Photo Gallery
Photos by WINGS
We’ll visit the coastal sage scrub at Crystal Cove State Park in Orange County during the first day of the tour. It’s excellent for the endangered California Gnatcatcher, as well as for White-tailed Kite,Wrentit, California Thrasher and California Towhee.
If the winter rains have been good, the ground may be carpeted with wildflowers.
The Chamise chaparral on the east flank of the Laguna Mountains in San Diego County is home to a population of the very local Gray Vireo. It is also an excellent area for Black-chinned and Rufous-crowned Sparrows and Lazuli Bunting.
The steep climb up the San Jacinto Mountains takes us from the desert near Palm Desert and Palm Springs to the cooler oak and pine forests of the Idyllwild area. At this vista point about half-way up, White-throated Swifts may be seen flying by at eye level.
The saltbush and sagebrush flats of the Mojave Desert in eastern Kern County support populations of Le Conte’s Thrasher and Sage and Brewer’s Sparrows.
The beautiful drive into the desert migrant oasis of Butterbredt Spring passes by slopes of Joshua Trees, where one may be able to find Scott’s Oriole or the occasional Mountain Bluebird. The open vegetation in this area is excellent for seeing Mountain Quail.
The large estuarine mudlfats at El Estero, Morro Bay, support many thousands of waterbirds, including countless grebes, herons, waterfowl, shorebirds, gulls and terns. Sea Otters are easily found as well. Morro Rock stands in the distance, home to Peregrine Falcon, Black Oystercatcher, Pigeon Guillemot, White-throated Swift and Canyon Wren.
The half-day Morro Bay pelagic trip gives us the opportunity to see good numbers of pelagic birds, including Sooty and Pink-footed Shearwaters, Northern Fulmar, Red-necked Phalarope, Common Murre, Cassin’s and Rhinoceros Auklets, and possibly Black-footed Albatross and Xantus’s Murrelet.
The coastline at Santa Cruz Island shows the effects of strong tectonic forces, folding the marine strata. The two-hour boat trip from Ventura to the island gives us an excellent chance of seeing a number of Xantus’s Murrelets, as well as chances at finding shearwaters, phalaropes, jaegers and alcids.
We land on Santa Cruz Island at the pier at Prisoners Harbor.
Vegetation in the Prisoners Harbor area on hilly Santa Cruz Island includes willow riparian woodland and scrub-dominated slopes. Species found here in spring and summer include Allen’s Hummingbird, nesting Pacific-slope Flycatcher and, of course…
…the sought-after Island Scrub-Jay, a California endemic.