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| Point Reyes National Seashore from Limantour Beach, southern view, photo by Kelly Wohlwend |
Point Reyes is a place I have been dying to visit since I first moved to San Francisco. When I heard about a Christmas Bird Count happening at the Point Reyes National Seashore I knew it was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. The Christmas Bird Count was being held at the Clem Miller Environmental Education Center. What was special about this event was it was for kids! I signed up to assist with registration, orient guests to the facility and help out on the bird count.
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| Snowy egret and American Avocets at Bolinas Lagoon, photo by Kelly Wohlwend (author) |
On my way to the count I stopped at Bolinas Lagoon along Highway 1. Bolinas offers saltwater marsh and tidal mudflat habitat and is a fantastic birding location. I wanted to spend more time here but I was on a schedule. I definitely plan to return because the birding I was able to do in a few short minutes was amazing!
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| Northern Pintail with Wigeons, photo by Kelly Wohlwend |
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| Northern pintail, Photo by Lloyd Spitalnik |
Stay tuned for a Bolinas Lagoon birding special, coming soon!
Finally making it to Point Reyes, despite the countless bird distractions, I was pleasantly surprised by how beautiful it was. I have heard countless people say "you must visit Point Reyes, it's spectacular!" But you really must see it for yourself because those words do not do it justice.
Let's get straight into the birding! I assisted on the Limantour Beach hike, a trail that travels over and next to expansive tidal marsh habitat (below). The bird count I'm presenting include some estimations because I didn't write down the specific counts. I was assisting with bird identification, showing the kids the birds in a field guide and helping out with the scopes.
Bird Count for Limantour Beach, Point Reyes National Seashore, January 5th, 2012
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| Limantour Beach trail marshes |
- 1 male northern harrier
- 1 bewick's wren
- ~10 white-crowned sparrow
- ~5 common raven
- ~25 glaucous-winged gull
- 1 ring-billed gull
- ~10 turkey vulture
- 1 peregrine falcon
- 1 black phoebe
- 1 spotted towhee
- 1 white tailed kite
- 1 female American kestrel
- 1 osprey
- 2 great egret
- 200+ American wigeon
- 20-30 gadwall
- 1 long-billed curlew
- ~8 surf scoter
- 2 brown pelican
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| Male northern harrier, photo by Kelly Wohlwend |
The birding was amazing, five birds of prey in an hour and a half is excellent! The northern harrier was the first raptor we saw and he was soaring just above the ground near the parking lot. If you've never seen a northern harrier hovering in the air only feet above the brush, it's definitely something to put down on the list of bird events to see. The way they can utilize the air to stay so low to the ground, while searching for prey and at a moments notice turn and dive and ascend with rather shocking speed, is mesmerizing.
Unfortunately, at this point my camera battery was nearing its end, unbeknownst to me, so I will have to paint a few of the pictures with words.
Another bird we saw manipulating the air streams were turkey vultures. On the sand dune ridges next to the ocean, turkey vultures were floating in the sky, effortlessly. Like the harrier, they managed to stay extremely close to the ground, white hardly beating a wing. There were quite a few of them and I couldn't figure out what sort of carrion they were seeing until after we had walked the length of the beach on the soft sand. Apparently a decapitated elephant seal was rotting near the grass covered sand dunes, perhaps that is what the vultures had their scent glands attuned to.
I wish my camera battery hadn't died so I could have taken a photo of the open saltwater marsh absolutely covered in ducks. In some places, it was so thick with American wigeons I could hardly see the water. Hundreds and hundreds of ducks in large flocks slowly glided along the calm water. They were at such a great distance it was fortunate we had spotting scopes. Pass the wigeons on mudflats were even more birds, this time, unidentifiable shorebirds numbering in the hundreds. I spent countless minutes staring and squinting in the scope trying to identify them. Some were brown, others were a light grey/white. They had medium length, straight black bills. The grey peeps had white bellies with a grey back and a grey collar. The beaks were too short to be a plover and too long to be a dowitcher or godwit. The legs were rather short and from what I could tell, black, but it's hard to say from such a distance. They could have had muddy legs. My best guess is sanderling and dunlin. Sanderlings have been seen (according to the hike guide) along the ocean's edge, which just on the other side of the dunes, so it's a likely choice.
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| Sanderling, nonbreeding plumage photo by Gerrit Vyn |
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| Dunlin, nonbreeding plumage, photo by Arthur Morris |
I can't wait to explore more of Point Reyes!
