Coastside Trail: Best birds 3
Here’s my final set of best shots from the last leg of the south-to-north trek along the Half Moon Bay coast from Princeton-by-the-Sea to Moss Beach.
Enjoy and get outside. There’s so much to see.
Here’s the key by column:
Column 1: House Sparrow, Snowy Egret, Caspian Tern, Brant (geese), Common Loon, Spotted Towhee
Column 2: Western Kingbird, Red-tailed Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, California Towhee, Green-tailed Towhee, Song Sparrow
Column 3: Wilson’s Warbler, Steller’s Jay, Warbling Vireo, Purple Finch, Turkey Vulture
And, that’s it from me for awhile.
Coastside Trail: Best birds 2
These are my best shots from the next part of the south-to-north trek along the coast of Half Moon Bay to Princeton-by-the-Sea. We spent our time close to shore buffeted by coastal winds.
Here’s the key by column:
Column 1: Snowy Plover + Sanderlings, Snowy Plover, Caspian Tern, Caspian Tern, Elegant Tern (flying)
Column 2: Whimbrel, White-crowned Sparrow, Bewick’s Wren, Common Yellowthroat
Column 3: Western Tiger Swallowtail (butterfly), Red-tailed Hawk, Eared Grebe, Northern Gannet (in the wrong ocean)
Coastside Trail: Best birds 1
Here are my best shots from the first part of the south-to-north trek along the coast of Half Moon Bay. (Best doesn’t mean great, just those good enough to post.)
Enjoy.
Here’s the key by column:
Column 1: Savannah Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow (feeding a youngster), Great-horned Owl, decorative garden grasses (I liked the pattern)
Column 2: Anna’s Hummingbird (male), cypress grove (for the pattern), Hutton’s Vireo
Column 3: American Robin, Surf Scoter, Western Bluebird
Coastside Trail Day 4: To Moss Beach
The day started cloudy and windless, then ended sunny, a wonderful change from the previous day’s chilling wind. The plan was to leave Princeton-by-the-Sea, walk to the base of the hill you see here, then to the top and along the ridge northward to Moss Beach.
Along the way we passed a marsh and watched water birds and at the jetty saw shorebirds. At the top of hill we got a great view of a quiet Mavericks, the famous surf spot. It was a beautiful start to the day.
But this post is about towhees and their cousins, the sparrows. During all four days of this birding walk we saw both. I’ve never been very interested in sparrows (I find them hard to identify), but I do like towhees, in particular, the spotted towhee (easy to identify and colorful). What I didn’t realize until this trip is that towhees and sparrows are in the same family (along with a few others) — they’re Emberizines (Family: Emberizidae). And, we saw many of both as we walked the Coastside Trail, including one species of towhee that wasn’t supposed to be on our route.
Here’s the family, with the sparrows first.
I saw the Savannah Sparrow on the first day and I had only seen one once before. The House Sparrow isn’t native (it’s Old World) and does well in urban areas, which is where we saw it. Throughout the walk White-crowned Sparrows were just about everywhere and Song Sparrow tunes were as pervasive.
Savannah Sparrow
House Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Song Sparrow
You can see that there are differences among the four species.
What I find remarkable is how different the towhees are from the sparrows.
California Towhee
Spotted Towhee
And finally, the lost towhee — a Green-tailed Towhee. It wouldn’t be much of a surprise visitor in the sagebrush of the Sierras, but it is here along the coast, according to our guide Alvaro. I think it resembles both sides of the family — sparrows and towhees. What do you think?
Green-tailed Towhee
Seeing it in Moss Beach on the last day was a great treat. Sorry our trek had to end.
To Margaret and Clare of Slow Adventure and my fellow birders — awesomely great trip, and I look forward to the next one.
To Alvaro Jaramillo — great job and great information. I learned a lot.
And, to those of you who have been following me on this inn-to-inn coastside walking & birding tour — my thanks. You probably see that I’m no longer posting from my iPad. Mobile blogging was a great learning experience, but I really do prefer my Mac screen and keyboard for posts.
I took a lot more pictures on this trip and will be adding them to my blog over the next few weeks. Keep walking and birding, or however you enjoy the outdoors near you.
Coastside Trail Day 3: To Princeton-by-the-Sea
Our morning was cloudy and windy all along the coast. We got some welcome sunny warmth in the afternoon.
The birds didn’t seem to mind the wind as much as we did. We saw 48 species, with about 15 new for the trip, during the day’s 6-mile trek to Princeton-by-the-Sea and Pillar Point Harbor. Our focus was on shorebirds and seabirds, and we were delighted with surprises at the start and end of our walk. Here are some highlights.
Our first surprise was a snowy plover near a nest with an egg, a sighting that hasn’t occurred on these beaches for years. This is good news for this threatened species.
Our next big surprise was a flock of both Caspian terns and elegant terns. The elegants weren’t expected. They usually arrive in early summer. The elegant terns are smaller than the Caspians and the black crest looks more ruffled.
One of my best shot of the day was of this eared grebe in full breeding plumage.
Our biggest surprise of the day was a sighting of a Northern gannet on the breakwater. Yes, a gannet! This is a beautiful North Atlantic bird that’s been hanging around Half Moon Bay for awhile. How it got here, no one knows. A rare treat.
Thanks for following along on my inn-to-inn birding walk with Slow Adventure. And thanks to our birding guide, Alvaro Jaramillo.
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