Into the Mountains (part 1): a bit of botany

 

I've been climbing mountains, mostly in the UK, for much of my life - although moving to Dorset on the south coast of England means that I get out far less often than I would like. The last couple of months have seen trips to the Lake District and the Scottish Highlands respectively. (The photo above is of magnificent An Teallach, near Ullapool in north west Scotland. I'll get to that shortly.)

I'm always on the look-out for interesting wildlife on these walks, although the photographic record is limited to the scope of my iPhone: the SLR and long lens do not accompany me on these expeditions, as its hard enough work already without the extra weight. Mountain plants are of particular interest: if nothing else, they give me an excuse to stop and draw breath.

Anyway, the first trip was a family holiday the Lake District in May 2024.  A showery day saw us climb a couple of fells near Haweswater, including Harter Fell (below). 

View from Harter Fell down to Small Water

The Lake District fells rarely seem as flower-rich as other corners of the British uplands, and the Lakeland fells certainly do not rate as highly as plant rarity 'hotspots' like Teesdale in the Pennines or Ben Lawers in the Southern Highlands. But I was pleasantly surprised by the range of species that we encountered on and around Harter Fell. The track up to Small Water passed a good number of Common Butterworts Pinguicula vulgaris (below).

Common Butterworts - Small Water, Cumbria

Common Butterwort (detail)

While, as their name suggests, there's nothing rare about Common Butterworts, I remain fascinated by carnivorous - in this case, insectivorous - plants. Butterworts have the ability to make their own food: their green colour shows that they photosynthesise. But the pallid yellow-green star of leaves holds a nasty secret: they secrete a stricky mucous-like fluid that captures insects that are slowly digested as the leaves curl around over them. This is a necessary nutritional supplement given the plants' habitat: nutrient poor, often acidic, bogs.

The butterworts weren't alone: another common upland plant carnivore was also present - Round-leaved Sundew Drosera rotundifolia (below - although this image was taken in Dorset a week later). There is something magnificently alien about this species; although of a different family to the butterworts, it 'hunts' in a similar manner. In this case the sticky fluid is more obvious, appearing as small droplets mounted on short stalks. We'll meet another sundew species later on in the blog. 

Round-leaved Sundew

At Small Water, where I had the pleasure of swimming a year before, we left the path and headed south -east following a direct line up the grassy flank of Harter Fell. I wouldn't recommend this as an ascent route, as it gets steep and slippery higher up, but it did take us past some plant-rich wet flushes. The most noticeable flower was one of my favourites: Starry Saxifrage Micranthes stellaris (below).

Starry Saxifrage - Harter Fell, Cumbria

This species (along with Alpine Saxifrage) has now been split from most other saxifrages (Stace, 2019) - it is in genus Micranthes rather than Saxifraga - although this is due to molecular, rather than visual differences. Either way, it's a lovely flower; note the two obvious yellow spots at the base of each white petal. Starry Saxifrage is a widespread species of the uplands (see its NBN distribution map here), and particularly favours wet locations. Well, it's in the Lake District after all.

Nearby was Pyrenean Scurvygrass Cochlearia pyrenaica (below), which is similar to more lowland scurvygrass species such as Common and Danish, which can be found in coastal salt-marshes and inland road verges.

Pyrenean Scurvygrass - Harter Fell, Cumbria

The other notable flowers here were Mossy Saxifrage Saxifraga hypnoides. However, we saw much larger carpets of this on a walk along nearby Longsleddale a couple of days later (below) - a beautiful sight.

Mossy Saxifrage - Longsleddale, Cumbia

Mossy Saxifrage forms mats of often densely-packed white flowers; its linear-shaped leaves certainly make you think of a moss. It is probably the most common of Britain's upland saxifrage species.

The last one from the Lakes trip is a surprise: my first wild Cranberry Vaccinium oxycoccos (below).

Cranberry - Great Howe, Longsleddale, Cumbria

The surprise is that this is the first one that I've ever seen - or at least that I have taken note of. We discovered it on the slope of Great Howe in Longsleddale, which is the route up onto the boggy tops of Grey Crag and Tarn Crag - a couple of outlying Wainwrights. Cranberry is widely distributed across the British uplands (NBN distribution map here), so I'm baffled as to how I have previously missed it. The image above shows a flower, seen from above, and (bottom right) a fruit. The lobes of the flower (corolla) are bent back on themselves ("strongly reflexed"). Cranberry is in the same genus as the more familiar Bilberry (Blaeberry in Scotland) and Cowberry.

A more adventurous expedition into Scotland's Fisherfield wilderness last month added two additional upland flowers to the above tally. Fisherfield is not far from Ullapool in the north-west Highlands and contains some of Britain's most remote mountains; climbing them usually requires a long walk-in followed by a wild camp, as there are no facilities bar a couple of bothies of varying quality. I was last here in 2022 to climb my final Munro (A'Mhaighdean); this time the goal was a (slightly) smaller mountain - Beinn a'Chlaidheimh - which, although previously on the Munro list, was unceremoniously demoted when a resurvey measured it below the magical 3,000 foot height. But it's still a fantastic hill:

View from the summit ridge of Beinn a'Chlaidheimh

We camped in the nearby glen (Strath na Sealga) and approached the mountain from the east. This approach, like many in Fisherfield, is trackless, and we were soon yomping across the usual mix of rock and bog. In one boggy corner, my eyes were drawn to an unusual sundew - Oblong-leaved Sundew Drosera intermedia (below).

Oblong-leaved Sundew - Beinn a'Chlaidheimh

Comparison with its commoner round-leaved cousin (see earlier in this blog) reveals the difference in leaf shape. It is also somewhat redder, although the photos don't really show this well. Oblong-leaved Sundew is most frequent in the north west Highlands - especially north of the Great Glen - but is also found in England and Wales, where it is rarer than Round-leaved Sundew.  There is a third British sundew species - Great Sundew D. anglica - which has similarly oblong-shaped leaves, but is noticeably bigger, with a taller flower-stem (peduncle). 

Further up the hill, I was pleased to see several clumps of Dwarf Cornel Cornus suecica (below).

Dwarf Cornel - Beinn a'Chlaidheimh

These had a distinctly pink tinge, which is unusual; the flowers are usually plain white. Improbably, this is in the same genus as Dogwood, a common hedgerow shrub of the British lowlands. The size of plant and the type of habitat could not be more different. But a closer look at the leaves of Dwarf Cornel reveals distinctly Dogwood-like characteristics - opposite, with lateral veins.

That's it for this brief survey of upland flowers. None of them are particularly rare, but all are worth a more detailed look and they add much to the joy of walking on the mountains and fells.

References

Pardoe, H. (1995) Mountain Plants of the British Isles. Cardiff: National Museums of Wales.

Raven, J. & Walters, M (1956) Mountain Flowers. London: Collins New Naturalist - an oldie, but a classic!

Stace, C. (2019) New Flora of the British Isles (4th edition). Suffolk: C&M Floristics

 

Death Valley - Flowers, Birds and a Coyote

 9-11 April 2023

At first sight, California's Death Valley seems an unlikely place to look for birds. Or any wildlife for that matter. But, as ever, if you look properly there are things to find. While the Mesquite Flat sand dunes (above) provide one of the valley's enduring images, this harsh environment is not typical of the wider area. The alluvial fans a short distance to the south, on the road from Furnace Creek to Stovepipe Wells, were dotted with colour after the recent rainfall. Plants in flower included Desert Gold (or Hairy Desertsunflower) Geraea canescens, Browneyes Chylismia claviformis and the ubiquitous Creosote Bushes Larrea tridentata (all pictured below).

Desert Gold Geraea canescens - Death Valley CA

Browneyes Chylismia claviformis - Death Valley CA

Creosote Bush (detail) Larrea tridentata - Death Valley CA

It's worth mentioning a few useful plant identification websites that came to my assistance here - notably wildflowersearch.org, which allows you to specify the search area (which could be 'Death Valley National Park' or a trail like Mosaic Canyon), southwestdesertflora.com and calscape.org (the Californian Native Plant Society). 

On arrival the previous afternoon, our first stop had been the National Park Visitor Centre at Furnace Creek. This is worth a look, if only to fill up your water bottles, pay the park entrance fee and visit the loo. Outside, a flycatcher was zipping in and out of the centre’s covered area, presumably feeding young in a nest.  It was Say’s Phoebe (below), the key identification feature being the light orange (Sibley says ‘dull cinnamon’) vent and belly, an open country species of the western USA and Mexico. 

Say's Phoebe - Furnace Creek, Death Valley CA

Our first day's hike was up Mosaic Canyon, with an early start to avoid the full heat of the day (which rose to the mid-30s Celsius or mid-90s Farenheit). It's a great walk; the canyon narrows down to single file sections where you have to scramble over the smoothly polished marble. The steep canyon walls kept it shady and cool in the lower sections, although things got hotter and sunnier as it widened out. 

Mosaic Canyon, Death Valley CA

The birdlife was enjoying the shade as well. Just past the first narrow section I heard a loud chirpy whistle coming from the canyon wall. “Probably a Canyon Wren”, advised a passing hiker. By this point on the trip I had learned to be cautious about other people's identification skills - and with good reason. Although the bird was plainly in a canyon, it was a Rock Wren (below), looking far more like the image of that species in Sibley than the one that I’d seen at Red Rock Canyon, Nevada (see earlier blog post here). For the record, Canyon Wrens have a deeper, rufous colour, with a white throat and breast. 

  

Rock Wren - Mosaic Canyon, Death Valley CA

Further up, where the canyon widened out, a loud chirping led me to a nice family scene: a male House Finch was feeding his young (below). They had bred early here, probably to escape the extreme heat of the summer. House Finches are attractive birds; it's a pity that some people discount common species, no matter how colourful they may be.  

Feeding time! House Finches in Mosaic Canyon, Death Valley CA

Our base in the National Park was The Ranch at Furnace Creek, which I would recommend as a place to stay - although, in fairness, there aren't many other local options. The campsite at Furnace Creek looked almost full, although it can't have been comfortable camping in the heat (and this was only April!). This campsite actually closes in the summer. 

For birdwatching, Furnace Creek is a bit of a magnet - for what I would argue are all of the wrong reasons. Breathtakingly, somebody decided that this would be the ideal place for a golf course. So the desert gives way to a complex of well-watered lawns, clumps of trees and a couple of decent-sized lakes. Naturally, all of this water acts as an avian magnet.

I had an evening walk around part of the golf course - a bit nervously, as I wasn't sure how birders would be received here. As it turned out, there were no problems. It might have helped that nobody was playing. In fact, apart from a few greenkeepers, who paid me no attention, there was no-one out on the course for the two days that we stayed at Furnace Creek. I wondered why they had bothered creating it.

My walk took me to the smaller pond, which contained couple of Cinnamon Teal and three Ruddy Ducks. Five American Coots (one pictured below) were stalking around on the fairway nearby. At first sight, these are very like the UK's Common Coot, but note the dark patch (actually red) at the top of the frontal shield. Clearly, none of these birds would normally be found here.

American Coot - Furnace Creek, Death Valley CA

An American Robin (below) perched nicely for me on a sawn-off log.  

American Robin - Furnace Creek, Death Valley CA

And a Turkey Vulture (below) floated over, missing the tips of some of its primaries. At least this was a 'proper' Death Valley resident.

Turkey Vulture - Furnace Creek, Death Valley CA

The following morning I was out of our room at dawn (just after 6am). My plan was to walk an anticlockwise circuit of Furnace Creek, heading up to the main road, along to the visitor centre and campsite, then down the airstrip road to the larger golf course pond, which I hadn’t found on my previous walk, then returning across the golf course.

There was very little bird activity in the hotel grounds, the first two species being both non-native - House Sparrow and Collared Dove. More movement (both avian and human) was apparent over at the campsite, where a mobile flock of around twenty Brewer’s Blackbirds (female pictured below) and a smaller number of Great-tailed Grackles were poking around the picnic tables. Brewer's Blackbirds (and indeed the grackles) are members of the Icterid (New World Blackbird) family, rather than thrushes. They are common in the western USA. The males are a bit smarter than the females: glossy black, with a white eye. 

Brewer's Blackbird female - Furnace Creek, Death Valley CA

I made my way across the campsite and joined the road that runs down to the airstrip. Two Canada Geese flew over (I would meet them later on), followed by a Wilson's Snipe. Death Valley is to the south of the snipe's year-round resident range, so this bird had likely either over-wintered here or was on passage to the north. I was very pleased to see it, even if only in flight. Further down the road, a small passerine in a tree turned out to be an Audubon’s Warbler: there were a few about.

The airstrip road took me near to the larger golf course pond. This was equipped with a wooden viewing platform (below), so it appeared that birders were being positively welcomed to this corner of the golf course.

Viewing platform - Furnace Creek gold course CA

The platform boasted a small notice celebrating the property's 'achievements in environmental sustainability'. I can't really comment on this, except to say that the presence of ponds, reed beds and well-watered fairways looked rather out of place in this arid desert landscape.

Audubon environmental sustainability notice

I wasn’t alone: another birder, who was from the east of the USA, so not completely familiar with the local birdlife, had beaten me to it. We had a brief chat and gazed across the pond, which contained a pair of Ruddy Ducks and three American Coots. Two more unusual birds then flew in. Most exciting for me was this beautiful male Yellow-headed Blackbird (below) - another icterid - which sat obligingly at the top of a Tamarisk tree.

Yellow-headed Blackbird (male) - Furnace Creek, Death Valley CA

This is a wetland species, so Death Valley wouldn’t be a natural place to find it. The same could be said about the Belted Kingfisher (below) which arrived next, looking almost green in the morning light. We’re out of range for Green Kingfisher here in any event, but the shaggy crest is a good identification feature for Belted (Green has a neater pointed crest). Belted Kingfishers are seen as far south as Colombia and Venezuela.  

Belted Kingfisher- Furnace Creek, Death Valley CA

Canada Geese (below), are so familiar in the UK as a non-native species that it felt odd taking their photo. But here they are native, setting aside the artificial nature of this particular habitat in this particular location. Death Valley sits right at the southern end of their resident range, so it’s unclear whether these two were going to stay here and breed or fly north.  

Canada Geese - Furnace Creek, Death Valley CA

Time was moving on, so I walked back to the hotel taking a more direct route across the golf course. Near to the accommodation blocks I encountered the local Coyote (below) walking along the side of a fairway and across a green.

Coyote - Furnace Creek, Death Valley CA

Coyote (detail) - Furnace Creek, Death Valley CA

We had seen a Coyote crossing the fairway here the previous evening, so I guessed that this was the same individual on its usual round. In appearance, Coyotes sit somewhere between a fox and a wolf to my eyes. While the ones that I’ve come across elsewhere in the USA have looked pretty lean and hungry, this Furnace Creek resident appeared to be in fairly good condition. Although there are no livestock, and very few wild ungulates, in Death Valley, it is likely that the golf course’s substantial Desert Cottontail population is the main prey item. And I doubt that losing a few bunnies would upset the golf course managers.

It was time for our last Death Valley breakfast. By the time that car was packed, the thermometer was already showing a toasty 91 degrees Farenheit (33 degrees Celsius). We were heading back to the coast.

To be continued ...  

Reference:

Sibley, D. (2003) Field Guide to the Birds of Western North America. London: Christopher Helm.

  

Wildlife Walk at Red Rock Canyon NV

Friday 7 April 2023

Eastern Joshua Tree - Red Rock Canyon NV

If you're staying in Las Vegas, Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is a great place for getting out of the city and exploring the desert. It’s close to the built-up area of Vegas - almost too close, perhaps. New housing schemes are relentlessly marching out towards the protected area. 

The cost of this proximity is popularity. Red Rock Canyon has a scenic drive that needs to be booked in advance. We hadn’t done that, but I’d seen online that several trails started from the visitor centre, so had thought that we wouldn’t need to do the drive to be able to hike the trails. Nothing so straightforward, unfortunately. A checkpoint (“fee station”) between the public road and the visitor centre diverted non-booked vehicles straight back out of the reserve. Very annoying. But we were determined not to be beaten. A few cars had parked just off the main road outside the vehicle exit. So, after a quick chat with a local coming back from a run, we left the car there and walked back up the road into the reserve.

Red Rock Canyon NV

As it turned out, this was a good thing. Being on foot in a desert means that you see a whole lot more than when you're whizzing through in a car. Starting with the plants. Dotted around were many Mojave Yuccas Yucca schidigera (below). There are several confusion species, but the key ID features for Mojave Yucca are, first, the yellowish-green leaf colour (not blue-green), which is seen well in these photos, and, second, the thick hairs on the leaf edges. Mature plants can grow branched stems. 

Mojave Yucca - Red Rock Canyon NV

Mojave Yucca (detail) - Red Rock Canyon NV

Dominating the landscape were the Joshua Trees (see the photo at the start of this post). Nothing growing in the desert is as big as this. They stand out as obvious landmarks above the lower shrubs, each of their twisted and complex forms seeming unique. Never mind the U2 album, this tree is one of the few that has a national park named after it (others include Sequoia and Coastal Redwood). It’s an iconic species. 

Joshua Trees are yuccas, which becomes obvious when you look more closely. This one had buds developing (below), looking almost sculptural in form. Each of these will grow into a cluster of flowers, which have no nectar and very little pollen. They are pollinated by micro-moths; the moths lay eggs, and some of the yucca’s seeds end up as food for the developing caterpillars.

Eastern Joshua Tree bud - Red Rock Canyon NV

As ever, the taxonomists have been having a go at the Joshua Tree. More dated field guides (and some less dated websites) list the species as Yucca brevifolia. I guess that the scientific name refers to its leaves, which are short by yucca standards. Previously, it was accepted that there were two subspecies of Joshua Tree: however, in 2007 these were upgraded to two full species – Western Joshua Tree Yucca brevifolia and Eastern Joshua Tree Y. jaegeriana. I was going to get grumpy and ignore the split, but the IUCN red list and the US Department of Fish & Wildlife both recognise it, so I shall go with the flow.  So – the trees here at Red Rock Canyon are Eastern Joshua Trees and those around Mojave, which we saw on the drive to Vegas the previous day, are Western Joshua Trees. The differences are subtle, and relate to size and branching pattern.

We walked on, past the fee station (where we’d been turned away when driving) and found a trail heading up to the visitor centre. I noticed a sudden movement in the vegetation.  It took me a while to locate the bird concerned – a Black-throated Sparrow (below) one of two.

Black-throated Sparrow on Mohave Yucca - Red Rock Canyon NV

Black-throated Sparrows are neat little birds (who says that sparrows are dull?) that are real desert specialists. They are resident in the northern half of Mexico, as well as southern California, Arizona and a bit of Nevada (here!). In summer they also breed further north. A nice find. There is life in the desert, and it’s exciting when you find it. Also here were a couple of American Robins.

From the visitor centre, we started hiking the first section of the Calico Hills Trail, which begins with a meaninglessly convoluted loop. We soon lost the crowds ...

Calico Hills - Red Rock Canyon NV

... but found them again at the first parking area, where a short trail leads down to a viewpoint of the Calico Hills. The sandstone cliffs are extraordinary, but most wildlife had made itself scarce. However, all was not lost: looking down from the road I saw a bird flitting around the rocks – my first Rock Wren (below). This is the commonest wren in the Las Vegas area, although both Canyon and Cactus Wren are also present at Red Rock Canyon (among others). Note the pale eyebrow stripe and the dark bars on its underside. 

Rock Wren - Red Rock Canyon NV

From the parking area, we retraced our steps along the trail to the visitor centre. On the way I was looking for more plants.

Beavertail Cactus - Red Rock Canyon NV

There’s something satisfying about finding cacti in a desert. They may be the stereotypical desert flora, but most of the deserts that I’ve explored have been pretty cactus-deficient. There were a few around here though, including Beavertail Cactus Opuntia basilaris (above). It’s obvious how it got its common name. The species is almost a US endemic, just overlapping the Mexican border.  Red Rock Canyon is in the middle of its distribution range, which extends over the deserts of the southwestern states.

Back at the visitor centre we admired the captive Desert Tortoises and had a quick mooch in the bookshop. I'll end this post with an image of an Anna's Hummingbird, that was making the most of a feeder there. Red Rock Canyon would certainly merit a revisit.

Anna's Hummingbird - Red Rock Canyon NV

Monterey Bay Birding (part 3) - Elkhorn Slough

 Sunday 2 April 2023 (cont'd)

Acorn Woodpecker - Elkhorn Slough CA

This is the fifth, and final, post from a memorably fulfilling day of watching birds and marine mammals on California's Monterey Bay. It is the third about birds - the first two are here and here.

Just up the river from the fishing (and whale-watching) port of Moss Landing is Elkhorn Slough. The reserve's full title is a bit of a mouthful - the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve. The Elkhorn Slough Foundation's website provides much more information about the site - the link is here (opens in a separate window). The protected area at Elkhorn Slough includes a salt marsh, the estuary, grassland and oak woodland, so there's a good range of habitats to explore along a network of trails. 

It was now mid-afternoon. We parked at the visitor centre and, after a quick chat with a ranger, decided that there was enough time to walk the two mile South Marsh Loop. A Northern Harrier floated over as we followed the trail down the hill and headed for the mudflats.

Willet - Elkhorn Slough CA

This Willet (above) was foraging near to the trail, a common wader (shorebird) of the Americas. In the western USA it mainly winters on the coast and breeds inland. My only previous encounter with the species was on Trinidad in the Caribbean, where a lone bird was over-wintering in Trindad's Caroni Swamp. (I have to admit that, at the time, I was more excited by the spectacular Scarlet Ibis roost.)

Willets are large and distinctive waders with somewhat anti-social tendencies - you often only see one by itself. There isn't really an Old World equivalent, which is not something that you can say about the next wader that we came across.

Long-billed Curlew - Elkhorn Slough CA

My first Long-billed Curlew (above) was also probing the mud next to the boardwalk. Like most curlews, Long-billeds are declining in numbers, although the species is still classed ‘least concern’ by the IUCN. The bill of this individual is disproportionately long, but not quite as dramatic as the illustration in Sibley, which led me to wonder at first whether this might be a Whimbrel. It’s clearly not, of course: the bill of the Whimbrel is markedly more stubby, and Whimbrels also have a light stripe through their dark crown. This does not. Also note the buff tinge on the belly.

I like curlews, particularly ‘our’ (Eurasian) species, the cry of which transports me to the rocky coasts and open moorlands of Scotland and the north of England. It is tragic that so many curlew species are endangered – or, indeed, extinct. Worldwide, eight species of curlew are identified in the HBW/Birdlife International Checklist. In terms of the IUCN Red List, only three are considered to be at the lowest conservation threat level - 'least concern’ - (Whimbrel, Long-billed and Little), while two (Eurasian and Bristle-thighed) are ‘near threatened’ and one is ‘endangered’ (Far Eastern). Even worse, Slender-billed Curlew is ‘critically endangered’ and Eskimo Curlew is ‘critical, probably extinct’. Bearing in mind that the last confirmed sighting of an Eskimo Curlew was in 1963, even that assessment looks unduly optimistic. But I suppose that you never know.

Together with the godwits, curlews seem to be particularly prone to problems, perhaps more so than any other group of waders. I'm not entirely sure why. An impressive analysis of the threats facing the group (Pearce-Higgins et al. 2017) doesn't provide a definitive answer to that question, but it does point the finger at some possible factors. First, some curlew species have (or had) fairly restricted breeding ranges. Second, they have relatively large body sizes and low breeding rates, and are therefore reliant on high annual survival rates. As a result, they are especially vulnerable to land use changes that have reduced the availability of suitable habitat. This has been a particular problem along some migration routes, notably the East Asian - Australian flyway. Graeme Appleton has written a good blog on this in his Wader Tales series (link here - opens in new window).

Although Long-billed Curlews are migratory, they don't travel as far as some of their more endangered cousins. As well as west coast USA, they also overwinter in Mexico; breeding takes place inland in western North America. 

According to the IUCN Red List website (link here - opens in new window) the main threat facing the Long-billed Curlew is the conversion of grassland into agriculture, with sea level rise being a longer-term concern due to loss of coastal wintering habitat. Protecting sites like Elkhorn Slough is therefore a real priority.

California Poppy - Elkhorn Slough CA

A grassy slope above the mudflats was dotted with California Poppies Eschscholzia californica (above). It’s the state flower of California, but is not endemic to the state; its range extends from Washington (state) down to Baja California, as well as the south-western states of Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. California Poppies can flower in large numbers. A few days later (near Mojave CA) we were to see hills tinted orange with their blooms.

Crossing a footbridge over a side creek, we followed the trail towards the woodlands. Our route passed between two ponds. On the first, a pair of Cinnamon Teal (below) looked marvellous, the male shining in the afternoon sunshine like a well varnished garden fence. These ducks are found from western Canada right down to Patagonia, although they seem to avoid Brazil for some reason. 

Cinnamon Teal pair - Elkhorn Slough CA

This was a new species for me, as was a Canvasback on the other pond, which was accompanied by several Buffleheads and a Lesser Scaup. Canvasback is one of two orange-headed American ducks that at first sight look similar to the Common Pochard of Eurasia, the other being the Redhead - which I was to encounter a few days later in Nevada. Of the two, Canvasbacks are bigger, and have black (not blue-grey) bills with a ‘sweeping’ bill profile that continues its sloping forehead. My record photo is too poor to share here! 

I was so excited about the ducks that, at first, I failed to spot what turned out to be my favourite bird of the holiday - an Acorn Woodpecker (below - and photo at the head of this blog post), another first for me.

Acorn Woodpecker - Elkhorn Slough CA

In all, we saw four Acorn Woodpeckers, climbing on and flying around some dead trees where the tidal water lapped up to the woodland edge. With their striking head pattern – you can't avoid saying ‘clown-like’ – Acorn Woodpeckers have a real ‘wow’ factor. This is a male, with an all-red crown. They occur in oakwoods in the western USA and Mexico, as well as parts of Central America down to Colombia. As we saw at Elkhorn Slough, Acorn Woodpeckers store many (many!) acorns by jamming them into holes in tree trunks. They are territorial, defending these stores (‘granaries’) against squirrels and jays – as well as other Acorn Woodpeckers. 

Acorn Woodpecker 'granary' - Elkhorn Slough CA

We walked into the wood. The dominant species here was Coast Live Oak Quercus agrifolia (below).  

Coast Live Oak Quercus agrifolia - Elkhorn Slough CA

Why it’s called “Live Oak” beats me, but the “Coast” bit distinguishes it from Interior Live Oak Q. wislizeni which, as is so often the case in natural history, is confusingly similar. Our location at Elkhorn Slough clearly indicated the coastal species, but the ID can be reinforced by two characteristics.  First, these trees had no acorns.  Interior Live Oak acorns take two years to mature, so brown acorns will usually be present behind the new foliage. Second, the leaves of Interior Live Oaks usually have five or more veins, more closely spaced than those of the coastal species, which have five or fewer.  Zooming in on this photo, I’m not seeing more than five veins on any leaf.

Red-tailed Hawk - Elkhorn Slough CA

Soaring over the woodland was a Red-tailed Hawk (above). You can just make out the dark head and the dark marks on the leading edge of its wings, useful ID features in flight.

Coming round a corner, we were surprised to see a Great White Egret (below) standing on the trail. It looked startled as well, flying off with a few massive wingbeats. Down by the side of the water, a Spotted Sandpiper was foraging on the mud, its tail bobbing up and down, while an Orange-crowned Warbler flicked around in the nearby bushes.  

Great White Egret - Elkhorn Slough CA

Walking back up to the visitor centre, which was already closing up for the afternoon, a ghost-like White-tailed Kite (below) treated us to a close fly-by, signing off a farewell to this diverse reserve.

White-tailed Kite - Elkhorn Slough CA

References

Pearce-Higgins, J.W., Brown, D.J., Douglas, D.J., Alves, J.A., Bellio, M., Bocher, P., Buchanan, G.M., Clay, R.P., Conklin, J., Crockford, N. and Dann, P. (2017). 'A global threats overview for Numeniini populations: synthesising expert knowledge for a group of declining migratory birds.' Bird Conservation International, 27(1), pp.6-34. (link to pdf here - opens in new window)

Sibley, D. (2003) Field Guide to the Birds of Western North America. London: Christopher Helm.