Birding at outer Point Reyes

Last Sunday I went on an excellent birding field trip with my field ornithology class, bagging 2 lifers and 1 year bird.

Short-eared rabbit at Drake’s Beach

Although I’ve been to Point Reyes countless times, I’m 1) usually hiking rather than seriously bird-watching, and 2) rarely go to the outer point, since the weather can be iffy at best, and it gets pretty crowded on nice days, so I was eager to see what we’d find.

 
A bright Yellow Warbler at Drake’s Beach

We met up at the Drake’s Beach Visitor’s Center at 9:00 and birded the trees around the parking lot.  The many birds we saw included Northern Flickers, a Violet-green Swallow, several Yellow Warblers and Yellow-rumped Warblers, a Western Scrub Jay, Anna’s Hummingbird, Black Phoebe, Say’s Phoebe, Brewer’s Blackbird, and several Killdeer, which were walking around on the pavement in the parking lot.

Drake’s Beach

A side trip to the small lake north of the parking lot yielded a Common Yellowthroat, American Coots,  Glaucous-winged Gull,  a few Gadwalls, and some Pied-billed Grebes.  The west end of the parking lot had a Fox Sparrow that gave us nice views, and a constant stream of Western Gulls flew overhead, along with many Turkey Vultures.

From here we carpooled to the Chimney Rock area, also known as the “Fish Docks.”  Classmate Elizabeth’s very sharp eyes immediately found a Great Horned Owl sleeping in a tree.  Unfortunately its head was turned away and I could get around it for a good photo.  Still it’s always a pleasure to see an owl.

Red-breasted Nuthatch

In the eucalyptus trees by the ranger’s residence we saw more Yellow and Yellow-rumped Warblers, a Red-breasted Nuthatch, several Say’s Phoebes, and a few Eurasian Collared-Doves.  Scoping Drake’s Bay below us, we saw Clark’s Grebes, many Surf Scoters, a multitude of Double-crested Cormorants, a couple of female Black Scoters (LIFER!), along with a harbor seal, and a half-dozen or so elephant seals.

White-tailed Deer

It was noon now, the official end of the trip, but since outer Point Reyes is a bit of a drive from SF (about 90 minutes), Joe offered to continue for a while with anyone who wanted to stay.  Unfortunately the folks I’d carpooled from Drake’s Bay with were going back, but fortunately Joe and Robbie didn’t mind me tagging along with them.

After eating lunch we drove along the ranches that dot the outer point, seeing hundreds of Tricolored Blackbirds, with their characteristic vertical tails, mixed in among the dairy cows.  We stopped at Mendoza Annex, but the trees there were fairly quiet, although a Western Tanager gave us a glimpse.  Overhead we saw more Turkey Vultures, and quite a few Red-tailed Hawks.

Red-tailed Hawk

Continuing on to Mendoza Ranch proper, it remained pretty quiet, with more Yellow and Yellow-rumped Warblers.  A Warbling Vireo gave us a good look, and a flock of Canada Geese mingled with Mallards in a cow pond below the road.

Joe was wrapping things up and thanking us for our attendance when he spied something different overhead, quickly shouting “Swainson’s Hawk!” (LIFER!).  This rarely-seen hawk gave us good, but too-distant-for-photography, views, with its dark trailing underwing edges and light leading edges clearly visible, along with a small white rump patch reminiscent of a Northern Harrier.  It must be a pretty rare sight indeed, as when I entered my observations from this trip into eBird, which I use to keep track of all of my birdwatching, the regional database maintainer contacted me asking for more details of the sighting before they would accept it into their full database.

On that high note, we parted ways, and Joe drove me back to my car at Drake’s Beach, but I wasn’t ready to leave the point just yet.  Since I’ve had good luck birding at Pierce Ranch, on the extreme northern end of the point, I headed that way.  When I was nearly there, I passed the trailhead for Abbott’s Lagoon, which I read about often on birding email lists, but had never been to.  I decided to check it out instead of Pierce Ranch, and hit the trail, about 1.5 miles each way.

 
White-crowned Sparrow

It’s easy to see why this is a popular birding walk – the walk to the lagoon is through scrub brush, perfect sparrow habitat (I saw Song and White-crowned Sparrows on the walk in), and has a small pond as well, in which a Great Blue Heron hunted.  Many birders were afoot, at least a dozen in groups of 1-3.

 
American Coots and American Wigeons

A group of 5 White-tailed Kites perched in a snag on the far side of the lagoon, and a float of mostly American Coots and American Wigeons made their way along the water, as Western Gulls splashed about.

 
The east end of Abbott’s Lagoon

Abbott’s lagoon has 2 bodies of water, joined by a narrow neck, and the trail ends at a bridge crossing this neck.  I decided to continue on along the sand towards the ocean to see if I could pick up any shorebirds, and also to check out Point Reyes Beach, which I’d never visited.

 
Eared Grebe

Many grebes, mostly Eared, but a few Western and Clark’s were in the western part of the lagoon, along with lots of Ruddy Ducks and Double-crested Cormorants.  A pair of Black-bellied Plovers foraged at the edge of some small sand dunes, and Brown Pelicans flew by often.

Dunes near Point Reyes Beach

It was very choppy at Point Reyes Beach, and I didn’t bring my scope, so I didn’t linger for what would have been a mostly futile seawatch, and the only birds I saw were a flock of Gulls a ways north of me.

 
Brown Pelican

As I returned to the lagoon, some Brown Pelicans made a very close fly-by, and I was able to get a couple of good shots of them.  Walking back along the lagoon’s edge I saw a pair of Marbled Godwits, and some distant Sanderlings, but no other shorebirds.

 
Great Blue Heron

A Great Blue Heron, probably the same one I’d seen earlier, hunted by the bridge, and I headed up the path back towards the car.

 
Savannah Sparrow

I thought I saw a Lincoln’s Sparrow, but upon looking at my photos, it turned out I was fooled by a more-buffy-than-usual Savannah Sparrow (above).  I soon returned to the car and headed homeward.

Since I had time and nothing else to do, I took the scenic route home and made a few quick stops along Bolinas Lagoon, adding Belted Kingfisher, Long-billed Curlew, Long-billed Dowitcher, and a few other common birds to my list.

Heading south to SF on lovely Hwy 1

I arrived home, happy and tired, as this was a long day (I left home at 7:30am, returning at 6pm).  The 73 species of birds that I saw is a one-day record for me, although I know many folks have exceeded 100 many times.

Birds Seen (73 species!):
– American Coot
– American Crow
– American Goldfinch
– American Kestrel
– American Wigeon
– Anna’s Hummingbird
– Belted Kingfisher
– Black Phoebe
* Black Scoter
– Black-bellied Plover
– Black-crowned Night-Heron
– Brewer’s Blackbird
– Brown Pelican
– California Gull
– California Quail
– Canada Goose
– Clark’s Grebe
– Common Loon
– Common Raven
– Common Yellowthroat
– Cooper’s Hawk
– Double-crested Cormorant
– Eared Grebe
– Eurasian Collared-Dove
– European Starling
– Fox Sparrow
– Gadwall
– Glaucous-winged Gull
– Great Blue Heron
– Great Egret
– Great Horned Owl
– House Finch
– Killdeer
– Lesser Goldfinch
– Lesser Yellowlegs
– Long-billed Curlew
– Long-billed Dowitcher
– Mallard
– Marbled Godwit
– Marsh Wren
– Northern Flicker
– Northern Harrier
– Northern Pintail
– Northern Shoveler
– Osprey
– Pied-billed Grebe
– Red-breasted Nuthatch
– Red-tailed Hawk
– Red-winged Blackbird
– Ring-necked Duck
– Ruddy Duck
– Sanderling
– Savannah? Sparrow
+ Say’s Phoebe
– Sharp-shinned Hawk
– Snowy Egret
– Song Sparrow
– Surf Scoter
* Swainson’s Hawk
– Tricolored Blackbird
– Turkey Vulture
– Violet-green Swallow
– Warbling Vireo
– Western Grebe
– Western Gull
– Western Meadowlark
– Western Scrub-Jay
– Western Tanager
– White-crowned Sparrow
– White-tailed Kite
– Willet
– Yellow Warbler
– Yellow-rumped Warbler

* = life bird, + = year bird