September 5-14, 2024 with Chris Benesh & Alex Sundvall
California is a large and diverse state with wide ranges in habitats and elevations. From coastal forests to desert scrubland, to mountain sequoia forests and high alpine meadows, the Slice of California aims to see it all! We saw elevations from sea level all the way up to over 9600 feet, and temperatures ranging from 38 degrees on our coldest morning in Lee Vining to 104 degrees on our hottest afternoon in the central valley.
Our slice this year was a little more of a chunk due to a small piece of the highway closed down for the construction of a wildlife bridge. Because of this small 5 mile closure, it caused us to detour all the way into Nevada! A fun diversion that ended up with more positives than negatives. Overall we saw nearly 200 species of birds on the tour, with our favorite bird being one we almost didn’t see: the California Condor. We had a very successful tour with very few misses of the major target species, with excellent looks at some targets like Ridgway’s Rail, White-headed Woodpecker, and Yellow-billed Magpie.
From Chris and I and all of us at Field Guides, we want to thank you for traveling with us and choosing us for your California adventure. You were a wonderful and kind group, and were very understanding when hiccups arose. We wish all of you well and hope to see you again soon! Happy birding to everyone!
Day 1: We started our tour birding around San Francisco and the baylands. Our first stop was heading up to a local park that was hosting California’s first state record of Slate-throated Redstart! Thankfully the bird was very cooperative and didn’t take too long to track down. While at the park we also got our first taste of some of the local birds like Steller’s Jays, Pygmy Nuthatch, and Nuttal’s Woodpecker. We even got a glimpse of another rarity, a nice adult male Summer Tanager! From there we headed south to the baylands in hopes of finding shorebirds and more coastal species. While Ridgway’s Rails evaded us this time, we saw hundreds of American Avocets, Western and Least Sandpipers, Black-necked Stilts, and even a few Long-billed Curlews. Then after a quick lunch, we headed to a nearby drier forest where we searched for (and got!) Oak Titmouse, more Pygmy Nuthatches, California Towhees, and California Scrub-Jays. We then ended our day again along the bay looking for more shorebirds on a high tide roost. We lucked into a big group of Black Turnstones and Surfbirds thanks to some sharp spotting from Lori! We also had a group of close Whimbrels and Black Oystercatchers with our first group of Western and California Gulls.
Day 2: Today was a longer travel day along Mines Road as we traversed the Central Valley. It was very hot and very dry, a stark change from the previous day's fog and relative coolness. Our first priority was the endemic Yellow-billed Magpie. While they weren’t at the first spot we checked, we eventually got wonderful views of a couple birds right on the side of the road. Another big target along this first leg of the road was California Thrasher, which can be a bit challenging and skulky. Thankfully it didn’t take too long to spot one and we got prolonged views of a singing bird! Later we stopped on the side of the road hoping for one of the local Bell’s Sparrows. These are the prettier, more richly colored nominate subspecies that breed up in the rolling chaparral of the Central Valley. While the sparrow wasn’t very cooperative at this stop, we did get our first glance at a roving flock of Lawrence’s Goldfinches! On our way to our picnic lunch spot, we found a trickle of a creek that was drawing another large group of Lawrence’s Goldfinches giving us much better looks than the first group. Later on down the road, we went through some more chaparral habitat where we had significantly better looks at multiple Bell’s Sparrows. Thanks to some keen eyes from Dan, we were able to see a Greater Roadrunner right along the side of the road on our way to the hotel, an often missed species for this tour!
Day 3: This was our first of two days exploring the Sierra. We started off the morning with a slightly longer than expected hike through the mighty Calaveras Big Trees State Park. Here, taking in the glory of these massive trees we saw the ghost bird: White-headed Woodpecker. Our first gave us great views, but stayed high. Later in the hike we found an incredibly cooperative bird that came much lower and provided some of the best looks I’ve ever had of the species! We also saw a couple confiding Pacific Wrens, a gorgeous rufous morph Red-tailed Hawk, and a high migrating flock of Lewis’s Woodpeckers. After a brief lunch stop, we headed higher up into the mountains searching for more alpine species. We had some great success with more woodpeckers, getting awesome views of both Red-breasted and Williamson’s Sapsuckers, Pileated Woodpecker, and another White-headed Woodpecker. A lovely female Evening Grosbeak was also a great highlight of our first afternoon birding in the high Sierra.
Day 4: Here is where our normal tour plan started to go off the rails. While driving our main road over to Lee Vining, our van was greeted with a sign indicating that the road is closed up ahead and the only way to get to where we are going is a 70 mile detour that would take us into Nevada. After a quick powwow, we decided this was still our best option, and to look on the bright side of things (hey, we get to bird a whole other state on the tour now!) The day started as normal, we made it to our intended birding spot right at dawn where we witnessed a bit of morning flight! Migrants were everywhere, with Audubon’s Yellow-rumped Warblers dominating the scene. The mixed flocks included Townsend’s, Hermit, Orange-crowned, Wilson’s, Nashville, and MacGillivray’s Warblers; Cassin’s Vireos, Thick-billed Fox Sparrows, a Green-tailed Towhee, and even some more Red-breasted Sapsuckers and another White-headed Woodpecker. Most importantly, we heard a small covey of Mountain Quails calling in the alpine brush. Unfortunately, try as we might to glimpse these birds or coax them out of hiding, they would not show themselves. And despite our many attempts, this was the only whiff of the species we had the whole tour! They really lived up to their mysterious and skulking pedigree! Next on the agenda was a quick jaunt down to the Clark Fork Campground where we found a few American Dippers bathing and foraging in a mountain stream. Then we crested the summit, nearing 10,000 feet, and while we came over the other side a few folks spotted our first Black-billed Magpie, completing our Magpie sweep for the tour! As we hit the detour and started heading north toward Nevada, we stumbled across a huge flock of Pinyon Jays raucously calling and drinking from a stream. This area has been in an extreme drought for months now and water is scarce. But, as soon as we found them, the flock dispersed and flew back up into the mountains in search of food. On the Nevada border we stopped at the huge Topaz Lake, our first taste of high desert pothole birding. With how scarce water can be in this habitat, these lakes can often act as a bit of a vagrant trap, and we were lucky enough to find a nice adult Sabine’s Gull amongst the birds there! We quickly made our way through Nevada and as we looped back into California, we stopped on the side of the road to look at some ducks when a Sage Thrasher popped up alongside us! After a long day of travel, we settled into our hotel in Lee Vining preparing ourselves for another great day of birding tomorrow.
Day 5: The Slice Of California tour has some of the widest changes in temperature of any Field Guides tour. Our warmest day was heading through the dry central valley where it topped out at 104F, and our coldest morning was this one starting out at just 38F. The air was cool and crisp as we headed to Mono Lake to explore the Tufas, large salt columns protruding from the lake’s southern shore. A mother and baby Great Horned Owl called to each other as we watched the sun rise over the lake. Ospreys were screaming to each other from their nests out on the Tufas. Thousands of Ducks and hundreds of Gulls were out eating brine shrimp on the water’s surface. It was truly a beautiful morning! On our way out, we watched a gorgeous young Northern Harrier sail over the sagebrush and a stunning Prairie Falcon dive bomb and harass the poor young Great Horned Owl. It was an incredible show to watch! We also had a large group of sparrows flying between the sagebrush. While many of these were Brewer’s Sparrows, we were able to pick out a couple larger Sagebrush Sparrows in the mix! After heading back into town for a big breakfast, we headed south of town towards Mammoth. The roads where we normally search for Black-backed Woodpeckers were soft and sandy with the lack of rain, so we pivoted to birding around Lake Mamie where we found a stunner of a male Williamson’s Sapsucker that just hung out with us for a while, sitting on the side of the tall ponderosa pines providing exceptional looks. After a brief afternoon break, we headed to the ghost town of Bodie, an old mining town. Bodie is second only to Barrow, AK in the US for the most daily lows below freezing. The main attraction here other than the historic scenery is the local population of Greater Sage-Grouse! As we walked through town, we got our first glimpse of one, like the Loch Ness Monster sticking its neck out of the tall grasses. We were beginning to worry this would be our only experience with the grouse, but as we were walking to our car we were stopped by a small group of them walking down the path towards us! We sat with these birds for what felt like forever, watching them forage in the sagebrush and walking around us. Truly a magical experience and a wonderful way to cap off the day!
Day 6: Today we began our long journey back to the coast, made even longer by having to detour through Nevada! This was mostly a travel day with a little bit of birding interspersed to stretch our legs. Our first birds of the day were a pair of high flying Golden Eagles just across the border into Nevada. The detour took us right through Lake Tahoe, where we walked around hoping for Black-backed Woodpeckers. Unfortunately, we didn’t luck into any, but we did have a nice scoped view of an Olive-sided Flycatcher and a large flock of Vaux’s Swifts flying around us in the mountains! Many hours later, we arrived in Half Moon Bay with just enough time for a quick dinner before preparing for our boat trip the next day.
Day 7: Today was the day of our boat trip! Unfortunately, when we arrived we were informed that the weather would be too rough to make it out to the shelf, and we wouldn’t be able to go too far offshore. We crossed our fingers, hoped for the best, and started out on the water. Our first success of the day was spotting Morus the Northern Gannet sitting on the breakwall amongst the hundreds of Brown Pelicans, Brandt’s Cormorants, and Western and Heermann’s Gulls. Morus has been in the area for years now and is the only Northern Gannet to ever see the Pacific Ocean. After we left the harbor, we spotted a couple of Marbled Murrelets playing in the surf near the beach! We also had our first few pelagic birds with views of Common Murres, Sooty Shearwaters, and Pelagic Cormorants. As we edged farther and farther offshore, we started seeing more Pink-footed Shearwaters mixed in with the Sooty Shearwaters, and small groups of Rhinoceros Auklets. At our farthest point we could reach (about 15 miles offshore) we had a magnificent Tufted Puffin sitting on the water, giving us spectacular views. We also spotted a few Ashy Storm-Petrels and even a pair of Buller’s Shearwaters! An Arctic Tern also flew right over the boat! For only getting out 15 miles, we had a spectacular day out on the water and a much better day than any of us really expected! Our afternoon was spent going up and down the coast where we tracked down a few Black Turnstones and Wandering Tattlers after scanning some rocky beaches.
Day 8: We have this day as a sort of makeup day to try and find some of the more challenging birds we might have missed! Our first stop was back at Byxbee park where we finally tracked down a few Ridgway’s Rails crawling around in the muddy saltmarsh. This subspecies of Ridgway’s Rail is endemic to the San Francisco area and only found around the baylands! From there we headed south towards the Casa de Fruta where a small group of California Condors had been hanging out. Since we had done so well on the rest of the tour birds, we decided that we had the time to go try for these extra birds! We spent the morning driving up and down the highway and scanning from viewpoints, but unfortunately didn’t have any luck spotting the condors. We did have a bunch more Golden Eagles and a gorgeous Swainson’s Hawk! While we’re eating lunch at the Casa de Fruta, Lori spotted a high flying Condor! In the rush, I don’t think anyone else spotted this bird. On high alert now, we quickly finished up lunch and got back to searching. Thankfully, the bird came back and we all got incredible views of Hasso, a 4 year old wild hatched California Condor. On our way back toward the coast, we finally stumbled on the big group, and quickly pulled over to watch a kettle of TEN(!) California Condors. Our next stop was the Moonglow Dairy Farm, where we sifted through hundreds of Red-winged Blackbirds to find some endangered Tricolored Blackbirds. We ended up getting really nice views of a few birds, some flying right over our heads as they went between pastures! We also saw some distant Sea Otters in the slough behind the farm. It was a spot we could have spent hours at, unfortunately our time was limited and we had to move on. On our way back to Half Moon Bay, we made a quick stop on the side of the road to catch up with Wrentit, a species we had encountered but not well yet. These birds were much more cooperative, perching out in the open for a few brief moments allowing everyone to get eyes on them! Then after our final dinner and final night in Half Moon Bay, we headed back into San Francisco and to the airport, saying our final goodbyes and heading home.
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/336044
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/nca24TRIPLIST.pdf
Chris and Alex