During Thanksgiving break I traveled to California to spend Thanksgiving with my girlfriend, and do some birdingwatching together on the side. I landed on Tuesday night, and the next day we traveled to Montaña de Oro State Park in Morro Bay. Here we did a beautiful walk along the shore, specifically the Bluff Trail, enjoying my first time in California along with the amazing rock creations and bird life. There were plenty of Western Gulls and Brandt’s Cormorants, with a California Gull and Pelagic Cormorant mixed in respectively. My favorite spot from this specific day was the Cassin’s Kingbird that was spotted on the sand chasing after the insects in the air.
No birding was done on Thanksgiving, but on Friday on the way to breakfast in the morning I spotted a Eurasian Collared-Dove sitting on the telephone wire. Later in the day we traveled back down to Morro Bay, this time to Morro Rock State Park, a volcanic plug that is home to Peregrine Falcons during breeding season. While we didn’t see any Peregrine Falcons on this trip, we did see a wonderful array of birds throughout the day. We took a boat cruise through the bay after walking through the shops that line the water, with some beautiful species such as Brown Pelicans (of which I got some incredible pictures) and a Heermann’s Gull that was floating right next to the boat. Marissa also took some beautiful pictures of the Egrets we spotted while walking towards the rocks.
On Saturday, my last day in California, we headed down to Los Angeles and UCLA, where I got the grand tour of UCLA’s beautiful campus. During this tour, we ran into many birds, with the majority coming near the end of the tour. While walking through some of the buildings, we ran into a bushy area filled with Bushtits, a Western Bluebird, and a Nuttall’s Woodpecker, who threw a piece of wood off of the tree that I proceeded to pick up and bring back to Ohio with me. All in all, a couple new species mixed in with a wonderful tour of a beautiful school capped off an amazing 3 day trip to California.
While on my way to California, I had hoped to add 34 new species so I could break 200 by the end of the calendar year. While I did not reach this goal, I did add 26 new species, meaning I need 8 new species in the coming weeks to reach my goal of 200, a goal I am hopeful to reach. California is a beautiful state, filled with beautiful birds and people. If you have the chance to go, then definitely take that chance. It is not an opportunity to miss.
As always, check out my lists from the trip here, here, and here.
Happy Birding!