BIRDING THE SAN MATEO COAST: October 28, 2006
San Mateo County lies just south of San Francisco County on the central coast of California. It is a much larger county than San Francisco, is much less urbanized, and contains a wide variety of habitats including coastal dunes, coastal scrub, Oak woodlands, Douglas Fir Forest, Redwood Forest, salt marsh, and mixed deciduous riparian, to name a few. The diversity of habitat provides abundant birding opportunities and makes possible an amazing county list of over 300 birds. Often the coast is foggy, windy, and extremely unpleasant but in October we usually have our best weather and today bore that out; it was sunny and warm with little or no wind with highs reaching 70 at the coast and much warmer inland. In a word it was spectacular.
I left my house at 6:00 AM intending to start before sun up looking for Short-eared Owls in Half Moon Bay. I made a wrong turn onto Highway 1 after reaching the end of Highway 92 and by the time I realized my error, it was already dawn. I pulled into Wavecrest Drive in Half Moon Bay and drove to the end and parked. I didn’t even need my spotlight by that time. Earlier while it was still dark I had seen a small owl perched on a telephone wire but could not identify it to species. At Wavecrest I neither heard nor saw any owls. There were about six WHITE-TAILED HAWKS hawking even before the sun came up and one Northern Harrier. I heard some LINCOLN’S SPARROWS buzzing but never saw one. I did see one SAVANNAH SPARROW though. It was a very chilly 47 degrees before the sun had a chance to warm everything up and I had left my gloves in the car, so I didn’t linger too long there when it became obvious I had arrived too late for the Short-eared Owls. Oh well, maybe tomorrow.
I continued down Highway 1 which runs along the immediate coast, to Pigeon Point Lighthouse. Since the Pigeon Point sticks so far out into the ocean it makes a nice place to look for seabirds. Many people had been reporting Black-vented Shearwaters and I was anxious to find one as this would be a life bird for me. I was a bit behind schedule arriving only at 8:00 AM but I was lucky there was a feeding frenzy not far off shore from the viewing platform. Hundreds of BROWN PELICANS were diving into the water for whatever unfortunate school of fish was there for the feeding. HEERMAN’S GULLS were frantically diving after the pelicans trying to lap up any of their left overs. Also in the feeding frenzy were of course our resident Western Gulls and then finally I detected two much smaller birds diving with the pelicans and gulls into the fray with all black backs and all white underparts save for the undertail coverts—two BLACK-VENTED SHEARWATERS! Many COMMON MURRES were flying back and forth but no Marbled Murrelets that I could pick out. A few WESTERN GREBES were on the water and many BRANDT’S CORMORANTS were on the rocks. I saw all three species of Loons, PACIFIC LOON, COMMON LOON, and RED-THROATED LOON flying past and a few BONAPARTE’S GULLS. There was one RHINOCEROS AUKLET sitting on the water not too far out and many long lines of SURF SCOTERS paraded by. On the rocks below the platform there were two BLACK OYSTERCATCHERS, two WHIMBRELS, and one GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL. When I could no longer make out anything besides pelicans and gulls in the feeding frenzy I decided to try another look out spot. On the wires above the parking lot there were numerous TRI-COLORED BLACKBIRDS in with the Red-winged Blackbirds and one AMERICAN KESTREL. From the platform closer to the parking lot I saw one EARED GREBE, two fly-by RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS, and a few Harbor Porpoises, one of which completely came out of the water. On the way out of Pigeon Point I spotted a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK crossing Highway 1.
Across Highway 1 from Pigeon Point is Gazos Creek Road. This little used road follows Gazos Creek as it winds through Douglas Fir Forest and a mixed deciduous riparian habitat consisting of mainly Red Alder with some California Buckeye and a few Coast Live Oaks. On the other side of the road from the creek is a much drier south facing slope with mainly Coyote Bush. I parked in a pull out and walked a good portion of the road. WRENTITS were singing from the dry hillsides and the many WESTERN SCRUB-JAYS and STELLER’S JAYS were squawing. Early in the day there was a large flock of TOWNSEND’S WARBLERS, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and CHESTNUT-BACKED CHECKADEES flitting about the Alder trees. I heard at least two HUTTON’S VIREOS singing. I also heard a high pitched song that I thought could be Brown Creeper or Kinglet. I finally tracked one down and it was a GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET. In the Coyote Bushes I found a small flock of sparrows including Fox Sparrow, Song Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW, and one WHITE-THROATED SPARROW, a rare winter visitor in California. Two huge flocks of BAND-TAILED PIGEONS flew overhead. As I walked down the road I was surprised to flush two WILSON’S SNIPES from a water filled ditch. Other birds I saw on Gazos Creek Road were one House Wren, one CALIFORNIA TOWHEE, one Dark-eyed Junco, one Downy Woodpecker, a few Northern Flickers, many Yellow-rumped Warblers, one HERMIT THRUSH, and the ubiquitous BLACK PHOEBE. I was unable to identify most of the numerous butterflies flying around the area. The only ones I recognized were Monarch, Red Admiral, California Sister, Cabbage White, and Pale Swallowtail. After a band of noisy motorcycles repeatedly flushed the White-throated Sparrow I was trying to photograph I decided to try for a Marbled Murrelet at Ano Nuevo State Reserve. Ano Nuevo is just seven miles south of Gazos Creek and is the most popular state park in California. It was set aside for the sole purpose of protecting the Northern Elephant Seal which breeds there. I walked the two mile trail to Bight Beach but it was closed so I walked out to North Beach where I finally found a lone MARBLED MURRELET. Marbled Murrelets breed in the very tops of Redwood Trees in northern California and then fly off to sea after the chicks have fledged. They are year round residents here but because they are so tiny they are easily overlooked unless the sea is calm.
There were many of the same birds at Ano Nuevo as at Pigeon Point plus a large flock of BLACK TURNSTONES and SANDERLINGS, and one MARBLED GODWIT. I stopped by a pond on the way back to the parking area and saw a few RUDDY DUCKS, AMERICAN COOTS, EARED GREBES, and one SNOWY EGRET. A few TURKEY VULTURES circled overhead along with two NORTHERN HARRIERS.
After Ano Nuevo I headed north on Highway 1 and tried again to photograph the White-throated Sparrow without success. I found it easily enough but every time I was ready it either flew or a car drove by and flushed it. Due to the lateness of the hour, 3:30 PM, and the warmness of the day there was little bird activity so I left there and continued up Highway 1 to Pescadero Marsh. It was high tide so there were no shorebirds but VIRGINIA’S RAILS and MARSH WRENS were calling from the marsh and I was delighted to find five BLUE-WINGED TEALS (rare in California) along with some AMERICAN WIGEONS, BUFFLEHEADS, NORTHERN SHOVELERS, and one CANADA GOOSE. My last stop was really just to use the bathroom at San Gregorio State Beach but I did check the gull flock there. It was mostly composed of Heerman’s Gulls, Western Gulls, and CALIFORNIA GULLS. I was getting hungry and still had 45 miles to go to my house in San Francisco so it was time to end a glorious day of birding the San Mateo Coast.
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