon Guillemot

Here are some recent shots from the first week of April, including an encounter between a white-tailed kite and a red-tailed hawk and a bald-eagle being a bitch to an osprey. Oh yeah… the osprey are back!

My wife is rarely wrong about these sort of predictions – it should give me pause in the future.

But what was I to do? I was taking a break from weed-whacking when I suddenly hear an avalanche of geese – cackling geese, flying northward. *”Holy mackeral!” (* not exact words) I said to myself, sprinting into the house, leaping up the stairs, jumping over the dog, darting around corners— to get my camera as an attempt to document this event.

I managed to get back outside with camera in hand just as the flock was heading out of view – heading to Alaska or northern Canada to breed now.

I know this is going to be a “snapshot” photo – but I have a need to document any “important” eBird reports with a photograph. “Important” usually means I’m not entirely sure what the hell the bird is I see, and I will rely on eBirds own photo-check to validate my hypothesis.

Last Monday I joined rclc.org for the first time on a birding meetup. I’ve only done a single birding meetup before – my first ever last year with my step-daughter. This time, I was nervously excited – hoping to learn a few new things and listen in on the other birders – find some people who share my budding passion.

I was surprised at the turn-out – I don’t know why, but I had assumed just a few people would show up – but it turned out to be a group of roughly 16 people !

We met at Mill Bend which made me a little birding confident as I discovered this place at the beginning of the month, and have visited it probably a dozen times. I was “familiar” with the area and the birds i knew there.

The birds didn’t exactly cooperate – we saw a few of the regulars ( in particular the common mergansers ) but the surprise for all was the Pacific River Otter. Again, my first time visiting Mill Bend earlier in the month I had seen a family of them – but this time we saw just a single otter. But she put on a show. She found a spot directly across from where we were standing and fished for probably 10-15 minutes. We watched her dive, come up, chow down on the (bullhead?), and then dive again and pull another fish. It was great. I helped identify a couple of the 29 species the group saw ( Allen Hummingbird and Belted Kingfisher). The group also called a Pacific Wren to come sit for us – the best, longest view of a Pacific Wren I’ve ever had.

The last two weeks of February have been good birding-wise – my “big-year” is at 99 which is really good considering I did 128 all of 2025.

A couple of highlights have been some nice views of a re-shouldered hawk, a bald eagle, white-tailed kit ( you can tell I like raptors), a new lifer today..

#163 Pine Siskin

I got a terrible photo of the Pine Siskin, but I managed enough pixels to validate. Plus, Merlin was telling me all day yesterday and today they were above my head. 🙂

Here are the last highlights for February

Last week, DeeDee and I returned to the Bay Area for a couple days to celebrate our granddaughters 5th birthday.

Surprisingly (?) while at the party, I got a new lifer – #158 Rock Pigeon. I always re-iterate to my wife that we are sophisticated people and we shouldn’t say “Seagull”, rather “Western Gull” or “Glaucous-winged Gull”. When I pointed out the Rock Pigeon, DeeDee asked are there more than one pigeon? I didn’t know – until getting home and realizing I had last summer identified a Band-tailed Pigeon in Gualala. (There is one more pigeon in the US – the White-crowned Pigeon which seemingly only exists in Florida.) That’s enough words on “pigeons.”

After the birthday party ( in Berkeley ), I asked DeeDee if she wanted to take a quick trip to Cesar Chavez park to see if we could spot the burrowing owls. Last year we attempted to see them, and missed. And wouldn’t you know it – this year we missed them too. eBird had shown they were spotted a couple hours before AND after the time we were there. I guess we will try again next year.

The good news is while at the Cesar Chavez, a couple of the water fowl looked new to me so I did some quick photos to i.d. them later – and that proved to be worthwhile as I added #159 Greater Scaup, #160 Lesser Scaup, #161 Horned Grebe and #162 Clark’s Grebe to my life list. The Clark’s Grebe looked very similar to the Western Grebe I had identified years before – but I now know the trick to differentiate them (black below/above eye.)

The weather has been cold and rainy – not particularly conducive to me getting out and birding. I’ve managed a few trips to the Gualala Regional Park without much to show for it. Slow time of winter I suppose.

I just got a new lifer yesterday, but it comes with a bit of a story.

My wife and I are eating lunch in our kitchen, when I notice something different about this little-brown bird sitting in the tree with all of the robin’s.

We keep a small set of binoculars on the kitchen table, and I quickly did a quick look at this bird – and I immediately said, “This bird is different!”

I went to my office, grabbed my camera — and thank goodness — did a couple of emergency photos thru our kitchen window before opening the front door. My thought was opening the front door might spook the bird – and it did. I opened the front door, and the LBB was gone.

Well, I had my emergency photos that turned out OK so that was enough to start with.

My initial viewing of them suggested this bird look like an Orange-crowned warbler – a bird I’ve only seen a couple times in the past year. But the coloring was off a bit – but it could have matched a juvenile orange-crowned warbler.

I finished lunch, then birded around the house a bit to create a small eBird entry, and I posted the bird as an orange-crowned warbler with a few photos.

eBird immediately bitched at me – “This photo is a Nashville Warbler.”

Wow! A new bird! I went to my bird guide and looked up the Nashville Warbler and … sure enough, it seemed like a likely candidate. My beginner eyes still have a hard time determining finer details like beak shape, the length of the wings and “dull grey” vs “concrete” coloring.

Regardless, I figured if eBird says it’s a Nashville, and the bird guide showed it in my range at this time of year, I’d enter it.

But… there was no entry in eBird to enter it.

What?

1. eBird insists it’s a Nashville Warbler
2. eBird gives me no entry for a Nashville Warbler.

I reached out to a local Mendocino Birding email list and asked for verification; an excellent birder, Lisa, verified that it was a Nashville Warbler, and explained that eBird “hid” that bird entry because it was too early in the season for Gualala to see them. Evidently, this bird started migrating a little early.

Lifer #157 – Nashville Warbler