USA 2023 - Monterey Bay Birding (part 1)

Sunday 2 April 2023

Western Grebe - Moss Landing CA

Welcome to the first blog post of a series from a trip to West Coast USA in the spring of 2023. This was a family holiday rather than a dedicated birding expedition (see my Goa blog posts), so  I'll be focusing on birding and wildlife highlights rather than a day-by-day commentary.

As California residents will recall, April 2023 came at the end of some dramatic West Coast weather. Atmospheric rivers had brought torrential rain and flooding to land around Monterey Bay, while deep snow still lingered in the Sierra Nevada. A combination of snowfall and landslides had closed Sequoia National Park for the duration of our trip; our original booking for a stay at Grant Grove had to be hurriedly changed to make alternative arrangements shortly before leaving the UK for San Francisco. 

As a bit of background, this was my fourth visit to the USA, but only the second time that I'd been actively birdwatching. Given that most of my previous US birding experience had been in the east (New England), I was excited about finally getting to grips with West Coast birds and other wildlife. The Hollywood glitz may perhaps be fading, but California is a must-visit destination for the naturalist. It is a surprisingly special place for wildlife.

Our base for the first few days was in Aptos, just down the coast from Santa Cruz. Some pre-holiday research had revealed that Moss Landing on Monterey Bay was the place to go for birding and marine mammals, including whale watching. And it delivered - big time. I'll look at the marine mammals in later blog posts: let's start with the birds.

Moss Landing CA

Dominated by its power plant, Moss Landing is a small fishing village sited on Monterey Bay mid-way between Santa Cruz and Monterey. Its sheltered harbour and estuary, salt marshes and sand dunes create a great mix of different habitats. Just inland is Elkhorn Slough, a National Estuarine Research Reserve - see later blog post.

Driving into Moss Landing it was clear without even stopping the car that there were birds everywhere. A salt marsh just north of the bridge contained my first American Avocets while a Western Grebe was on the water by the bridge into the port itself (more on grebes in a bit). I was itching to get out and start birdwatching, but we needed to park up, pay the Harbour Master for parking and check that we were OK for our whale-watching tour (dates had been switched at short notice due to a cancelled sailing.) So the first bird that I properly encountered was this Western Gull (below), one of several that were stalking around the quayside car park.  

Western Gull - Moss Landing CA

Western Gulls are smart birds, although it’s easy to dismiss them as 'just another gull’. Although the commonest of the west coast gulls, their global distribution is quite restricted – from the US-Canada border down to the southern tip of Baja California in Mexico. Unlike many gulls, they seem reluctant to move inland, so their range is almost entirely coastal. Not a new species for me - I had previously seen them on a visit to San Diego. Western Gulls freely hybridise with Glaucous-winged Gulls, which replace Western Gulls on the west coast of Canada - a species that I have yet to track down.

Western Grebe - Moss Landing CA

The next task was to sort out the grebes, as I knew that several species were likely, some of which were familiar from the UK and others that were new to me. Starting with the new ones, there were a few Western Grebes around the harbour (above), one coming in very close (see photo at top of blog) so it was easy to see the characteristic dark colour around the eye. Western Grebes overwinter on the Pacific Coast and breed inland in western USA and Canada, as well as central Mexico. However - there is a confusion species with a similar, and overlapping, range. This is Clark's Grebe, and happily there was one nearby in Moss Landing harbour (below).

The key identification feature for Clark's Grebe (above) is that the eye is surrounded by white, not black, plumage. Also, the bill is a bit brighter, with more orange in it. Clark’s Grebe has a very similar distribution to Western Grebe, and was originally thought to be a colour morph of that species. But the two species apparently exhibit assortative mating (i.e. only with their own kind) and have different mating calls. Hybrids are rare. It was useful to see the two species together.

But the grebes didn;t end there; there were several Black-necked Grebes (below) in the harbour. These are usually known in the States as Eared Grebes, although Black-necked Grebe is the name favoured by the HBW/Birdlife Checklist. I rarely get to see them in breeding plumage, so this was a nice change from the familiar winter birds of the Dorset coast back in the UK.  

Black-necked (Eared) Grebe - Moss Landing CA

Although out of sequence in terms of how the day went, I'll include the fourth grebe of the day here. (How often have I enjoyed a Four Grebe Day?) This Red-necked Grebe (below) was seen from our whale-watching boat (the Sea Goddess) as it sailed out through the Moss Landing harbour channel, which is flanked by stone-constructed breakwaters on either side. This is a species that regularly overwinters on the coasts of England and Scotland, although it is never common. I have seen them on the Forth Estuary in Lothian and in Weymouth and Portland in Dorset. On the Californian coast they are also overwintering, although this one was pretty much in full breeding plumage.

Red-necked Grebe - Moss Landing CA

Back in the harbour was another new species for me - Pigeon Guillemot. It kept its distance, hence the poor record photo, so I've also included a couple of images taken later in the trip from San Francisco.

Pigeon Guillemot (record photo) - Moss Landing

Pigeon Guillemot - San Francisco CA

Pigeon Guillemots - San Francisco CA

It’s hard not to think of Pigeon Guillemots as being the same as Black Guillemots which also breed in North America (mainly on Canada’s Arctic and Atlantic coasts). The key identification difference, which you can see in both of the San Francisco photos, is that Pigeon Guillemots have a black bar protruding into the white wing patch: Black Guillemots don’t. Interestingly, a black bar isn't apparent in my Moss Landing record photo. However, Black Guillemots don't get around to California, and would therefore be a major rarity at Moss Landing. I can't find any record online of the species having been recorded there, so I must conclude that the black bar in Pigeon Guillemots isn't always visible. 

As our whale-watching boat slowly chugged away from the landing stage the harbour was dotted with waterbirds. Mainly cormorants, which I’ll come back to shortly, but also several more Eared Grebes and plenty of ducks. Most striking was this drake Surf Scoter (below) in full adult plumage.  

Surf Scoter - Moss Landing CA

There were several more Surf Scoters here, looking a bit out of place on the placid waters of the harbour; I saw a few in the actual surf later on, which seemed more appropriate. On the distribution maps (for example in Sibley's Field Guide to the Birds of Western North America) the Pacific and Atlantic coasts are shown as wintering areas for the species; they breed on lakes and ponds in the forests and tundra of Canada and Alaska. However, a look at the eBird chart for Moss Landing (a useful resource) shows that Surf Scoter is present there all year round, so I’m assuming that non-breeders simply stay put. Sensible strategy, if resources permit, but quite different to the behaviour of Common and Velvet Scoters (and many other sea ducks, except Eiders) in UK waters; most have departed from places like the Forth Estuary and Portland Harbour in the summer, and stragglers are rare.

Bufflehead and Goldeneye females - Moss Landing CA

Poor photo (above), but on the left is my first Bufflehead (a female), accompanied by a female Common Goldeneye, the same species as in the UK. Buffleheads, which are in the same genus (Bucephala) as Goldeneyes, are another species that breeds in Alaska and Canada. They were to turn up in a few locations on this trip.

Brandt's Cormorants - Moss Landing CA

It was the cormorants that dominated the harbour scene – and, as we were to see, the offshore waters.  Simply hundreds of them. Mostly Brandt’s Cormorants, as I think are all of those in the photograph above, a species that is only found on the Pacific side of the USA. We were to see many nesting on Alcatraz Island later on in the holiday, when their blue throat patches were both obvious and startling. (If you look hard, some blue throats are visible on the image above; see the bird to the left of the post.)

Brandt's Cormorant with nesting material - Moss Landing CA

Their nest structures on the harbour side jetty looked quite rudimentary, as the breeding season was at an early stage. Some birds were busy collecting seaweed as nesting material (above). You can just make out the pale throat patch that distinguishes Brandt’s from other species of cormorant. One of which, as it turns out, was sitting nearby.

Double-crested Cormorant - Moss Landing CA

It’s a Double-crested Cormorant (above), with an orange throat patch and lores, as well as the characteristic ‘double-angled’ head shape. (Brandt’s and indeed Pelagic Cormorants both have smoothly rounded heads.) Also, its bill is paler than either Brandt's or Pelagic. Double-cresteds are the main East Coast cormorant species. Here on the West Coast they were hugely outnumbered by Brandt’s, although I’m sure that I must have missed a few.

As the boat left the harbour it passed the Red-necked Grebe pictured earlier, as well as a Great Northern Diver (known here as Common Loon) - see the record photo below. The bill is clearly too dark for Yellow-billed Loon (aka White-billed Diver), a species that would be rare this far south on the Pacific coast. A Forster's Tern hovered briefly nearby; according to eBird this is the most common tern seen at Moss Landing at this time of year. 

Great Northern Diver (Common Loon) (record photo) - Moss Landing CA

Out at sea, our main focus was on the Humpback Whales, but I couldn't stop looking at the huge rafts of seabirds (below). These were mainly Brandt's Cormorants, as well as a few Western Gulls and the odd Western Grebe; there's one in the bottom right of the picture below. A Pelagic Cormorant flew by, showing its distinctive white breeding patch.

Offshore raft of Brandt's Cormorants (and others) at Moss Landing CA

Also out on the ocean were Pigeon Guillemots and the more familiar Common Murre (or Guillemot in UK parlance) (below), which ranges across both the North Atlantic and North Pacific. As with the Great Northern Diver (Common Loon), it was strange to see Atlantic species in the context of mostly Pacific birds.  

Common Murre (Guillemot) offshore at Moss Landing CA

A flying diver (loon) had me scrabbling for the camera: it turned out to be a Pacific Diver (Loon) (below). These breed in Alaska and Canada, but winter as far south as Baja California. In flight, Pacifics are darker than the Red-throateds (also possible here at this time), especially around the eye; Pacific also has a ‘dusky chinstrap’, which is visible here. 

Pacific Diver (Pacific Loon) offshore at Moss Landing CA

The final bird seen on our whale-watching trip was this Snowy Egret (below), back in the harbour at Moss Landing. Snowy Egret is the New World equivalent of Little Egret, even down to its yellow feet.

 

Snowy Egret - Moss Landing CA

There were more birds to come at Moss Landing, but I'll leave it there for now. And I haven't even mentioned the Californian Sea Lions and Sea Otters yet.

To be continued ...