Birding Shorts: Very Old Friends (Colorado Edition)

Gandalf seeks his old comrade Bilbo for a birding adventure

I knew I had found him, pulling up next to the battered Subaru. There was no mistaking the “Do You eBird?” and “Sea Level is for Sissies” bumper stickers. The lad himself appeared a moment later. Marcel and I were both cute and nerdy high schoolers when our paths first crossed. I hadn’t seen him in years.

Right to left: Marcel Such, Joel Such, me. June 2010

Some things never change. He still saunters. Anything mildly funny still shatters his smirk into a goofy grin. But other things change. Now he’s a longboarding hipster dirtbag who uses lingo such as “dank” and “straight G.”  I suppose I could be described in a similar fashion, just with a less edgy parlance and no longboard.

Arguably homeless between leases, Marcel explained that we would head to BLM land in the hills for the night. That was fine by me. I love camping. And! These hills seethe with Gunnison Sage-Grouse, only described as a species within our short lifetimes, rare enough to make the palms perspire.

We jolted along dirt tracks, hoping for a road grouse. Then we switched our strategy and walked into the sagebrush, dust underfoot, desiccated branches clawing our calves. I eyed the buxom Leicas riding Marcel’s hip.

“Sexy bins,” I said.

“Thanks—it’s Travis.”

It took a moment to register. Then I realized that Marcel was brandishing a celebrity binocular, Travis the Traveling Trinovid! I was star-struck. My own tattered Trins fawned in the presence of greatness.

Can't refuse a photo op with celebrity optics

Light receding, we returned to the car for further cruising. Up a hill, down a two-track. Darkness fell. Meadowlarks warbled in the gloaming. I noticed a smudge in the two-track ahead of us—a bush? No—an ambulatory smudge! The grouse scurried into the brush, then flushed as the car approached. It was the first Gunnison Sage-Grouse I’d ever seen. Marcel punched me in celebration.

The desolate haunts of the Gunnison Sage-Grouse

We repaired to our bivouac, a site we shared with Marcel’s friend Cam. Around the fire, Cam recounted Marcel’s stint as a mercenary in the World Series of Birding. A Wall Street sugar daddy flew him to New Jersey at the last possible moment to join his team. From Cam’s perspective, he was losing Marcel forever. Young Marcel, foolish Marcel, boarding a plane, beguiled by the promise of making a few bucks, only to be dismembered in a dark saltmarsh, losing his vital organs to the black market. At least in his last moments he would hear Black Rails…

We swapped stories late into the night. Then we peed on the coals and the three of us retired to Cam’s two-man tent for the night. Road wearied, I slid into a gradual sleep. Breeze battered the fly. As my neurons punched the clock, I questioned the real purpose of the rain fly—to repel droplets or amplify night sounds.

Marcel and I awoke when the strengthening sun raised the tent’s temperature to a swelter. Cam had left hours earlier for an epic bike ride. We spent the day the way you might expect from hipster dirtbag birders—nursing coffee at the café from which Marcel lusts employment, eating poptarts garnished with peanut butter, bumming around the university, and, of course, looking for birds.

After another night of three-man spooning under the Sound Amplifier, Marcel and I absconded well before dawn for grouse espionage. Cam did not come. He cited exhaustion from his bike ride, but Marcel and I both well understood that he would not allow himself to be seen birding. In the end, it’s a good thing he didn’t come—we didn’t see any grouse. I dropped Marcel off at his fantasy coffee shop and headed east.

I wondered when I’ll see him next. Whether it will be three years again. How we will change in that time. Where our paths will cross, and what birds we will see. Only time will tell.

Marcel, me. May 2016

The Mountains

Last weekend my dad and I took a trip up to the San Jacinto Mountains, an interesting mountain range a couple hours due east of us in Riverside County. In the San Jacintos it is easy to find species that are difficult or impossible to find in Orange County, including White-headed Woodpecker, Tricolored Blackbird, and Steller's Jay. It is also very fun to camp and hike in the wilderness among great birds and another animals.

Dad and I left Thursday evening and made it up to Boulder Basin Campground by nine O'clock. Boulder Basin is a very remote place; a bumpy five-mile drive up a rough mountain road is required to reach it. After setting up camp we wandered through the deserted campground, listening for owls (the campground is supposedly a good spot for Flammulated), but all was silent. Finally, as we were drifting off to sleep in our tent, a Western Screech-Owl called several times. I found this very unusual, since the campground is 7,800 feet above sea level and is vegetated mostly with pine trees. Screech-Owls aren't supposed to be up so high, but it was, and who knows why.

We awoke early Friday morning to the twittering of Violet-green Swallows swooping around the campground. As the morning slowly dawned, other species added their voices: Olive-sided Flycatcher, Western Wood-Pewee, Western Tanager, White-headed Woodpecker, and others. We birded around the campground for a few minutes, finding a few new species, including Dusky Flycatcher, Black-chinned Sparrow, Hairy Woodpecker, and Pygmy Nuthatch.



Once we were all packed up, we bounced a few miles further up Black Mountain Road. A lookout a mile or two past Boulder Basin offers stupendous views. A family of Rock Wrens was jumping around the large rocks here, and the warbled song of a Cassin's Finch drifted up from the forest below.



We took a quick walk around the parking area for the Fuller Ridge Trail, about 8,000 feet above sea level. Here, both Fox Sparrows (of the "Thick-billed" group) and Green-tailed Towhees sang their similar melodious tunes from the tops of stunted trees.



The road doesn't really go anywhere past the Fuller Ridge Trailhead, so we turned around and descended the mountain. After a rough ride, we made it back to the unbelievably smooth highway. We searched a couple creeks for dippers, but once again we failed to find any. By the time we reached Idyllwild it was roughly lunch time, so we stopped and had lunch at Idyllwild County Park nature center. The feeders there were unfilled and desolate. After finishing up, we drove around to the other side of the park and set up camp in the campground. I quickly made friends with the local Steller's Jays with a bag of peanuts I had brought for just that purpose. The brazen birds would land on the other end of the picnic table and steal peanuts right out of the bag!



Later in the afternoon, we took a drive down the highway to Lake Hemet and the Garner Valley. Lake Hemet, usually devoid of birds, produced a Bald Eagle, a Clark's Grebe, and some Mallards and Coots. Sinister thunderheads rolled in, rumbling and sprinkling a bit of rain but not doing anything serious.



The alarm clock sounded early on Saturday morning, around five-thirty. We were planning to hike up the Devil's Slide Trail above Idyllwild, and an early start is a good way to beat the heat of the day. The first mile or two of the hike is rather dull bird-wise, but offers nice views of Suicide Rock (top of this post.) After a couple hours of hiking, however, we found some interesting birds, including Red-breasted Sapsucker, Mountain Quail, Green-tailed Towhee, Brown Creeper, and Hermit Warbler. When we reached Saddle Junction, two and a half miles and 1,500 feet above the parking lot, we decided to take the trail to Tahquitz Peak. Unfortunately, this trail simply disappeared after a quarter-mile, so after wandering around in the woods for awhile, we turned around and headed back to Saddle Junction. We took the Pacific Crest Trail about a mile farther up, probably to about 9,000 feet above sea level. The views from up there were spectacular, to say the least!



It was a long and hot hike, hard on the knees, back down to the parking lot. We got back to our campsite in the early afternoon. Some Western Gray Squirrels and Acorn Woodpeckers had joined the Steller's Jays in snitching peanuts.



After a lovely grilled dinner of kebabs, squash, and eggplant, we drove around a bit in the evening. One some random back roads above Idyllwild we were treated to a beautiful sunset.



I wanted to stay up late and look for Flammulated Owls at Humber Park above Idyllwild, but my dad didn't like this idea so we went to bed early instead. I'll get Flammulated once I don't have the stupid 11 p.m. - 5 a.m. curfew on my driver's license. We ended up getting up ridiculously early Sunday morning; we were packed up and out of the campground by six thirty. After the mandatory coffee stop, we took Highway 74 down through the Garner Valley to Santa Rosa Mountain. On the way, we saw a Bobcat dead in the road (and yes, we did actually stop so I could get a photo!)



We also stopped for a colony of Tricolored Blackbirds in a little swampy area near Lake Hemet. There were dozens of them in this tiny marsh right next to the highway, and many more in the surrounding fields. They look just like Red-winged Blackbirds, save for the white stripe below the red instead of a pale yellow stripe. Their call notes are also noticeably different - more of a choking sound than anything else.



Our trip up Santa Rosa Mountain turned out to be a bust, since the road was way to rough for our minivan to handle. Gr. I can't wait to get a Jeep or something that is actually capable of going up dirt roads. In the half-mile or so we went up the road we saw Black-chinned Sparrow, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and Black-headed Grosbeak. After our failed excursion, we headed back through the Garner Valley and drove random roads until we came across a flock of Pinyon Jays. After finally finding them we couldn't seem to get away from them, as we heard several other flocks. We took a drive up a not-so-rough dirt road, and, in some hills above the valley, I picked out an unfamiliar sparrow song. I had a hunch that it was a Sage Sparrow, and after listening to it on my iPod I was sure that's what it was. I eventually spotted it singing from the top of a bush close to the road and obtained some crummy photos.



At this point there wasn't much left to do in the mountains, so we cruised down Highway 74, past Hemet (another coffee stop was in order), and on to San Jacinto Wildlife Area. On our way there we came across a field filled with White-faced Ibis, along with four Cattle Egrets. I've never seen so many Ibis in one place before!



We took a quick spin through the auto tour loop at San Jacinto Wildlife Area. As I expected, there wasn't too much there, since most of the ducks and shorebirds have departed. However, I was surprised to find at least twenty Yellow-headed Blackbirds in one pond, the males displaying and giving their raucous calls. I also heard a Virginia Rail here.



We birded for a few more minutes at San Jacinto Wildlife Area before heading home. In a few days of camping we had accumulated a truly incredible amount of dust and muck on the car, inside and out. We quickly got the car unloaded and washed, much to my mom's relief (the van technically is her car, after all.) We saw some great birds (no lifers, but seven new species for Riverside County) and had a fun time hiking, grilling, birding, and adventuring. I can't wait to do it again.

See Ya at the Sea - Part III

I was awoken from my slumber by the chirpy calls of a Verdin. County bird, I thought as I groped for my watch. Six-thirty! Uh-oh, we overslept a few minutes. Turns out I forgot to set the alarm. I wiggled my way out of my cozy sleeping bag, shook my dad awake, and crawled through the tiny tent flap. It was a beautiful sunny morning, calm and crisp. A short distance away, on the glassy surface of the Salton Sea, flocks of American White Pelicans glowed in the sunlight.



I roused John by hurling clods of dirt at his tent, and we began breaking camp. It took only a few minutes to tear down the tents and stuff away the sleeping bags. John and I sprinted over the beach. The most obvious birds were the pelicans.



Other birds were present in large numbers: Eared Grebes, gulls of several flavors, and others. We found the third-cycle Lesser Black-backed Gull right where we left it at the southern end of the campground. It was accompanied by a Herring Gull, some California Gulls, and a Glaucous-winged Gull (another new county bird!)



We bade goodbye to our campground and headed north along the edge of the sea. We took a brief spin through the Salton Sea State Recreation Area Headquarters, where we found this first-cycle Thayer’s Gull (a rather dark individual.)



John spotted a very odd gull perched on a post in the marina. It had a strongly bi-colored bill like a Glaucous Gull, but the body and wingtips were dirty grayish brown, more like a Glaucous-winged Gull. John and I eventually came to the conclusion that it was a Glaucous x Glaucous-winged hybrid, an aberrant Glaucous-winged Gull, or something entirely different.



We decided to leave the Salton Sea entirely and stop at the San Jacinto Valley on the way home. John Garrett had guaranteed we would see Mountain Bluebirds around the Salton Sea, but he was wrong. We didn’t see a single Mountain Bluebird anywhere around the Sea all weekend. I knew of a small flock wintering at the San Jacinto Wildlife Area, conveniently just off the freeway on the way home. We spotted three (!) Ferruginous Hawks circling over a field soon after exiting the freeway. We ended up seeing at least a dozen in just a couple hours of birding the San Jacinto Valley.



As we were cruising down Davis Road through some nice fields, I spotted a sky-blue bird perched on a telephone wire right along the road. “Mountain Bluebird!” I shouted joyfully. There was actually a small flock of them. Lovely birds, and another new one for my life list (Mountain Bluebird was a rather embarrassingly absent from my list prior to the trip.)



The San Jacinto Wildlife Area has a very enjoyable auto loop through some nice freshwater ponds and marshes. We were pressed for time, but the loop produced some great birds for us: Blue-winged Teal, Hooded Merganser, Prairie Falcon, and Yellow Warbler. There were thousands of other ducks present. The only other marginally-decent photo I obtained here was of a Loggerhead Shrike stationed on a bush beside the road.



It was now nearly midday, and we needed to be home by mid-afternoon. We made a brief stop at Lake Perris to search for Glaucous Gull, which John Garrett direly needs for his life list. We had no luck finding it, but did get a few new species for the trip: Common Merganser, Ring-necked Duck, and Forster’s Tern.

All of us were saddened to pull into the driveway back at home. It was an amazing trip. I personally saw three life birds (Mountain Plover, Chestnut-collared Longspur, and Mountain Bluebird) and a bunch of new species for the state and Riverside and Imperial Counties. I look forward to visited the Salton Sea again in the future!

More Mountains

I am a relative newcomer to southern California, but I've learned one thing very well. Birding in the mountains in the summer is a blast. Last weekend I had the opportunity to slip back up to the San Jacinto Mountains with my dad and Chris West, a young birder visiting from Wisconsin.

After battling rush-hour traffic on Friday evening, we finally arrived at Boulder Basin Campground at the north end of the San Jacinto Mountains after dark. Instead of looking for owls as we should have done, we set up camp and collapsed in our sleeping bags.

Morning came, and the birds woke us up early. After gobbling up some muffins and doughnut holes, Chris and I climbed up on top of a nearby hill, scrambling over the immense boulders. We quickly found typical mountain birds such as Mountain Chickadee, Pygmy Nuthatch, Stellar's Jay, Brown Creeper, and Violet-green Swallow. I also spotted Chris's first White-headed Woodpeckers, a family going about their business in the crown of a tall pine tree. Some of the boulders we climbed offered commanding views.



After we broke camp, we explored Forest Service Road 4S01 for several miles past Boulder Basin. In the Fuller Ridge area we found exciting birds such as Rock Wren, Red-breasted Nuthatch, and Cassin's Finch. The road also gave spectacular views of the desert over a mile below. After wandering around a little bit more (and finding Chris's life Green-tailed Towhees in the process) we descended the mountain back to Highway 243. On the way down, a flock of Mountain Quail scurried across the road. We managed to track them down as they ran off into the brush. Another lifer for Chris, and always a fun bird to see.

In the early afternoon, we set up camp at Idyllwild County Park. We sought shade under the towering pine trees; the sun was warm. We spent most of the afternoon resting in the shade, chasing butterflies, and showering. Chris managed to catch this California Dogface, a life butterfly for me. If you have a vivid imagination, perhaps you can see the profile of a poodle head on its wing. The tops of the wings are gaudily colored.



We befriended a couple Stellar's Jays around the campsite, bribing them with tasty peanut snacks. The jays were very tame, and would eat peanuts on a stump five feet away as we watched and clicked away with our cameras.



As the temperatures cooled in the evening, we drove to the Garner Valley area to search for other birds. Lake Hemet produced a lone Western Grebe and a few Caspian Terns. We found a flock of Tricolored Blackbirds in the small marshy creek on Highway 74 past Lake Hemet. This interesting little wetland produced not only the Tricolored Blackbirds but also Black-crowned Night-Herons, American Coots, Lawrence's Goldfinches, and Great-tailed Grackles. The Tricolored Blackbirds and Lawrence's Goldfinches were both lifers for Chris.



Here is a view of the creek, with the hills in the background.



We raced around the Garner Valley as the light faded, hoping for Pinyon Jays. The jays outwitted us, and we returned to our campground disappointed. Chris and I vowed to look for owls that night, but weariness won again. However, I did hear a Western Screech-Owl calling above our tent, so the night wasn't completely owl-less.

We were in for a surprise on Sunday morning. Rain! I had assured Chris that it never rained in the summer in southern California and that we didn't need rain fly; Chris reminded me of this as we frantically tore down our tents and shoved them in the car as the rain pelted our backs. The rain tapered off, and we decided to try hiking up the Devil's Slide Trail. Everything was fine at first; we hiked up, trying to ignore the ominous gray clouds hanging over the mountain.



The weather finally defeated us. Rain began dripping out of the sky, and thunder clapped in the distance. The clouds seemed to get darker, and much of the forest was concealed by mist. We turned around and headed back for the car. I paused on the way down to photograph the misty forest below.



What to do? I had planned to spent the whole morning hiking up the Devil's Slide Trail, and we were supposed to pick up John Garret (fellow young birder) in Idyllwild early in the afternoon. We spent the rest of the morning birding the Garner Valley. We still couldn't find any Pinyon Jays, but we located a cluster of at least thirty Lawrence's Goldfinches foraging by the roadside. We ended up seeing over fifty that morning. This photo shows ten Lawrence's Goldfinches.



Some two hours of cruising random roads in hopes of Pinyon Jays later, I spotted a few large blue birds walking around on the side of the road. Pinyon Jays! We were greeted by their nasal calls as we leaped from the van. It was quite a large flock, perhaps twenty strong. It included many begging juveniles. They were utterly uncooperative for photos, but I couldn't help including a photo here because they are such neat birds.



We celebrated our success by feasting on sandwiches (I discovered that grape sandwiches are delicious) at Lake Hemet. I tossed a few peanuts to a loitering Western Scrub-Jay; soon we were surrounded by nearly ten scrub-jays screaming for food.



After picking John Garrett up in Idyllwild early in the afternoon, we headed for home. It was a fun jaunt - I didn't pick up any lifers, but I found quite a few for Chris. I also managed to find several county birds. And, of course, mountain birding is always fun. It makes a nice break from all those California Gnatcatchers...