Today was the longest birding day of our entire trip. We left the house relatively early (although rather late for birding standards), at around 8:30 AM. We drove up 101 nonstop until we reached the Redwood National and State Parks visitor's center. Since I've been to this same visitor's center the previous year, I spent all of the time spent there birding the vicinity. I walked down this boardwalk that led to a marsh, where I found Yellow-rumped Warblers, Song and Fox Sparrows, and even an immature Cooper's Hawk. There were also several grunting Virginia Rails that called from within the reeds. None were seen of course, for that is harder than trying to find a needle in a haystack. Suddenly, several flocks of Cackling Geese flew over. Some even flew rather close to the ground, which really aided with my identification.
Once we drove out of the parking lot, we kept going up the 101. We then came across a herd of Roosevelt Elk. This mammal is one of the reasons why this national park was created. This species was once overhunted and nearly went extinct, but thanks to the National Park Service, this species thrives in this park, and was seen on several occasions while driving. This herd however was right on the side of the road, and offered fantastic views. Better views than those that I had gotten last year.
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| Bull Roosevelt Elk |
After several brief stops at various lookouts, we finally arrived at our first legitimate birding destination. We were no longer in Humboldt county, but in Del Norte county, the northernmost county on the California coast. We drove all the way up there to visit the Crescent City harbor. This popular fishing destination is also a good seawatching destination. Once we arrived, I immediately grabbed my scope and headed up the hill that gave a great view of the ocean and the harbor. On the way up, next to the jetty, I noticed a single Common Loon and a single Horned Grebe, both in nonbreeding plumage (which isn't surprising).
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| Horned Grebe (notice the white cheek, and the blocky head.) |
We kept on trekking up the hill. This task proved to be much more strenuous and arduous, than we had anticipated. At first the terrain was rocky, with loose gravel, which offered very poor traction. Then we reached a more vegetated area, where there were ferns and other plants. That area was especially damp, and we kept on slipping. Fortunately, nobody fell, because it would have been a
30-foot drop. In this zone where the foliage thrived, we noticed a single Banana Slug, oozing its way onto a rock. It truly is an interesting animal, with its entirely yellow coloring, and long body.
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| Banana Slug |
Unfortunately, once we reached the top of the hill, there wasn't much to see. There was a single Red-throated Loon, but other than that there were just regular harbor birds. So that intense ordeal that we underwent turned out to be of not much use. However, this letdown was countered by my third lifer of the trip! As I'm scoping within the harbor, I noticed many Western Grebes. But among these myriad grebes, I found a Red-necked Grebe! This is a bird that I actually wasn't expecting to see during this trip. So this find really brought my spirits up!
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| Red-necked Grebe (ntocie the yellow bill, the gray cheek, and the triangular head shape.) |
In the harbor, there was also a number of Steller's Sea Lions. These pinnipeds are humongous, and are, not surprisingly, incredibly loud. A lot of them were sunning themselves on a large wooden float, while some others were just carelessly swimming around.
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| Steller's Sea Lions |
We ate at this fish restaurant by the harbor, and while we satiated our ravenous appetites, we admired the numreous sea lions, loons, and grebes.
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| Western Grebe (notice the yellow bill, the red eye, and the black that covers the eye.) |
After finishing our meals, we drove through a redwood forest. These trees were absolutely immense! They towered over us like skyscrapers, except that they were more pleasant to be around, and they were actually supposed to be there. Being around these gigantic trees really made me realize how little and weak us humans are, and reinforced my eternal deference unto the natural world.
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| Redwood grove |
We decided to walk down the small trail, that led deeper inside the redwood forest. Along this trail we didn't notice many birds at all. I actually only tallied a total of 3 species: Black-capped Chickadees, Golden-crowned Kinglets, and Common Ravens. Although, to be fair, we were walking down this trail at 2:00 PM, the worst time to be out birding. Birds tend to be more active at dawn and at dusk, because that is when they go out to forage, which makes them more exposed and noticeable.
Our last stop of the day was really quite a treat, because it was there that I found our most interesting bird of the trip. We went to this place called Fern Creek Canyon. This is basically a small, yet rapid, stream, going down a rocky and sandy trail, in the middle of two tall walls covered in lush and green ferns. At first, the only interesting birds were a large flock of Pine Siskins, with over 30 individuals. But once we walked down the stream, this little gray bird zipped by my feet and landed on a log in front of me. I froze, and stared at it in awe. This little bird was an American Dipper. This is the first confirmed identification I've ever made of this bird, but it wasn't a lifer. Dippers are very interesting birds because they are the only passerines (songbirds) that are capable of swimming underwater. What these birds do is dive underwater, run along little rocks, feeding on aquatic insects and larvae. It was very entertaining to watch this bird dive underwater and pop up again. But our entertainment only increased once another individual joined the first! It was truly a sight to see: to watch two American Dippers diving in the same field of view. What made this experience even more memorable was the proximity at which we were able to admire the birds. One literally stood only 3-feet away from us! This provided some remarkable photo ops:
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| Juvenile American Dipper (notice the yellow bill, and the white marks on wings: both field marks to identify a juvenile of this species.) |
This concluded our wonderful day spent at Redwood National and State Parks. The Red-necked Grebe was definitely the best bird of the day, but the American Dipper was easily a close second. I was pretty bummed out however at the end of the day, because the next day we would leave Humboldt county and head back down to San Francisco. I wasn't even sure if was going to be to go birding again before we left. So I made sure I enjoyed this glorious day in very northern California.
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