George invited me on a trip to try and find a Gyrfalcon that has been spotted in Monterey County the past several days.
The Gryfalcon is much larger than other raptors we are used too in California, and is normally found in the Artic. So there is a bit of excitement in the birding community at the prospect of seeing one.
We left Pleasant Hill around 7am and arrived in Moss Landing by 8:45 (about 15 minutes late it turns out).
We first went to TBD bridge but it was foggy, then went to TBD dunes, but it was also foggy, then went to TBD jetty where we later learned that it had been spotted there that morning “engaging with a Perigen Falcon”. It was reported to have then flown off to the two large smoke stacks and we met a guy who claimed to have seen it come in and land but when he shifted to a new position to get a better look it was gone. That was around 10:15am and the last known sighting.
For the next several hours we tried multiple locations and talked to other birders to no avail. Fortunately George had brought his bird list for Monterey and he helped me use that to get my list started.
We were in some fantastic bird habitat, once we started on my list we pretty quickly logged over 50 species of birds, not to mention the sea otters and seals.
Here is my new Monterey County Bird List:
(Thanks George for pulling this from your excellent home brew database – geared towards maintaining county lists such as this)
Canada Goose
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Mallard
Green-winged Teal
Surf Scoter
Bufflehead
Red-breasted Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Eared Grebe
Western Grebe
Anna’s Hummingbird
American Coot
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Black-bellied Plover
Killdeer
Whimbrel
Long-billed Curlew
Marbled Godwit
Sanderling
Least Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
Willet
Greater Yellowlegs
Mew Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Western Gull
California Gull
Brandt’s Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
Pelagic Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Turkey Vulture
White-tailed Kite
Northern Harrier (George got a better view then me on this one..I can’t count it)
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Peregrine Falcon
Black Phoebe
Say’s Phoebe
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Bushtit
House Finch
White-crowned Sparrow
Western Meadowlark
Red-winged Blackbird
Brewer’s Blackbird
